Settler outposts spread among West Bank villages and fuel fear of more attacks

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press TURMUS AYYA West Bank AP The fear is palpable in this Palestinian village It s clear in how farmers gather their harvests swiftly how they scan the valley for movement how they dare not stray past certain roads At any time they say armed Israeli settlers could descend In a matter of minutes they get on their phones They gather themselves and they surprise you revealed Yasser Alkam a Palestinian-American lawyer and farmer from the village of Turmus Ayya They hide between the trees They ambush people and beat them up severely In new months Alkam says Turmus Ayya has weathered near-daily attacks by settlers especially after they set up an outpost that the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now says is on his village s land Alkam says he can t reach his own fields for fear of being assaulted In a particularly gruesome attack he watched a settler beat a Palestinian woman unconscious with a spiky club The fear is shared throughout the West Bank During October s olive harvest settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily according to the United Nations humanitarian office the largest part since it began collecting content in The attacks continued in November with the U N recording at least more by Nov Settlers burned cars desecrated mosques ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland Israeli administration have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attackers as a minority that did not represent the greater part settlers in the West Bank where settlements are considered illegal by preponderance of the international district But their continued expansion of outposts conducted in populace with seemingly scarce legal repercussions and the violence have cemented a fearful status quo for their Palestinian neighbors Palestinian Halwa Shbana collects olives with the assistance of foreign helpers in the West Bank village of Sinjil Thursday Nov AP Photo Leo Correa Palestinian youths gather after Friday prayers to inspect a mosque torched and defaced overnight by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya Friday Nov AP Photo Leo Correa Israeli settlers walk down a hill as Israeli soldiers block access for Palestinians to an area for harvesting olives in the West Bank village of Sa ir near Hebron Thursday Oct AP Photo Leo Correa Palestinian Afaf Abu Alia who was attacked by Israeli settlers while harvesting olives in Turmus Ayya last October poses for a photo in her home in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir Wednesday Nov AP Photo Leo Correa An Israeli settler gestures as Israeli soldiers block access for Palestinians to an area for harvesting olives in the West Bank village of Sa ir near Hebron Thursday Oct AP Photo Leo Correa Show Caption of Palestinian Halwa Shbana collects olives with the assistance of foreign supporters in the West Bank village of Sinjil Thursday Nov AP Photo Leo Correa Expand A brutal assault on a grandmother While driving in fields east of Turmus Ayya on Oct Alkam saw Afaf Abu Alia a grandmother from a nearby village harvesting a grove of olive trees They were loaned to her after the Israeli military bulldozed her own trees this year she mentioned She worked until she heard yelling in Hebrew Settlers descended on the road nearby Suddenly one ran toward her with a club The monsters started beating me she recounted The Associated Press three weeks after the attack After that my memories get all blurry Video of the attack obtained by the AP shows a settler beating Alia with the jagged club even after she was motionless She was hospitalized for four days requiring stitches on her head she explained Required for comment on the attack the military commented its troops and police had defused a confrontation in which Israeli civilians were torching vehicles and using violence In rare move Israel charges settler responsible Police arrested a man named Ariel Dahari for beating Abu Alia An Israeli court charged him later with terrorism Dahari is being represented by Honenu an organization that provides legal aid to settlers who say the West Bank is part of the biblical Jewish homeland and often cast attacks as self-defense According to an article about Dahari on the group s website he has received at least administrative orders since that included house arrest and confinement to his town in Israel Related Articles Pope Leo XIV sends message of encouragement to southern Lebanon as he ends st foreign trip More than dead from floods in Indonesia Sri Lanka and Thailand as rescue efforts intensify Israeli forensics experts examine remains handed over by fighters in Gaza Russian skiers and snowboarders allowed by CAS to try to qualify for Winter Olympics Afghanistan s Taliban rulers carry out general execution in sports stadium in eastern city He notified the Israeli news site Arutz Sheva in that he had been kicked out of the territory twice It is not clear how he was able to return Palestinians and human rights workers say Israeli soldiers and police routinely fail to prosecute attacks by violent settlers Their sense of impunity has deepened under Israel s far-right National Measure Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir a settler and Defense Minister Israel Katz who in January issued settlers from administrative detention Israel s practice of detaining individuals without charge or trial The number of investigations opened into settler violence since Ben-Gvir s first year in office has plummeted according to a summary by Israel s Channel TV that cited official police figures Police opened only investigations into settler violence in compared with cases in and cases in the review revealed About of all scrutiny files opened by Israeli police into settler violence from to ended without an indictment according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din Since just of those investigations led to convictions Dahari communicated Arutz Sheva that he was determined to stay in the West Bank We will not give up our grip on our land because of one order or another We will continue to build it and make it flourish everywhere he declared adding that he hoped the safety establishment would invest all its information in the war against the Arab enemy who is the real enemy of us all When reached by the AP Dahari s lawyer Daniel Shimshilashvili sent a message from Honenu saying there was slim evidence against Dahari Threats are reinforced by settler outposts The villagers from Turmus Ayya say it s not enough to arrest one settler the threat of violence is reinforced by the outpost in the nearby valley called Emek Shilo Emek Shilo was founded this year on private Palestinian land according to Peace Now It was started by a well-known settler named Amishav Melet noted three Palestinians living in Turmus Ayya and Yair Dvir the spokesperson for Israeli rights group B tselem On his personal X account Melet posted videos of the outpost s construction Villagers alleged that Melet travels the valley in an all-terrain bus surveilling their pursuits He s frequently armed they declared Usually little more than a limited sheds and a pen for livestock such outposts can impose control on nearby land and water sources They often turn into authorized settlements spelling the end of Palestinian communities Israeli police did not comment when solicited about Melet Abdel Nasser Awwad had to halt construction of a new family home when the outpost was established In guard camera footage he shared with AP masked figures presented up at the construction site smashing his truck with a club and appearing to cut piping He noted they have stoned three of his workers When AP visited the village groups of settlers were visible around the outpost and a settler tractor patrolled the area Drones hummed in the air Melet was convicted of assaulting police in according to court records In an interview with Israel s Ynet news in Melet reported he had received administrative orders barring him from the West Bank In response to questions from the AP Melet revealed he was a peace activist Any claim against me that I am proceeding or connected to violence or terrorism or any illegal action is a lie and a falsehood he wrote He called the AP s questions part of a cruel and false campaign against Zionism that reeks of antisemitism In video from Oct shared with the AP by Alkam a man who Alkam declared was Melet was recorded telling a farmer picking olives to leave The farmer responded The army allowed us to be here in contemporary times Where is the army the man identified as Melet mentioned I am the army Palestinians take defense into their own hands When settlers descend on Turmus Ayya the mosque emits a loud siren Young men dash briskly to the village entrance forming a barrier between their families and the settlers During the harvest countless villagers brought cameras into the fields hoping footage showing assaults would help hold settlers accountable It s a far cry from past olive harvests when families spent all day in the groves picnicking beneath the trees Abu Alia the grandmother stated nothing will prevent her from returning I ll be back next year