On the evening of Friday 25 July, settlers lit fire to Palestinian land on the eastern plains of Al-Mughayyir. When the local youth showed up to put out the fire, the occupation army stormed the village, shooting live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the youth. One 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg, and the army set up a checkpoint that delayed the ambulance from reaching him by 3 hours. The checkpoint delayed other ambulances from reaching hospitals, forcing them to take long detours through the mountain roads with sick and elderly patients.
Last year, at the school in Al-Mughayyir, a boy was shot in the back when running away from the army, leaving him permanently disabled. Army and settler violence has disabled two children in Al-Muggayhir in the last year.
On Saturday the 26th, local youth built a roadblock on the settler road between Abu Falah and Al Mughayyir that gives settlers access to the town, and enables them to harass and attack its residents. Settlers came to open it, but quickly ran away when the local youths showed up. Shortly after, the army came to open the road for the settlers, sending a clear message to the village that they will defend and stand with the settlers.
That day settlers also established a new illegal outpost in the middle of the olive farms in the north west of Al-mughayyir, damaging the trees to make a new camp. Al-Mughayyir is now surrounded by and attacked by outposts and settlements from all sides.
On the morning of Sunday 27th, settler shepherds brought their sheep to the Eastern plains again, shooting at two boys from the village.
That afternoon, settler tractors bulldozed the fields on the Eastern plains of Al-Mughayyir, destroying the land.
On Monday 28th, a settler cowboy brought his cows to eat the olive trees and plants at the houses at the entrance to the village. He was there for 4 hours protected by army with him
Settlers attacked the main road of the village with stones, with the army around protecting them
On the morning of Tuesday 29th, settlers again brought tractors to the Eastern plains of Al-mughayyir to plow the land, with two army trucks present
At around 8 o’clock on Wednesday morning, a settler cowboy brought his cows to the Eastern Plain. When local youth showed up to defend their town, the army tear gassed houses and shot live ammunition at them.
On the night of Thursday 31st, between the hours of 2-4am, 10 army trucks and over 100 soldiers stormed the village, raiding the homes of 10 families.
Families were not given time to open their doors before soldiers kicked them down. 20 soldiers went to each house. They damaged and vandalised the houses, emptied kitchen cupboards, separated parents from their children and babies for hours, and put people in rooms alone to interrogate them at gunpoint. The army targeted young boys who they accused of being involved in defending the village from the settlers, intimidating them and threatening them with arrest, and telling them to leave the settlers alone.
When neighbours tried to film the interactions between the villagers and the occupation army, soldiers shone lasers in their windows, and came to their houses and told them not to film and not to look out of their windows again.
On Thursday 31st, from 7 am to 12 pm in the morning after the raid, the army and settlers brought bulldozers and put up a fence, destroying and blocking access to the residents of Mughayyir to their land. They stole 600 dunam of land on the eastern plains of Al-Mughayyir and gave it to the settlers. That night, buses of settlers arrived to the Eastern side of the town supervised by the army, and the gate of the illegal settlement close to the Eastern side of the village was moved 500 metres closer to the town, a clear message from the settlers of their intentions to steal the land and evict the Palestinian residents from the town.
In spite of the constant attacks and intimidations from settlers backed up by the army, and the theft of a part of the Eastern Plains of Al-Mughayyir by settlers and the occupation army, the residents of Al-Mughayyir intend to stay here, and will continue to resist and defend their children and their village.
