On 17 December 2021, Samiha (53) and Waael (62) Muqbal were woken up at around 3:30 A.M. by knocking on the door of their home in the village of Qaryut, Nablus District, and people shouting, “Open up, army.” The people outside, however, were settlers, not soldiers. They smashed a glass pane in the door, and when Wael Muqbal opened it, about 10 settlers armed with metal clubs burst in. The settlers pepper-sprayed Muqbal in the face, and one of them hit him on the face with a metal club, knocking him down. The settlers then dragged Muqbal outside. In the meantime, another settler pepper-sprayed Samiha Muqbal in the face.
The settlers ransacked the house for several minutes, spilling the contents of the cupboards and fridge on the floor and shattering windows, furniture and other objects, and then went outside. During the attack, the settlers smashed the windows of a car and tractor belonging to the family and punctured their tires.
Village residents who arrived at the scene after hearing the commotion brought the unconscious Waael Muqbal inside and called an ambulance to take him and his wife Samiha, who had been hurt by the pepper spray, to Rafidya Hospital in Nablus. Physicians at the hospital diagnosed Muqbal as suffering from fractured ribs and wounds to the head and ear. He was kept in hospital until the next day. Samiha Muqbal was treated on-site and released.
In a testimony she gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i on the day of the assault, Samiha Muqbal (53), a mother of four, spoke about the invasion of her home by settlers masquerading as soldiers:
At around 3:30 A.M., I was woken by loud, aggressive knocking on our front door. I thought it was an army raid. I woke my husband, and he quickly went to open the door. In the meantime, I put on my prayer gown and followed him out of the room.
Suddenly, I saw someone jumping my husband and hitting him on the face with a club made of metal. My husband fell down, and then they dragged him outside.I drew back into the living room, screaming. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Those weren’t soldiers! I’d heard them yelling “Open up! Army!” before, but they weren’t in uniform. About 10 people shoved their way into the house and started turning things over and breaking them with their metal bars. I screamed, while asking them: “Who are you?! What do you want?!” but no one said a word.
I was trembling with fear. Most of them had a black face covering and black clothes. One of them had an olive-green jacket on, like soldiers wear. I kept yelling at them to get out of my house, and then one of them came over to me and said, “We’re settlers,” and immediately pepper-sprayed me.
I couldn’t open my eyes. I just managed to make it to the bedroom to call relatives for help, but I couldn’t make the call because my hands were shaking and I couldn’t see what I was doing. In the meantime, one settler barged into the bedroom and threw a stone at the mirror above the dresser, and it shattered.
Then the settlers left the house. When they left, I heard a commotion outside. When I went over to the entrance, I saw some guys picking up my husband and bringing him inside. He was in bad shape, almost unconscious. The guys called an ambulance from the emergency clinic in Qaryut, and it took both of us to Rafidya Hospital in Nablus, where they treated us. My face was stinging from the pepper spray, and my husband’s face, back, chest and hand were hurting badly. He had an X-ray done, and it turned out there were a few fractures to his ribs, so the doctors kept him in the hospital.
The settlers shattered and destroyed everything in our house. They broke three glass doors, opened the cupboard and fridge doors and threw everything that was in them onto the floor. Then they broke the fridge, too. They also broke the windows of our car and tractor, which were parked outside.
I still can’t process what happened. It was like a terrifying nightmare. It’s hard to describe. What they did to us is unfathomable. They almost killed us. Maybe they only left my husband alone because they thought he was dead.