At the local council house, we met the mayor and several inhabitants who also called Alaa who had been present at the event. He showed us photos of the settlers arriving yelling at inhabitants’ homes, with flags and loudspeakers. The local people told us that on Saturday night, March 1^st, the first day of the holy Ramadan month, at 9:30 p.m., about 200 settlers came down from Road 446, from the direction of Brukhin settlement, toward Bruqin, and attacked the 5 houses closest to the road. Some of them came by car and others on foot in a flag procession. They stood several meters opposite the homes and yelled at the inhabitants in Arabic: Irhal min hon! “Get out of here!” and other slogans and curses. They threw stones at the houses, broke windows and damaged cars. They lit a fire near the houses and burned dumpsters. The women and children were very scared, hid in the houses and locked the doors. This lasted about 20-30 minutes. Army vehicles were spread along Road 446 but did not stop near the settlers and thus actually collaborated with them. People from the village tried to get to the houses of those hit and help them, but the army prevented them from doing so and closed off the internal road leading to the attacked houses. According to witnesses, one of the assailants (settler or soldier) fired several live shots in the air. The Palestinians did not summon the Israeli police but must have reported to the Palestinian DCO about the goings on, so it would inform the Israeli DCO. Following this, apparently, Israeli police arrived on Monday, March 2^nd, to take testimonies about the attack, and perhaps even entered houses to see for themselves. To our question, the answer was that the villagers have no idea what the police did with their testimonies, and have not heard from it since.

We then went out with Alaa and another person to the ground, and he showed us the houses and cars that were damaged. Broken windows, the windshield in his car as well, the back window now covered with blue nylon because of the smashed glass. His cousin’s and neighbor’s houses are the closest to the 446 road, but the settlers also hit houses several dozen meters away. Alaa and Murad explained that 2 years ago there were very few settler attacks, perhaps once a year damaging a car or cutting down trees. But since the new neighborhood was built across the road for Evyatar expellees and their Yeshiva, the harassment and violent abuses have greatly increased – they claim this is the 4^th time this year alone.

On our way we passed a school and were told that on Monday, March 3^rd around 10 p.m., army vehicles arrived with soldiers who entered nearby houses to look for security cameras protecting the houses from attacks. They did not pick up the cameras, only the cassettes that must have documented the events. We were told the townspeople try not to involve educational institutions in political events and entering a school requires the approval of the local council and educational supervisors…

We returned via Hares and road 5066 to Al Funduk/Jinsafut Junction and then west on Road 55.

The gate at the entrance to Hares was open, while at Deir Istiya the entrance to the village and industrial zone was blocked by two arms. The main entrance from Road 55 to Jinsafut was closed by two arms as well and only pedestrian passage was allowed. In the past, before the army erected the checkpoint and closed it occasionally, this was a blooming market site. Near the checkpoint, we spoke with a person who was waiting for his son and he told us that since the event in Funduk 2 months ago, the army has closed it off completely, which makes the lives of inhabitants impossible. Mostly children suffer from this as they have to reach their schools, in addition to the grownups.

We continued west on Road 55. At Laqif village the gate arm was open. The main entrance to Azzun was closed as usual since the beginning of atrocities, and near the gate a large army tent was erected through which inhabitants must go.

We wanted to reach Izbat Tabib, for which we had to drive through Nabi Elias. The first entrance to the industrial zone, on the east side, was closed with a metal arm. We continued to the western entrance from which we drove up and entered Izbat Tabib. We visited Moussa Tabib. We also met the nice aunt, born in Ra’anana (1930) who was very interested in our age and family status. According to Moussa, the villages between Qalqiliya and Tulkarm, such as Jayyus, are accessible on the road going parallel to the main road, and before the Azzun entrance one must take a left into the tunnel leading under road 55. Mustafa also told us that the shortcut from Jayyus to Nabi Elias and from there to Qalqiliya is blocked by metal arms or stones, but we hadn’t the time to drive there and see for ourselves.