At 1:15 A.M., settlers broke into Khader and Fatima's home in the village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills. They started beating Khader, a teacher, on the head with clubs as he slept and broke Fatima's arm. A neighbor, Ahmad Nawaja'a, heard the screams and rushed to the scene. "I turned on the flashlight and saw 10 settlers," he said. "And when they saw me, they began throwing rocks at me. More neighbors came running and the settlers fled."
Police were called to the scene and came in time to see Khader and Fatima before an ambulance took them to the hospital in Yatta. The video is very difficult to watch. The word "beating" misses the mark; attempted murder is more accurate. "The police asked us where the settlers who attacked were," Ahmad said, "but it was clear they were joking, they had no intention of catching them."
When the commotion broke out, Ahmed's wife, Halima, and their daughters – Sara, 11, and Su'ar, 10 – came out of their home. "We saw the blood," Sara said. "My sister started crying, and the next day we went to sleep at our grandmother's, in Yatta, and stayed for a week." Halima said, "I don't like my daughters being far from me, but after the incident I was happy they went to my mother's for a bit. We don't sleep at night because we are so afraid. It doesn't matter to the settlers if it's children, women or old people, they attack everyone." Khader and Fatima had surgery and are being treated at the hospital in Yatta.
Susya's low-lying houses are surrounded by wildcat outposts, extensions of the settlement of the same name south of the village. Not far, in the village of Umm al-Khair, teacher and activist Awdah Hathaleen was murdered in July. Settlers injured seven people in August – Palestinians and Israeli activists – in the nearby village of Qawayis, also with clubs. And in Khalet al Daba'a, women, children and old people were assaulted and wounded. The assailants enjoy immunity; the police let them escape, do not collect evidence and do not investigate.
Together with friends, Michal Tsadik, a volunteer with the human right's organization Machsom Watch, organized the donation of two bicycles for Sara and Su'ar: their school is a kilometer from their home. But ever since a masked settler chased and threw rocks at the girls, they only ride near their house. Halima says the situation has worsened since the war began. The settlers used to attack only during the day, and now it's almost nightly. Before, they didn't break into people's homes, they only threw stones; now the reins have been loosened.
But the harm to children didn't start on October 7, 2023. In 2021 and in 2022, I wrote in Haaretz about Sujoud, a girl from the village of Tuba who suffered head injuries when she was assaulted by masked men. And for years, soldiers escorted children to and from their school in the village of Al-Tuwani to protect them from settlers of the Ma'on Farm.
Who are these people, who break into a home at night, beat a teacher in his sleep, injure his wife and throw stones at girls? They are clearly upstanding citizens, since the police don't arrest them. It's not Gaza yet, and in the absence of drones they use clubs or iron bars. But the local incident echoes the larger reality: blind bloodlust against civilians at night, in their sleep. The Jewish public sees and is silent; supports and funds. "When you hit someone in the head, the intent is to kill," Halima said.
The Palestinians "need a Nakba from time to time to feel the cost," former Military Intelligence head Aharon Haliva said, "and it doesn't matter if they are children. I'm not speaking out of revenge. I'm talking about a message for future generations." The message is clear: ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Including against children. It's hard to find words to describe Ahmad's concern as he watches his daughters riding their bikes. And there are not enough words to shout at the sight of children who are being crushed under the hatred of murderous leaders.
The most successful "protest shirt" in my closet says, in Hebrew and Arabic, "We were silent about the occupation, we got a dictatorship." I wait, broken-hearted, for a shirt with the updated slogan: "We were silent about the occupation, we got genocide."
Galia Oz is an Israeli author.