On Tuesday, 7 November 2025, at around 9:00 A.M., residents of Turmusaya detected two settlers, one of whom was armed with a rifle, herding their sheep approximately 400 meters from a farm in the eastern part of the town owned by M.K., a resident.
The settlers came from an outpost that was established in April 2025 on the town’s lands, about 800 meters north of M.K.’s farm.
A short while later, when village youths heard about the settlers in the area, they started gathering in order to prevent them from getting close to the village and attacking its houses. At this point, the armed settler started firing at the youth without warning from a distance of about 400 meters. The youth retreated in the direction of M.K’s farm, and spread stones along the path leading from the outpost to the farm to make it harder for the settlers to chase after them.
Meanwhile, another settler arrived on an ATV, and the settlers again fired toward the youth. The shooting continued for about fifteen minutes, during which the youth threw stones at the settlers.
During the shooting, three military vehicles and a settlement guard’s vehicle entered the town from Route 60.
The soldiers drove up to the settlers and then began chasing the young men – by vehicle and on foot – firing live ammunition as the youth fled into the town. During the chase, the soldiers stopped, at gunpoint, the vehicle of a resident who was carrying young men trying to escape the confrontation. The soldiers tied up everyone that was in the car and, for about half-an-hour, intermittently beat and humiliated them – kicking them in the face, hitting them with their rifles, and cursing at them.
The soldiers then left the scene, leaving the assaulted men, still bound, on the roadside.
Meanwhile, soldiers and two settlers burst into M.K.’s farm after a military vehicle rammed the farm gate. M.K., who heard the military vehicles approaching and went toward the gate to open it, reached it only after the soldiers had already forced it open. He was immediately attacked by a soldier who struck him in the face. Another soldier kicked M.K., knocking him onto a pile of fodder.
The soldiers then left the farm, leaving the settlers there. The settlers tried to steal a cart parked outside the farm. When M.K. tried to prevent the theft, one of the settlers struck him in the face and threw a stone at him.
The settlers then left the area as well.
M.K. was treated at the town clinic for his injuries.
On 11 October 2025, B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh collected testimonies from a number of residents:
M.K. (63), a father of 10, recounted:
In mid-April 2025, settlers established a herding outpost in the area of “a-Sahl” (the plain), on the eastern lands of the village. It’s an agricultural area with olive groves. Since then, settler attacks on town residents – on their lands and in their homes – have gone up. In the past month, settlers have started approaching the residential areas on the eastern side of the town with their sheep. Sometimes they come very close to my farm, on foot or on an ATV.
I began to worry they’d steal my sheep, especially since recently a drone has flown over the farm a few times and because livestock have been stolen in nearby villages. So, last week I removed most of the sheep from the farm and left only young lambs there.
On Tuesday, 7 October 2025, at around 9:00 A.M., while I was at the farm, my son (39), was working not far from it and saw two settlers with a flock of about 20-25 sheep roughly 400 meters to the north.
He began filming the settlers, and when other town residents heard they were close, they started gathering near my farm to prevent the settlers from reaching our homes. When the settlers saw the residents, one of them fired live ammunition toward them. I heard the gunfire, but I didn’t see the shooter. Residents told me that it was the settler.
I saw the residents retreating eastward from the farm, so I went out to see what was happening. I saw two settlers – one of whom was armed with a rifle – who’d come from the northern side of the farm walking toward a hill about 300-350 meters to its east. They stopped there. After ten minutes, they started approaching the farm, and then the residents began trying to block the path with stones.
At this stage, an ATV arrived from the outpost in a-Sahel and stopped next to the two settlers. The settlers saw that the residents had blocked the path to the farm with stones, and they again began firing live ammunition at the residents – this was the second round of gunfire. The residents began throwing stones toward the settlers from a distance of about 200 meters. The shooting and stone-throwing continued for about 10-15 minutes, and the settlers reached the eastern residential area. In the end, one settler took the flock back toward the outpost, and the settler on the ATV and the armed settler approached the eastern houses of the town, southeast of the farm. Meanwhile, three military vehicles entered the village from the main entrance (Route 60) and continued toward the a-Sahl area, then southward toward the settlers. At the same time, a white pickup truck – that apparently belongs to a security guard from the outposts in the Shilo area – also arrived, along with a small car and another ATV.
