We arrived at El-Farisiya – the escort group of six men and women – at 7:30 a.m. Two of them stayed to escort Z to the pasture – they accompanied him to the area of Ein Shiq, a spring whose source is six kilometers away. They say that the time in the pasture passed peacefully. D stayed as a protective presence in El-Farisiya itself, where the morning passed peacefully as well.

At 8:00 a.m., we received a call from H. from Ein Al Hilwa asking for two people to come quickly because settlers had been seen in the area. We arrived and it turned out that M, H’s brother who had been brutally beaten in the head by an army unit, had taken the family’s herd of cows over the hills. The family claimed that M no longer functions and hasn’t listen to them since he was beaten. They are afraid that the army will arrest him and confiscate the cows. They asked us to be with him and watch the cows to make sure they didn’t get separated. We spoke with M in front of the brother A and somehow convinced him to bring the cows back to the area that the brother had asked. The other two stayed there with our two escorts until 2:00 p.m. The grazing for the cows passed peacefully.

Two more escorts went to N’s encampment with the women and children who remain alone at the camp. The settlers from Neriya’s outpost threaten them. Just two days ago, the settlers arrived disguised as soldiers and forced the entire family out and checked their identity cards as well as ours. Today it was quiet here too. We played with the children and sat and chatted with the women.

We returned to El-Farisiya. It turned out that settlers had appeared from Rotem and Maskiyot and continued building their tent above A’s home. The locals went out towards them and the settlers left. They return every day.

We received a call from Ein al-Hilwa about settlers who were about to break into a home. We arrived and saw a group of five settlers sitting on a bench above the encampment at Ein al-Hilwa. The shepherds were afraid they would try to break in to the home. They said that another 20 or so settlers were at the spring. The group on the bench got up and went back to the settlement. But the other 20 sat on the bench and began to sing and dance. Eventually they left after about 25 minutes. The shepherds are afraid they will return, so we decided to stay there. The night passed peacefully.

There’s constant tension. The hilltop youth come to the shepherds’ homes and disturb them, either by frightening them from far off or sometimes surrounding their homes and preventing the flocks and herds from crossing the road.