The village of al-Mughayyer, east of Ramallah, has seen a dramatic escalation of violence over the past several days. On January 16, Israeli soldiers killed Mohammed Naasan, 14, during an Israeli military raid on the village. The day after, January 17, Israeli forces arrested Hadaya Abu Naim, 37, a Palestinian woman from the Abu Hamam family, who was visiting her relatives in the al-Khalayel area of al-Mughayyer.
The arrest took place after a teenage Israeli from the nearby Chavat Shlisha outpost blocked the car she was driving towards her family residence. Israeli forces then arrived to the families’ home and detained Hadaya Abu Naim on the false suspicion of stone throwing, which is disproved by video footage from the incident.
The soldiers then presented a closed military zone order from over a month ago, valid December 4 to December 5 last year, and demanded that anyone that does not reside there leave the area immediately. Within minutes of pointing out that the order was out of date, a new order was presented, valid until January 19. The soldiers and police also pushed the seven activists who were present away from the house, arresting one solidarity activist from Jerusalem. At the same time as removing the activists from the scene, the soldiers failed to remove the settler from the area marked as off-limits in the closed military zone order.
This come as four international activists from the US and Ireland were arrested on January 16 from the Abu Hamam home on made up suspicions presented by a settler who invaded the family land. Two of those arrested, an Irish national and a US national, were deported.
These arrests are part of an ongoing effort to displace the Abu Hamam family from their land over the past year through violence and harassment. These concerted efforts are being carried out in coordination and collaboration between the official Israeli armed forces and Israeli settlers.
Background
The Abu Hamam family has been the target of ceaseless harassment and assault at the hands of Israeli civilians and armed forces for over a year, in an effort to drive them from their land. Over the past month, these attempts have escalated sharply, with near-daily attacks.
On December 7, 2025, a settler attack on the family took place in coordination with a military raid on the village, which prevented residents and medics from coming to the family’s help. The attack resulted in injuries to the family’s matriarch, 59-year-old Fadda Abu Naim, and 13-year-old Riziq Abu Naim, as well as two UK nationals, a Colombian-American, and a French national. Four of those injured required hospitalization following the attack. The following day, Monday, December 8, settlers dismantled Palestinian-owned corrugated metal sheds under military protection. On Wednesday, December 10, a military force raided the family home, presented a 24-hour closed military zone order, and arrested a US national and an Australian national, both of whom were later released. On Friday, December 12, American nationals Irene Cho and Trudi Frost were unlawfully arrested and subsequently deported, after being presented with a month-long closed military zone order, and despite remaining outside the area designated as closed by the military order at all times. Several additional military raids took place on December 13 and 14, as forces hunted for solidarity activists. Meanwhile, settlers have been selectively allowed to remain in the area, attacking and harassing Palestinian communities entirely undisturbed.
These attacks by settlers and soldiers are intended to forcibly displace the Abu Hamam family from their land as part of the implementation of Israeli policy aimed at ethnically cleansing entire Palestinian communities—a practice that is becoming increasingly common and effective, often in pursuit of fulfilling strategic objectives. Displacing the Abu Hamam family would allow Israel to create a corridor of settlements and settlement outposts stretching from the East Ramallah area to the South Nablus area, and from there to the Jordan Valley, establishing territorial contiguity that would wedge Palestinians away from their land and entrench Israeli control over the area.