On Saturday, 25 October 2025, at around 1:00 P.M., two settlers riding an ATV invaded the residential compound of Yusef Bsharat, 48, in the community of Khallet Makhul in the northern Jordan Valley. They roamed around the tents and livestock pens, as they frequently do, and filmed Yusef’s children, who were fertilizing a private family field in preparation for sowing.
Shortly after the settlers left, four soldiers arrived in a military vehicle, some of them masked, and demanded to know why the residents were spreading manure in a “forbidden” area. When Yusef replied that this was their private land, three of the soldiers went into the family’s residential tents, shouted at family members, tossed objects, and kicked Hussein, Yusef’s 18-year-old son.
The soldiers then arrested Yusef, took his ID card and cell phone, and held him at a military base for about five hours. After he was released and returned home, Yusef found pictures of himself on his cell phone, in which he is seen lying on the floor at the base, handcuffed and blindfolded.
Yusef Bsharat, 48, a father of 10, described the incident to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh in a testimony he gave on 27 October 2025
On Saturday afternoon, after settlers riding an ATV invaded my residential compound and filmed my sons while they were fertilizing a plot of land ahead of sowing, soldiers came to us, acted violently, claimed we were fertilizing in a forbidden area and arrested me for no reason. I’m sure the settlers told them to arrest me. They took my identity card and my phone, handcuffed me, put me in a military vehicle and took me to a base about 20 kilometers from my home.
Once there, they threw me down in a structure near the entrance to the base, shouted at me, mocked me, and one of them kicked me all over my body. I turned my back to the wall to protect my back, which has been hurting for a long time. It was five or six hours before I was released, and they gave me back my ID card and phone. When I got home at around 8:00 P.M., my sons looked at my phone and discovered that the soldiers had taken pictures of me while I was in custody, lying on the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded. It’s clear to me that they did this to intimidate me and my children.
I was born in Khallet Makhul, and I’ve lived here all my life, together with my entire family. We live in tents and tin structures and make a living from sheep farming. Around us, settlements and military bases have been established, and in recent years also shepherding outposts that bring flocks of sheep and herds of cattle into our grazing areas. The military prevents us from crossing roads to reach pastureland we have used for decades, settler harassment is steadily increasing, and together they prevent us from going out to pasture.
The settlers and the military want to drive us out, but we have nowhere else to go. We don’t know what else we can do. All I want is to go out to pasture with my flock and provide for my family. All we want is to live here in peace, on our land, like all human beings, without settlers harassing us and trying to get us arrested. We’re only asking to live.