Deir Dobwan, Ramallah District: Dozens of Israeli settlers raided the outskirts of the town, set vehicles and homes on fire and injured residents

On Wednesday, 4 June 2025, at around 6:30 P.M., about 100 settlers arrived at the northwestern outskirts of Deir Dobwan and launched an attack on residents and their property.

The settlers burned down a residential compound belonging to a farming family of six. Five family members were evacuated by a town resident, and, while the father, Shihadah Mesbeh, 39, managed to move his flock away before the pen was set on fire, the settlers threw stones at the flock, killing seven lambs.

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The settlers also set fire to vehicles and animal feed belonging to other residents and threw stones at residents and at a horse farm, injuring two of the horses and causing two mares to miscarry. All the while, soldiers in two military vehicles watched the attack from Route 60 without intervening.

Dozens of young men from the town and from nearby villages arrived at the scene and, after about 45 minutes, managed to push the settlers back toward Route 60 by throwing stones. Only then did the military vehicles advance. At the same time, Palestinian fire crews arrived and set to work on extinguishing the fires. The soldiers kept other young men who had come to help from getting closer.

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The fires were extinguished only after about three hours. Around 30 residents, including minors, were injured in the attack. The settlers burned down five vehicles, the Mesbeh family’s residential tents, kitchen tent, a tent used to store animal feed, two sheds used as sheep pens, four solar panels, seven water tanks and other property. Seven lambs died as a result of the attack.

After the attack, the Mesbeh family, whose entire compound burned down, was forced to relocate about 200 meters away from their home and have not returned since.

B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh collected the residents’ testimonies:

Shihadah Mesbeh, 39, a father of four, said:

On Wednesday, at around 6:30 P.M., while I was grazing my sheep around my family’s residential tents, I saw about eight masked settlers, around 15 to 20 years old, get out of cars that had pulled over on Route 60 and run toward our tents and the Za’arir family home, which is about 120 meters away. They were holding wooden sticks, stones and slingshots.

As soon as I saw them, I tried to move my flock away, because recently, there have been many cases of settlers stealing sheep.

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The settlers began chasing me. They threw stones and hit the sheep and lambs I was trying to move away. When I reached the gate of a horse farm owned by one of the locals, the owner and a few young workers came out to confront the settlers.

I managed to get my flock into an empty pen belonging to a neighbor who had moved abroad, and then I quickly ran back to our tents because I was very worried about my family’s safety. When I got there, there were at least 100 settlers. I was relieved to learn that a young man from town had already driven my family into town in his car, so I calmed down a little.

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All the settlers were masked, and many held sticks. Others held stones and threw them at the young men from the town, who started gathering once word spread about the settler attack. Some of the settlers were also holding Molotov cocktails.

Some of the settlers threw stones at us, and others set fire to vehicles, tents and animal feed. We couldn’t push them back because there were only 15 or 20 of us, and there were many of them.

The attack lasted about 40 minutes, and the settlers managed to force us back and to set fire to a lot of property.

But, gradually, our numbers grew, reaching about 150 residents from our village and neighboring villages, and then, little by little, we managed to push them back toward Route 60.

As they backed away, I saw two military vehicles standing on Route 60. They didn’t step in even though thick smoke was rising from the property the settlers had set on fire.

The fires kept burning for about two hours before we managed to put them out. There was more than one fire, and the flames were incredibly intense. Once the fire was fully out, I found out that our residential tents, the tents we used as sheep pens, and a lot of other property had burned down, and that seven lambs had died.

Karim Abu ‘Alan, 20:

The settlers split into two groups: one set property on fire, and the other threw stones at the young men who were trying to push them back.

At first, there were about 15 of us, but as word about the attack spread, more people arrived and soon, there were about 100 of us.

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We tried to stop them from setting fires, and many young men from the town and from nearby villages were injured while trying to push them back. At the same time, the Israeli occupation army closed the Bridge Road, the main road that connects Deir Dobwan and Beitin and leads to the city of Ramallah, and prevented ambulances and fire trucks from reaching us. We had to evacuate the injured in cars to the medical center in central Deir Dobwan.

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We tried to put out the fire using extinguishers, with the help of volunteer firefighters, volunteers from the neighboring village of Burqah, who brought an old fire truck, and volunteers from Beitin, who drove over and brought more extinguishers.

The settlers tried to get to the horse farm, and we locked it tightly to protect the horses. Two of them still managed to jump over the fence and get into the yard between the road and the stable, where they set fire to the horse owner’s car. We saw it later in the security camera footage.

They also set fire to another car that was parked in front of the farm. They poured flammable material on it and lit it. When they couldn’t break into the stable itself, they threw stones at it and broke some of the roof tiles. After that, the young men managed to push the settlers back and force them toward Route 60.

The attack lasted about 50 minutes. While it was going on, we saw two military vehicles standing on Route 60, but they did not come over or do anything. It was only after the young men forced the settlers back that a military vehicle arrived, stopped at the entrance to the road leading to the area, and five soldiers got out. They stopped more young men from getting closer and helping us put out the fire. There were about 30 of us working on extinguishing it, and it took us two or three hours, because the fire kept reigniting, but the soldiers wouldn’t let anyone else come near to help us.