Khirbet Humsah West (residents displaced from Humsah al-Foqa), Jordan Valley: Israeli settlers invaded a residential compound at night, bound residents, including women and children, beat and abused them, sexually assaulted one of the men and stole about

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On the night between Thursday and Friday, 13 March 2026, at around 1:00 A.M., about 20 masked settlers raided the residential compound of four households from the extended Abu al-Kabash family, who were displaced from Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa. The compound is located west of the community’s original place of residence. The settlers broke the security cameras and the internet router, then invaded residents’ homes while most family members were asleep. They bound men, women and children, rounded them up in a single tent, beat them with batons and sticks, kicked them, poured water and dirt on some of them, humiliated and cursed them and threatened that if they did not leave the area, they would come back, burn them, kill their sons and kidnap and rape their daughters.

During the attack, settlers broke into the tent where Suhaib Abu al-Kabash, 29, was sleeping, tied his hands and feet, cut his clothes, including his underwear, tightened a zip tie around his genitals and dragged him naked for about 100 meters into the tent where everyone had been rounded up, including the women and children and two solidarity activists. Inside the tent, the settlers poured water on him, beat him with sticks and kicked him. They attacked his brother, Muhammad, 40, at the entrance to his home, bound his hands and feet, cut his wrist, beat him severely with sticks all over his body, including his groin, and sprayed him with a substance that caused burns to his head and face. They also beat the brothers’ father, Ibrahim, 72, injuring his head, and their uncle, whom they injured in the abdomen and back.

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The settlers also attacked two foreign solidarity activists who were staying there, tied them up, dragged them into the tent where the residents were being held, poured water on them and beat them. They took everyone’s mobile phones, some of which were later found discarded in the residential compound, stole ID cards and rings, vandalized property and beat children who dared to cry.

For over 40 minutes, while some of the settlers herded the residents into the tent and abused them, others broke into the pens and stole the sheep flocks the families raise for their living. The flocks were raised jointly with two other households from the extended family who live in the Khirbet Beit Hasan area, about 6 kilometers west of Humsah. The animals stolen by the settlers included a small flock of special rams no one else in the area raises. The settlers emptied the pens. They led some of the animals out on foot under cover of darkness and loaded the rest onto vehicles and carts, whose tracks were visible in the area the next day. About 80 to 100 sheep and goats that escaped the settlers returned home, but about 400 were stolen and have not been seen again.

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It was not until around 1:45 A.M., after the settlers left the compound, that family members were able to call relatives for help. Military forces did not arrive until around 3:30 A.M. A military doctor provided initial care to the wounded in the field, while soldiers and settlement guards stopped a Red Crescent ambulance near Road 578, near the Beka’ot settlement, and prevented it from reaching the site. Shortly before 5:00 A.M., about three hours after Israeli activists who had arrived at the scene first called them, police officers arrived at the site, and the ambulance was allowed to proceed. Six of the victims, including the two foreign activists, were eventually taken to a hospital in Tubas.

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The following day, Saturday, 14 March 2026, large military and police forces arrived at the residential compound and questioned the residents about what had happened during the night. Over the course of the following week, many family members were called in to give statements at the Jordan Valley and Ma’ale Adumim police stations.

The families continue to suffer from settler harassment. Settlers bring their cattle herd to graze in the families’ pastureland and often lead the animals into the residential compound. They also invade the compound on ATVs.

B’Tselem field researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh collected testimonies from family members on 2 April 2026:

Suhaib Abu al-Kabash, 29, father of three, recounted:

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I live in Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa with my family: my brother and his family, my father, and my uncle. We’re in an isolated area relatively far from the other shepherding families who live in the area, and we all make our living raising sheep. Humsah al-Foqa has been demolished many times by the occupation, which is determined to drive us out, and the settlers have become a real threat to us. They come to the area with a cattle herd every day from the outpost established at the beginning of 2023, about three kilometers northwest of our residential compound, drive us out of our pastureland, and attack us to make us leave.

But the attack on us on the night of 13 March 2026 was something completely different, serious and dangerous; something that never happened to us before. We were sleeping in our tents when around 1:00 A.M., a large number of settlers suddenly showed up, almost all of them masked except maybe one. At least three settlers came into my tent. They lunged at me, tied my hands and feet, cut and removed all my clothes and then tied my genitals with something that I later understood was a zip tie. Then they dragged me about 100 meters to the tent where they were holding everyone and threw me naked on the ground inside it next to all the women, children and everyone else. It was a tough situation for me. I was in a very humiliating position, and I was deeply embarrassed.

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The settlers tied up all the boys, the girls, the women, everyone. They beat everyone, including the children and the women. The children screamed, and everyone cried. They poured water on us, threw dirt on us, swore at us and verbally abused us in Arabic and kicked us all over our bodies. They held us in the tent, made a lot of noise and struck the fear of death into everyone . We thought we wouldn’t come out of it alive because the settlers hate us. They are savage and inhuman. Their goal is to expel us, take over our land, and cut off our source of livelihood.

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The assault lasted for about an hour until the settlers left us, and then we discovered that while some of the settlers were guarding us in the tent, others went to the pens and stole our sheep. They took more than 400 head of sheep, which were our only source of livelihood, and to this day, we don’t know where they took them.

They left us reeling, beaten and injured, in harsh conditions and feeling desperate. They didn’t let the ambulance reach us. They stopped it far away, near the settlement. The army and the police didn’t come until after the settlers had already left and gone away, and even then, they did nothing. They continued to restrict us and keep us in place and didn’t go looking for our sheep or for the settlers who attacked us.

It was a very tough night. We didn’t believe any of us would survive. I’ve been in a tough place emotionally ever since. I keep replaying that night in my head, moment by moment, like a nightmare. I can’t forget what happened, but thank God, we all survived that night.

Muhammad Abu al-Kabash, 40, father of seven:

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I live in Humsah with my wife and our seven children. We make our living raising sheep, like the rest of the family.

On the night between Thursday and Friday, 13 March 2026, we were sleeping as usual until I heard the dogs howling. I went out of the tent and shone a flashlight to see what was happening. I thought maybe hyenas or dogs had approached the sheep, but then I saw many settlers coming from all directions. I shone the flashlight at them, and then more than four settlers charged at me. I tried to defend myself, but there were too many of them. They tied my hands and feet and beat me with sticks all over my body, including my arms, left leg, back, head and groin, and they also wounded my hand with a knife. They also sprayed some substance on me, but I don’t know what it was.

Meanwhile, other settlers gathered the rest of the family and took them into the tent where we usually sit in the afternoon and host visitors. They assaulted everyone, men, women and children, and put us all in the tent. Later, I saw they brought my brother there too after beating him, tying him up, stripping him and tying something around his genitals. Two foreign activists who were there witnessed everything.

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While some of the settlers kept us in the tent, others opened the sheep pen and took all the flocks. The sheep belong to six families from our extended family. Later, apparently after they finished stealing the sheep, one of them freed me, and they pulled back and fled southwards toward the hill.

Throughout the assault, the settlers kept swearing at us and threatening us. They said: “We will burn you”, “We will kill the children”, “We will kill the adults” and “We will rape the women.” One of them said to me: “You’d better leave this place. You should go to Jordan or America. You’re not allowed to stay here.”

The day after the incident, police officers came and questioned us, and later we were summoned for further questioning at the police stations in Ma’ale Adumim and in Massu’a. We also filed a complaint through a lawyer, but haven’t received a response to this day, and there’s been no progress. Since the assault, we’ve been left without our sheep, which are our lifeblood, and to this day, nothing has been returned to us.