In early February 2024, a settler arrived with soldiers at pastureland near the Samia freshwater spring one morning. Muhammad Abu ‘Eid (16), a teen from a Palestinian community of several families living at the site, was grazing his family’s flock at the time. The soldiers detained him and took him, blindfolded and handcuffed, to a military base in Jab’it, where he was held until 5:00 P.M., at which point he was transferred to the Binyamin police station. Abu ‘Eid was released at 9:00 P.M., after being interrogated and warned not to go near Alon Route.
About a week later, when Muhammad Abu ‘Eid and his brother Bilal (24) were grazing their flock in pasturelands located about 500 meters from Alon Route, the same settler arrived, again with a military escort. The settler ordered the brothers not to graze their flock in the area, claiming it belonged to him, and took pictures of their flock. The soldiers detained the two brothers and took them to the Jab’it base, where they were held from 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and then released.
On the morning of 10 February 2024, when the brothers were grazing their flock near their homes, about two kilometers from the Alon Route, that same settler showed up again and called soldiers, who arrived in a jeep and a digger. They used the digger to open a dirt mound the army had placed to block the road leading from Kafr Malik to ‘Ein Samia in order to reach the brothers, who managed to escape with the flock, though not before the settler stole two goats, in front of the soldiers.
The next day, Sunday, 11 February 2024, the Abu ‘Eid family, numbering a total of eight people, including six minors, uprooted itself from the ‘Ein Samia spring area, west of Alon Route, where they had lived for about 15 years. In May 2023, Israel forcibly transferred the Bedouin community of ‘Ein Samia living east of Alon Route.