On Tuesday, 20 June 2023, around 8:30 P.M., dozens of settlers gathered by the side of the road between the village of Yasuf and the town of Salfit [ Route 5051], threw stones at passing Palestinian cars, damaging at least eight. Soldiers who were standing about 10 meters away from them did nothing to stop the attack.
Islam Samarah (29) from Salfit, whose car was hit by stones thrown by the settlers, said in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i:
I was driving home to Salfit with my daughter Celia (2) and my nephew, Adam Naser (7). Suddenly, I saw 30 to 40 settlers standing on either side of the road, attacking cars with stones, right in front of soldiers who were about 10 meters away from them.
Before I could do anything, they threw stones at my car. They smashed the right side window and headlights and damaged the body. I was afraid for the children and kept driving to get away from there, but I couldn’t drive fast because there were stones on the road. Some settlers came up to the car and shouted at us in Hebrew. I didn’t understand what they were saying. I had to drive on the stones until I got to the center of the village of Yasuf, where I ran into the passengers of two other cars that were attacked. One of the passengers got glass shards in his eyes.
Adam was pale and did not utter a word. I couldn’t get him to talk. I took him to the hospital in Salfit, where the doctors said it was because of the panic and shock. I called his parents, and they arrived at the hospital at 9:30 P.M. It was only half an hour after they arrived that he started talking and responding.