Nablus- “They were like dark bats, slipping down the hill and hiding among the olive trees. They attacked as trained groups, distributed over more than one area at a time, and wearing black uniforms.” This is how Palestinian citizen Wael Al-Toubasi described the settlers’ attack on his house in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, last Sunday.
Since the beginning of this week, settlers have continued attacks that local residents described as “the most dangerous and violent” against the village, trying to impose a new reality through a policy of intimidation aimed at forcibly displacing the residents, without the occupation army announcing the arrest of any settler.
The attack occurred in the Al-Dhahr area, where Al-Toubasi and his brother live. The settlers were able to reach the house’s storeroom on the ground floor and set it on fire, causing Al-Tubasi’s car to burn, his house to be damaged, and his furniture and contents to burn.
Attack and intimidation
Al-Toubasi describes – to Al-Jazeera Net – an hour of horror he experienced while inside the burning house, saying: “I was with my mother and my uncle when the settlers attacked us, starting with sticks and stones. We tried to prevent them from approaching, but they assaulted my uncle by beating him, and he was injured in the head, which forced us to call an ambulance.”
Meanwhile, the villagers were trying to reach the Al-Dhahr area, to defend the Al-Toubasi family and their homes, but the occupation army prevented them from advancing, while another group of settlement gangs was attacking the village, taking advantage of the ease of storming and the presence of the army.
This was not the first attack on the homes of the Al-Toubasi family. 10 days ago, about 12 settlers set up a tent around the house, and began to constantly provoke the family.
Al-Toubasi says: “Two days ago, I had a nervous breakdown and was taken to the hospital. I could not bear the behavior that was happening before my eyes. Every minute they threatened to burn and kill us, throw stones at the windows, and try to remove the locks. For 10 days I have been trying to secure protection for us and my brother’s family. I contacted the Liaison (a Palestinian coordination body with the occupation army) several times, and spoke to the governor of Nablus more than once, and nothing has changed.”
Painful departure
After the attack, the Toubasi family began dismantling whatever possessions they could from the house in preparation for their move out. While trying to move items from his children’s homes, in which the settlers had made holes to facilitate their intrusion, Mahmoud Al-Toubasi – Wael’s father – said, “A person may bear any harm he is exposed to, but when the harm reaches the very part of his liver, he cannot do so.”
He added in his speech – to Al Jazeera Net – “I am evacuating the two houses to ensure the protection of my children and grandchildren. Today I felt that the incident of burning the Dawabsha family in the neighboring village of Douma may be repeated here with us (…) The goal is to deport us, and unfortunately they succeeded in that. We cannot stay here with this constant danger and threat.”
The village of Jalud, located at the foot of a mountain, is inhabited by approximately 950 people, and its lands are characterized by their fertility and breadth, which has made the population depend on agriculture and livestock raising. But the areas of agricultural and pastoral lands in the village are declining due to the large settlement expansion around them.
The village is surrounded by 10 settlement blocs. Since October 7, 2023, settlers’ attacks and attacks on it and on neighboring villages have increased significantly. Since the beginning of this year, it has been subjected to five major systematic attacks by settlers, most notably entering the village school, writing racist slogans on its walls, and burning one of its classrooms, in addition to burning poultry farms and damaging citizens’ property.
Under army protection
In turn, Raed Al-Haj Muhammad – Chairman of the Jalud Village Council – talks about establishing a new settlement outpost in the eastern area of the village 10 days ago, which began with a tent in preparation for expansion, as happens in all settlements.
He explained in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, “The attack that occurred on the homes of Al-Tubasi extended to other areas in the village. Young men were injured while repelling the attack, and in the area near the school, the settlement groups were able to burn an agricultural greenhouse, and they tried to burn another house, but the young men were able to repel the attack.”
Hajj Muhammad confirms that the army was present during the attack, which lasted more than 3 hours, but it did not prevent it, but rather provided protection for the groups that were moving from the nearby settlements of Esh Kodesh and Ahya. He added, “More than 100 settlers divided into groups characterized by organization and joint attack, in addition to wearing black uniforms and covering their faces.”
In addition to the burning of the house and car of the Al-Toubasi family and the material damage to the residents’ property, 6 citizens were injured in the attack, beaten with sticks and stones, including a 14-year-old child.
“Ben Ghafir gangs”
After attacking Jalud, the masked gangs moved to the neighboring village of Al-Qasra, where video clips of activists from the village documented scenes of large numbers of settlers in black uniforms and face masks, attacking the residents and firing live bullets, before the occupation army stormed the village and dispersed the residents to prevent contact with them.
Settlers’ attacks include beating citizens, breaking homes, burning operations, and sabotaging trees and agricultural crops. According to Hajj Muhammad. Since the beginning of 2026, the village has been attacked five times by “organized and masked settlement groups affiliated with the gangs of the Israeli Minister of National Security.” Itamar Ben Gvir” According to the head of the village council.
In the face of the settlers’ extremism and violence, the people of Jaloud seek to form night protection groups from the village’s youth to repel settlement attacks and prevent the displacement of residents, especially in areas near the settlements.
Hajj Muhammad explained, “The occupation excised approximately 17 thousand dunums (a dunum = 1,000 square metres) from the village’s lands from 1975 until today, when it began establishing an army camp, while the settlements of Shilo, Shavut Rachel, Amichai, and Ihya surround it.” Basically in the village“.
A state in the service of gangs
According to Muhammad Daraghmeh, a journalist specializing in Israeli affairs, the operations of “terrorist” settler groups have increased significantly since the formation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government.
Daraghmeh confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that the emergence of these groups in uniform clothing and the nature of distributed teams, which is called the “settler army”, is the result of the “hilltop youth” groups that have been active for some time in Palestinian towns and villages, and these areas are considered a field for expansion and influence.
He explained that despite the use of the veil by these groups previously, wearing the black dress and the veil together indicates the consecration of a visual identity for them, highlighting a different form from the past, while intensifying the attacks and giving them an organized and deliberate character, as they work within plans and programmes.
He pointed out that the “Hill Boys” groups are active throughout the West Bank, and it can be said that they have begun to take on an official character, and have become a component or third side of the components of the occupying state operating on the ground in the West Bank.
This state – Daraghmeh continued – facilitates their work in controlling the lands and building settlement outposts, which are initially illegal, but are later licensed and become recognized settlements. Just as happened when the occupation soldiers attacked the foreign press crew weeks ago in the village of Tayasir near the city of Tubas, when they told them: We are here to defend and protect this outpost, which will become a settlement in the following days.
The numbers confirm the violence
Last week, settlers killed a child and a young man in the town of Al-Mughayir, north of Ramallah, after a weapon attack on the village school. They also killed another young man in the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah.
Since the beginning of 2026, settlers have killed 15 Palestinians in the West Bank, while 51 other Palestinians have been killed by army and settler bullets.
According to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, settlers carried out 497 attacks in the West Bank during last March, including 256 property sabotage operations, 51 confiscation and theft operations, and the uprooting, sabotage, and poisoning of 2,286 trees, including 2,121 olive trees.
Until the end of 2025, the number of settlers in the West Bank reached about 750,000 settlers, including 250,000 in the city of Jerusalem, according to the same source.
