By María Traspaderne
As Samu, West Bank (EFE).- A bruise on little Sadam’s eye and the reddened skin of baby Omri, who still has difficulty breathing, are reminders of the brutal attack suffered by the Palestinian Daghamin family at the hands of a group of Israeli settlers, who stormed their home, sprayed them with pepper spray, and beat half of their livestock to death.
This is one of 536 settler attacks recorded by the United Nations (UN) in the West Bank in October, which was the most violent month since records began in 2013 and coincided with the olive harvest season.
On Oct. 27, about five masked men armed with sticks ran toward the Daghamins’ modest home, located near the West Bank village of As Samu.
The couple and their four children, aged between six months and seven years, took refuge in the house, locking the doors and windows, but the settlers broke a window and sprayed tear gas inside.
The family had to lock themselves in a room.
They then went to the barn, where surveillance cameras captured images that brought their case to light: lambs being thrown to the ground, stoned with concrete blocks, and beaten to death.
After killing ten animals in cold blood, the attackers smashed the windows of the family’s car and emptied their water tanks.
This attack, which follows almost three years of harassment of the Daghamin family, sums up the situation of thousands of families in the Israeli-occupied West Bank under Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which, according to various organizations, protects settlers who are gradually and violently expelling Palestinians and illegally occupying their land.
In the valley, the five Israeli families who settled there in Dec. 2023 have already forced three of the seven Palestinian families out of their homes.
On Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli army declared these lands military territory.
It is the so-called Area B of the West Bank, a territory whose security, according to the 1995 Oslo Accords, is shared by the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
However, according to the Palestinian families, only the Israeli army and police operate there to protect the settlers.
Mahmoud Daghamin said their calls for help were never answered.
Even though the land is not used for military purposes, the Daghamins cannot build on it, cultivate it, take their sheep out of the barn, or use the water from their wells because Israeli forces prevent them from doing so.
The road leading to their house is now for the settlers, so they had to open another road, full of potholes, which they are not allowed to pave.
From his barn, alongside the ten sheep they have left—one of which is struggling to breathe after being beaten—Daghamin explained that every day, the Palestinians suffer harassment from the ten to twenty people living in the five houses of this illegal settlement.
They take their animals out to graze on the Palestinians’ land, threaten them, break their things, and approach them in the middle of the night.
Since the attack, baby Omri has had to be taken to the hospital daily to receive oxygen because he has trouble breastfeeding and cries every night, according to his mother, Wafa.
His three brothers still suffer from nightmares.
Despite everything, Wafa and Mahmoud have no intention of leaving.
“We are afraid, but we will not leave our land. It is our land, our country,” Mahmoud said.
Wafa recounted how the settlers had pointed guns at her and added that they had only gotten used to it since “there is no other option”. EFE
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