Arrests of dozens and the uprooting of thousands of trees
Al-Mughayyir: Three days of continuous aggression by occupation soldiers and settlers changed the features of the village
28/8/2025 – Union for Justice Foundation
On the twenty-first of this month, the Israeli army, accompanied by massive D9 bulldozers, launched a large-scale military operation in Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. The operation lasted for three days — a relatively short time, but enough to alter the features of this peaceful village.
This extensive operation brought back memories of what Israeli forces have been doing in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, and of the vast destruction caused by Israeli bulldozers to hundreds of housing units in the northern West Bank refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarm.
In Al-Mughayyir, agricultural plains were leveled to the ground, and trees that had stood for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years were uprooted. Dozens of the village’s residents were taken to Israeli detention centers after their homes were raided and their contents destroyed. Hundreds of dunams of land were also confiscated.
In addition, the Israeli assault on Al-Mughayyir was accompanied by field interrogations of hundreds of citizens — including women and children — as well as beatings, humiliation, and the theft of money and gold jewelry.
Although the Israeli army typically needs no justification for its violent attacks on Palestinians, this time it used the slight injury of one settler as a pretext to move forward with long-prepared plans to seize village lands, tighten restrictions on its residents, and push them to leave.
The Union for Justice Foundation confirmed that the occupation needed no excuse for its latest assault. Evidence of this lies in the fact that a few days earlier, the army had already begun constructing a new settler road on the western side of the village, linking a newly established outpost to the settlement of Adi Ad.
The village of Al-Mughayyir, with a population of about 4,000, lies between two expanding settlement blocs: from the north, it borders the settlement of Gush Shilo, and from the south, Kokhav HaShahar and its growing network of settler outposts, including Malakhi HaShalom.
Al-Mughayyir’s strategic geographic location places it at the heart of Israeli targeting. It is one of the eastern gateway villages of the West Bank, extending eastward toward the Jordan Valley, where Palestinian communities are frequently attacked by settlers and subjected to destruction and displacement aimed at erasing Palestinian presence and agriculture.
According to monitoring by the Union for Justice Foundation, the latest Israeli assault on Al-Mughayyir resulted in the uprooting of 12,000 olive trees, the smashing and confiscation of 15 vehicles, and the declaration of 296 dunams of land east of the village as a “closed military zone” — a step that usually precedes land confiscation and the prohibition of Palestinian access.
Over the past three months, occupation authorities have issued three seizure orders targeting approximately 1,900 dunams of Al-Mughayyir’s lands for military and settlement purposes.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed six of the village’s residents, injured 250, and arrested dozens, 70 of whom remain in detention.
Settler Attacks No Less Violent
Alongside the organized assault carried out by the Israeli army on Al-Mughayyer, the village has been subjected to ongoing attacks by settlers who have effectively become one of the operational arms working alongside the Israeli military—especially under the current government, which includes hardline extremists such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has armed settlers with approximately 97,000 weapons.
The army’s assault on Al-Mughayyir coincided with calls by settlers—through official platforms and social media—openly urging the erasure of the village and the expulsion of its residents, advocating the use of violence to achieve this goal without any pretense or shame.
According to monitoring by the Union for Justice Foundation, during the past three months, the village has suffered more than 14 settler assaults and attacks. These included the beating of farmers, shooting at civilians, their homes, and vehicles, as well as arson and theft of property.
For example, on June 19, 2025, settlers attacked a group of citizens in the Marj Si’ah plain between the villages of Abu Falah and Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, wounding Ruqad Jumaa Abu Alia, a resident of Al-Mughayyir, who was grazing his sheep. He sustained bruises and injuries and was transferred to the village medical clinic.
On June 21, 2025, settlers set fire to agricultural lands in Si’ah Plain, located between Al-Mughayyir, Abu Falah, and Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah.
On July 5, 2025, settlers from the colonial outpost built on Palestinian lands in the Al-Qal’a area east of Al-Mughayyir opened live fire at residents, though no injuries were reported.
On July 19, 2025, dozens of residents suffered from tear gas inhalation during an attack by settlers—carried out under army protection—on the village.
On July 24, 2025, dozens of armed settlers attacked the outskirts of Al-Mughayyir and attempted to steal sheep belonging to Anis Abu Alia, before villagers confronted them and forced them to withdraw.
A day later, a 14-year-old child was injured by live fire from a settler who shot toward a group of villagers.
On August 7, 2025, dozens of settlers attacked the western edges of Al-Mughayyir; a week later, settlers stormed Marj Si’ah Plain again, between Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, and cut down several olive trees belonging to Atif Hamayel.
On August 16, 2025, settlers burned vehicles and caravans during an assault on the village and attacked citizens’ homes.
On August 24, 2025, settlers, accompanied by the Israeli army, raided the Al-Khalayel area in Al-Mughayyir and vandalized and destroyed an agricultural room.
The most bloody incident that the people of Al-Mughayyir will never forget occurred on April 14, 2024, when about 1,500 settlers, under army protection, invaded the village, burned more than 40 homes and vehicles, besieged dozens of residents inside their houses, and opened live fire—resulting in the killing of two young men and the injury of others.
The Union for Justice Foundation believes that what happened in Al-Mughayyir is a microcosm of the broader Israeli plan across the West Bank—aimed at breaking Palestinian resistance to occupation and settlement policies.
The foundation stresses that the ultimate goal of these policies is to transform Palestinian towns and villages into isolated enclaves devoid of geographic and social continuity, enabling the occupation to dominate each area separately. This is part of a military strategy to fragment the West Bank into separate “cantons.”
The Union for Justice Foundation emphasizes that the annexation of the West Bank and the displacement of its residents are long-standing goals for the settlers, who have been pursuing them tactically for many years—using violence and the terrorization of Palestinians as tools to achieve their principal objective.
