On Thursday, 30 October 2025, at around 4:00 P.M., several settlers armed with clubs invaded the southern section of the community, about 400 meters east of which an outpost was established around April 2025. The settlers tried to tear down the walls of one of the empty livestock pens. Residents of this part of the community were forced last summer to leave their homes and move to an area farther away from the outpost, after the settlers began invading their residential compound and harassing them.
Husam ‘Ararah, 14, saw the settlers and tried to film them, and when two of them noticed him, they started chasing him. Husam ran, shouting, northward, toward the populated area of the community, and several young men from the community came toward him, at which point the settlers left.
That evening, at around 7:30 P.M., soldiers arrived at the community and detained 18 young men and teens, including Husam and five other teens ages 13 to 16. The soldiers forced them to strip and kneel on the ground, beat and kicked them, and demanded they reveal the identity of a person who, according to the settlers, had beaten a teen who had come with them with a stick.
The detainees were interrogated in this way in the field for about 40 minutes, and then the six teens were released. The remaining 12 detainees, ages 20 to 30, were marched naked, their hands tied with zip ties and blindfolded, to a large, open-sided “Desert Safari” vehicle belonging to settlers, which the residents know well, and taken to the Israeli DCO in Jericho, where they were interrogated again by a man in civilian clothes.
All the detainees were released at around 11:30 P.M. without restrictive conditions, and when their clothes were returned to them, they discovered that they had been drenched in sewage. The families had to come to the DCO and collect their loved ones in their cars. In the days that followed, three of the detainees reported that the authorities had revoked their work permits in Mishor Adumim, and they lost their source of livelihood.
In a testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 8 November 2025, Mustafa ‘Ararah, 26, said:
On Thursday, at around 7:30 P.M., military forces raided my community, burst into my home and arrested me and 17 other residents, including six children ages 13 to 16. The soldiers took us to a hill about 50 meters from the homes of the community, ordered us to strip and kneel, and beat us, hit us with their rifle butts and kicked us.
After some time, they tied our hands with zip ties and blindfolded us with a piece of cloth. At that point, I heard several settlers say to the soldiers: “This one and this one took part in the attack against us.” At the time, I didn’t understand exactly what was happening. It was only later that I heard about the settlers’ invasion in the afternoon and realized they had pointed to young men whom they believed tried to help a boy who ran away from them.
The soldiers took each of us aside and questioned us. They asked me one question: “Tell us who the Bedouin who beat the settler boy is.” I told the interrogator that I was arrested shortly after returning from my job in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, that I didn’t take part in any attack on a settler, and that I had no idea what happened before I came home. The soldier who questioned me, who spoke Arabic, slapped me, kicked me and struck me in the chest with his rifle butt.
After about an hour, they let the children who were arrested with us go and led us adults on foot to a vehicle that was parked in the area. We were blindfolded, but residents who saw this from a distance later told us it was the vehicle the settlers use to drive visitors around the area. They sat us on the floor of the vehicle, one on top of the other. During the drive, the soldiers kicked me and stepped on my back, and I was in severe pain from the blows I had taken earlier and inside the vehicle.
When the vehicle stopped, they pulled us out by force, and I fell to the ground. They took us to the Israeli DCO in Jericho, where a man in civilian clothes interrogated me and again asked me who had beaten the settler boy. I again replied that I had been at work all day and did not know what had happened at home.
We were released at around 11:30 P.M. The soldiers gave us back our clothes, but they were wet and stank of sewage. Community residents came to take us home.
The next day, when I arrived at my workplace at the slaughterhouse in Mishor Adumim, I discovered that my work permit had been revoked. The work permits of two other young guys who were arrested with me that night were also revoked.