'Israeli settlers laid siege to our home': Inside a Palestinian village under weekly attack
The large, bolted gate of the Abu Alia family compound in al-Mughayyir village held firm against the teenage settlers; its thin metal bars ringing with each blow, as they smashed it again and again with their clubs.
But the insults hurled by both sides that day passed freely through the bars.
One offensive slur - almost identical in both Hebrew and Arabic - delivered with nonchalant contempt by the Israeli boys bashing at the gate; and with fear and frustration by the Palestinian man inches away from them on the other side, filming the encounter on his phone.
Key Developments
This gate, on the edge of al-Mughayyir, has become a weekly frontline in the battle for the occupied West Bank. And this kind of attack by settlers on Palestinian homes, a weekly routine in villages across the territory.
Watch: BBC reports from Palestinian village under weekly attack by Israeli settlers
When we arrived in al-Mughayyir that day, the confrontation at the Abu Alia compound had already begun.
The Israeli army and border police were already moving through the streets, and residents were running from their vehicles - soldiers, like settlers, are seen as the enemy here. Some young men rolled rocks into the road to block it, as the sound of gunshots cracked over the village.
On the hill above them, the local mosque was calling on people to help the family trapped by the settlers. But slipping past Israeli soldiers has become a dangerous gamble. Residents, medical workers and journalists have all been shot during Israeli military operations in the West Bank.
This is what passes for a normal weekend now in al-Mughayyir, and in villages across the West Bank, but it rarely breaks beyond the local news.
We spent a week around al-Mughayyir, and its neighbouring village, Khirbet Abu Falah, to see what life was like here for a single community, or a single family.
What we found shows how quickly control of this landscape is changing, and how local attacks by settlers here are the tip of a national project to bring West Bank land under Israeli control.
Palestinian residents of al-Mughayyir confront Israeli settlers and troops
Since occupying the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has built more than 100 settlements housing more than half a million Jews on land Palestinians want for a future state. Some Israeli settlers have also established hundreds of wildcat outposts - often starting with a single tent or caravan on a hilltop, and often very close to Palestinian homes. Both Israel's official settlements and its outposts are illegal under international law.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described those carrying out settler attacks as a handful of misguided young people: "150 juvenile delinquents", he's called them, or "70 teenagers from broken homes".
The settlers smashing the Abu Alia gate that Saturday in al-Mughayyir seemed to be mainly teenagers, but earlier that day, a settler group had put out a call on social media to "expel the enemy", including a quote from the Torah. "If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, those you leave will become spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides," it says.
And behind the young faces at the gate in al-Mughayyir were much older settlers - at least one of them armed - standing with Israeli soldiers not far from the house.
There is a widespread belief among Palestinians in the West Bank that Israeli soldiers support settlers during these attacks.
Footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers making no attempt detain the settlers who attacked the Abu Alia compound or confiscate their clubs
Footage of the confrontation at the gate, filmed by the Abu Alia family, shows soldiers strolling up to the teenagers who are attacking it, and making gentle moves to guide them away. It is not effective: the teenagers return again and again to smash their clubs against the gate, as a woman inside screams at them to get away.
The soldiers standing with them at the gate make no attempt to question or detain the attackers, or even confiscate their clubs.
Footage, also filmed from the Abu Alia compound, appears to show young settlers breaking fencing around the property, as soldiers stand by a short distance away, helmets off, phones out.
In one photo, there appears to be an angle-grinder or similar power tool lying on a log behind them. We later photographed it in the hands of soldiers, then in the hands of settlers, then with soldiers again at the Abu Alias' fence.
We asked the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) about these incidents. It gave no explanation for the events, but said in a general response that it was investigating claims of damage to property.
A power tool is visible in footage showing the attack on the Abu Alia compound
Rafeeq Abu Alia, who was one of the family members in the house that day, told me the attack had followed a familiar pattern.
"First thing this morning, they came... There were four settlers and they were armed. Then more settlers came and laid siege to the house, insulting and provoking us," he said. "They came with the army. The soldiers entered, followed by the settlers. The army beat people inside the house."
We filmed soldiers trying to break down the Abu Alias' gate that day, while settlers stood beside them. And later saw workers fixing the broken entrance.
Medics told us they had treated several Palestinians for tear gas and beating injuries, and that another person had been taken to hospital with a gunshot wound.
Rafeeq Abu Alia said the attack on his family's home followed a familiar pattern
The IDF told us its forces had been in al-Mughayyir that day, responding to reports of a confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli civilians.
It said soldiers had entered a house in the village to search for suspects throwing stones, and separately, that they had detained one person taking part in what it called a "violent riot".
It said it was investigating allegations of violence by soldiers.
It also said masked Palestinians had used slings to hurl stones at soldiers, that its forces fired to remove the threat, and that "a hit was identified", meaning someone was shot.
The rules of engagement for Israeli forces in the West Bank were loosened to allow soldiers to use live fire against Palestinians throwing stones, after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 that triggered the Gaza war.
Our repeated requests to film with the IDF on patrol in the West Bank this year have so far gone unanswered.
As Israeli forces fired live rounds, stun grenades and tear-gas canisters into al-Mughayyir that day, we walked down a largely empty road towards the Abu Alia compound, to see the situation first-hand.
Two soldiers appeared in front of us, metres away. Our local Palestinian producer was the first to notice them. We were still filming as one raised his weapon, pointing towards us.
We headed up to a nearby roof for safety - the army vehicle and soldiers visible right below us. Within seconds of our arrival, they motioned for us to stop filming. One raised a tear-gas launcher towards us. We moved back from the edge of the roof. He never fired.
Access to stories like this is getting harder here, even for journalists with official Israeli government accreditation. Palestinian paramedics say they are also routinely blocked.
An ambulance worker with the Palestinian Red Crescent told me that while he was responding to a call from al-Mughayyir that week during another settler attack, Israeli soldiers took the keys to his ambulance, after telling him to turn off the engine.
"If they tell us to stay there, we have to stay and wait, regardless of the situation," he said. "It's something we face all the time."
'The army is the settlers, but their clothes are green,' says village councillor Abu Waheed
Al-Mughayyir is an isolated village, surrounded by areas which were temporarily left under full Israeli control during the Oslo peace process 30 years ago. That peace process later collapsed. In the past few years, Israeli settlement outposts - illegal under both Israeli and international law - have mushroomed around it.
A member of the village council, a man known as Abu Waheed, told me that settlers came into al-Mughayyir every day, and that when the settlers told soldiers to do something, the soldiers did it.
"[They come] with the army, and with the cars of the army," he said. "Here and here and here. The army is the settlers, but their clothes are green."
Many Israeli soldiers serving here are settlers themselves and see the West Bank as land given to them by God.
Thousands of settlers were also directly recruited into local security squads here after the 7 October Hamas attacks, and given weapons, with minimal vetting or training.
Army figures say most of those squads have now been disbanded, following multiple reports of abuse against Palestinian residents.
The Israeli military said its troops shot a Palestinian who used a sling to hurl stones at them
