Structures set on fire by settlers in Khallet a-Sidrah. Video footage courtesy of residents
Settlers by a home going up in flames in Khallet a-Sidrah. Photo: Torat Tzedek
On Saturday morning, 25 October 2025, at around 8:00 A.M., about 20 farmers from Mikhmas went to harvest olives on their land southeast of the village homes.
At around 4:00 P.M., three masked settlers arrived with clubs and started throwing stones at the farmers and at two vehicles parked there. The farmers fled towards the village. Meanwhile, about 30 young men from the village who heard about the attack started heading to the farmland.
Shortly afterwards, the settlers returned to the olive groves, this time in a group of about 50, all of them masked. Some were carrying clubs, and three had hanguns.
The settlers began throwing stones at the young men and firing live shots at them. The young men threw stones back at the settlers.
The settlers injured seven young men with stones, and vandalized and set fire to two vehicles. According to social media posts, two settlers were injured by stones.
When residents of the nearby Bedouin community of Khallet a-Sidrah, which lies on Mikhmas land, learned of the attack, they decided to evacuate the women and children from the area in case they were attacked, too.
An activist beaten by the settlers. Photo: Torat Tzedek
About an hour later, a security guard from a nearby settlement whom the residents recognize arrived at the olive groves. He called out to the young men to go back to the village and said that if they did, the settlers would leave too.
The young men from Mikhmas did as the guard said and withdrew from the area. But instead of leaving, the settlers went on to attack Khallet a-Sidrah.
The 50 settlers descended on the community, and the remaining men there fled and watched from a distance. Two solidarity activists moved further away to a nearby hill, and observed what was happening from there.
The settlers started setting fire to community structures and vandalizing other equipment and property. Then they began throwing stones at the activists, who tried to escape. The settlers caught one of the activists and beat her, breaking her arm. Another activist drove over and managed to free her, but the settlers attacked his car with stones and shattered one of its windows.
The second activist tried to hide in a community home, but a settler broke in and hit her with a club. He demanded that she leave the house. When she did, other settlers attacked her with clubs and beat her until she fell to the ground. They threatened to kill her if she returned to the community, and then they ran off.
A few minutes later, the settlers began leaving the community and heading toward the outposts in the area.
At the end of the attack, which lasted about half an hour, military and police forces arrived at the scene and arrested only one settler. He was released several days later.
The activists were taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital. One had her broken arm bandaged and was treated for injuries, and was told she would need future surgery on the arm. The other was treated for cuts to her head that bled heavily and for bruising to her body.
The settlers burned seven of the community’s homes, a sheep pen and a storage shed, vandalized seven solar panels and stole three others, and stole three batteries and a security camera system.
‘Amer ‘Aruri collected testimonies from community residents on 26 October 2025:
Nassim Zawahreh, 27, a father of a toddler from Khallet a-Sidrah, said:
A home set on fire by the settlers. Photo courtesy of residents
On Saturday, 25 October 2025, at around 5:00 P.M., settlers attacked our community after they attacked the olive groves of Mikhmas. We had already sent the women and children somewhere safe. When the settlers came near, the young men who were still in the community ran away, and the settlers chased them while firing shots. They violently attacked the two activists who were with us, and they couldn’t get away.
The settlers burned several homes in the community, as well as my trhee solar panels and the four batteries connected to them. They also stole the security camera system installed around my home. I sent my wife and daughter away like everyone else, as soon as I heard about the attack on the Mikhmas groves. Thankfully, that prevented a major disaster.
The Israeli military and police arrived only after the settlers finished their attack.
Sa’id Abu ‘Ali, 51, a father of five and head of the Mikhmas village council, said:
Settlers in Khallet a-Sidrah, photographed from afar by residents who fled
Since October 2023, settlers have established four outposts in our area.
On Saturday, 25 October 2025, people from our village were in their olive groves in the Wadi al-Bardiyah area, southeast of the village, about 100 meters from the nearest home.
At around 4:00 P.M., settlers attacked the farmers in their olive groves and drove them off their land by throwing stones.
The farmers did not give up and went back to the olive groves with a lot of village residents. The settlers started throwing stones at the residents, and mutual stone-throwing developed.
The settlers fired live shots in the air and at the residents, and managed to force them out.
The attack lasted about 30-40 minutes. I was notified that seven residents were injured by stones.
Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
