Most of Sabbath day passed without trouble, save for the usual tension—of not knowing what might happen during the day—tension that was felt in conversations and also in the jokes we exchanged with Palestinians about the settlers.

Grazing took place peacefully: in Ein al-Sakut, with M. in al-Farisiya al-Hamayer, during the waterings at Ein al-Hilweh with P.K., and with S.
Our stay in al-Farisiya and throughout the day in the different communities was also quiet, including the afternoon grazing, and not a single settler was seen.

At 18:00 we received word from the community of Tel al-Himma that settlers had come around and injured people. We decided to go. Before we left, we heard that the incident had ended, but we still wanted to see and hear with our own eyes.
The community is near Givat Sal’it and is made up of about ten extended families. They told us that settlers drove around all the encampments on ATVs, entered them, beat people, and finally apparently sprayed pepper gas into the eyes of two elderly men, who were taken to the hospital in Tubas.
Even so, they asked us not to come to them. The settlers threaten that if they see us there, they will destroy their homes, and they are afraid.

While we were there, an army jeep arrived. A female soldier rudely approached one of the men, asked what had happened, and demanded to look around with them. Her entire manner radiated arrogance and contempt. She ignored us completely—we were invisible to her eyes—even though she saw that we were Israelis.
The residents connected the army’s arrival to our presence, and they asked us to leave quickly, fearing more harassment. This is their life—living in fear of the settlers, yet not daring to ask for any kind of help, lest things get even worse.
We left as they asked but gave them our phone numbers in case further incidents occurred that night or in the days to come.

At night we split up between the different communities. In al-Farisiya, the escorts who stayed there kept watch all night, sharing shifts with the local shepherds.
One shepherd who was on watch at 10:00 shone a flashlight, which led to the arrival of the security coordinator of Rotem. We explained that we were guarding against settler damage to the power lines and the water taps.
During the 4:30 watch, a car was seen circling near the entrance to al-Farisiya. It stood there for a few minutes, drove around in circles, and then returned up to the settlement of Rotem. The settlers were apparently planning something, but when they saw the escorts’ flashlights, they realized they couldn’t carry it out.

Morning came, and we returned toward Tel Aviv. On the way, we encountered long convoys of settlers leaving the settlements for their work in Tel Aviv, creating traffic jams that added an hour to an hour and a half to the journey.

Another day of occupation has come and gone.