After about twenty minutes, the soldiers ran down toward the road that leads to my farm and started firing directly at the residents while chasing them. I fled from the gunfire back to the farm.
At the same time, a military vehicle arrived at the farm together with two settlers. I was inside, watching what was happening on the monitor hooked up to the security camera. I saw the soldiers trying to open the main farm gate, so I went out to open it so they wouldn’t break it. I told my sons and one of my workers to leave the farm through the northern exit so they wouldn’t confront the soldiers and settlers and be arrested.
I walked toward the metal gate and saw that a large military vehicle had rammed into and knocked it down. I tried speaking to a soldier who entered the farm, and he immediately punched me in the jaw. Another soldier kicked me in the chest, knocking me onto the sheep fodder. After that, the soldiers and settlers spread out across the compound, apparently looking for the youth who’d fled there.
The soldiers then went back out to the main road and again fired live ammunition at the residents. The settlers stayed in the compound, and I went outside to see what they were doing. One of them – the one who arrived on the ATV – was armed. They headed northeast toward an empty field where I had parked a cart I use to transport dates, and I saw them trying to hitch it to their ATV. I approached them, and the unarmed settler threw a stone at me, which missed. In response I threw a stone back at them. The unarmed settler then approached me, punched me in the face, and threw another stone at me, which hit my hand as I tried to protect my head. I threw more stones toward them, and they left, mad, without stealing the cart.
Later, I went to the town clinic, where they treated my injuries. My phone broke when I raised my hand to protect my head from the stone. I am very worried that attacks like this will happen again. After that incident, I removed all my sheep and fodder from the farm out of fear the settlers would set it on fire or steal things.
R.A. (53), a father of three:
I am married and have three adult children, aged 27 to 30. I’m a US citizen and lived there , but five years ago I returned to my country and decided to settle here. I live in the al-Jarufah area in eastern Turmusaya.
On Tuesday, 7 October 2025, at around 9:30 A.M., while I was at my neighbor’s house, a rumor spread in the village that settlers had arrived with a flock of sheep to an area close to the eastern homes of the village. Many residents and youth went to the area to try to prevent the settlers from entering the land. At first, I didn’t join them because I wanted to avoid confrontations, and I could hear live gunfire coming from the east.
After about half an hour, I decided to go and see what was happening. I walked from my neighbor’s house to my own home, got in my car, and drove toward the eastern side of the village. I stopped at a place somewhat removed from the site of the confrontation.
There, I heard people saying that the army had entered the village through the main entrance and that military vehicles were on their way to the area. I understood that I should move away from there and turned my car around to head back west toward my house.
On the way, I saw a group of young men running on the road and, behind them, the military vehicles were getting closer. I stopped and offered them a lift. At that moment, I noticed that the military vehicles were directly behind me. I continued driving until I reached the narrow road in the central area of the village, when a white pickup truck overtook me. When I looked inside, I saw soldiers pointing rifles at me and signaling me to pull over. I think this vehicle belonged to a settlement security guard. Meanwhile, the military vehicles also arrived.
I had no choice and stopped immediately so they wouldn’t shoot me. They stopped their vehicle next to mine, and four soldiers got out, two of them masked. One of the soldiers opened my door, and I immediately told him in English that I was an American citizen. He struck me with the butt of his rifle under my left eye, then forced me out of the car and made me lie on the ground, face down, with my hands behind my back. He cursed me and my US citizenship.
The other soldiers took the young men who were with me out of the car and forced them to lie on the ground, too, and then began beating one of them severely with their rifles and kicking him. The masked soldier who had hit me earlier came back to me, placed his military boot on my face, and pushed my head into the asphalt while cursing. Then they sat the youth down on the side of the road among the thorns, while they kept me lying on my stomach for about twenty minutes.
After some time, one of the soldiers ordered me to sit next to the others, in the thorns. After 10-15 minutes, the masked soldier who had assaulted me earlier said “bye” to me three times in a mocking tone, and then they all left the area.
None of the soldiers made any attempt to stop the masked soldier from attacking me, even though I told them I was an American citizen.
I am worried about an escalation in settler attacks in the eastern part of the village, especially because this is an area of olive groves and we are at the beginning of the harvest season. I fear that next time they will also attack our homes.