On the evening of 31 August, a group of Israeli settlers stormed the occupied West Bank village of Burqa, east of Ramallah. They assaulted Palestinians, attacked their homes, and tried to set vehicles and property on fire. They also stole livestock.
An eye witness told us that as Civil Defence and Village Council volunteers were filling a water tanker in the al-Muntazah area, settlers started to gather and began attacking residents. Never far from the settlers, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) then entered the area.
Palestinian husband and wife violently attacked
The settlers moved towards the outskirts of the eastern side of the village. They broke into a home, raided nearby sheep pens and severely beat Fatima Muqattam and her husband Wajih Hamdan.
Fatima was struck on the head, while Wajih, who has a heart condition, was sprayed with pepper spray. Both were hospitalised.
The windows of their home were also smashed and their car vandalised.
Israeli settler militias brutally assaulted elderly Palestinian Fatima Muqattam and her husband, Wajih Hamdan, during a raid on the Palestinian village of Burqa in the Ramallah district of the occupied West Bank last night.
Fatima sustained a severe head injury and was… pic.twitter.com/3EyN1u3TFV
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) September 1, 2026
Settlers and IOF collaborate to terrorise residents
Sayel Kanaan, head of the Village Council, told Wafa News Agency the occupation’s soldiers entered the area to protect the settlers. They then detained several young Palestinian men, rather than arresting any of the illegal settlers who were terrorising the village.
Another group of settlers attacked the western side of the village, attempting to set fire to a vehicle scrapyard and livestock shed.
While the settlers terrorised the village, the IOF raided it and closed its entrance for more than two hours. A total of seven sheep, 2,450 Jordanian Dinars and 1,800 Shekels were stolen by settlers that day.
This attack on Burqa, by settlers and the IOF, is far from an isolated incident. Instead, it is part of a sustained and escalating pattern of pressure and violence affecting the village. It follows two consecutive days of settler incursions and military activity there.
On 29 August, settlers attacked farmers on the eastern outskirts of Burqa, entering the area while farmers were working their land. They damaged the tyres of a Palestinian farmer’s vehicle and attempted to smash and set fire to it.
Live ammunition was fired during the attack and in the vicinity of a public park, causing panic among residents. The IOF reportedly raided the village at the same time to provide protection for the settlers.
The following day, settlers and the IOF provoked residents while movement restrictions were also in place.
Israel plans to ethically cleanse occupied West Bank
According to the UN’s 28 August humanitarian situation report, two families in Burqa — totalling nine people and including two children — had been displaced only days before due to settler attacks in which residential and livelihood structures were burned.
The attacks on Burqa also affect agricultural land. In April, the IOF cleared large areas of land in the north of the village. More than 500 olive, fig and almond trees were uprooted in the process.
Settlers continue to destroy, and set fire to olive trees — many of them hundreds of years old — and also destroy agricultural property.
Burqa residents rely heavily on their land for farming and livestock. Therefore, attacks on vehicles, agricultural buildings, sheep pens, crops and olive trees, and movement restrictions, can have serious economic consequences.
However, this is all part of ‘Israel’s’ colonial plans of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and land theft. When families become unable to maintain their livelihoods, they may have no choice but to leave their land and live elsewhere.
Burqa’s landscape, and its community, has been changed by settlement activity, which has so far seized 10,000 of the village’s 12,000 dunams of land.
Six settlement outposts now encircle Burqa from three directions, while settlement Road 60 passes along its fourth side.
The latest illegal outpost was established towards the end of August, in the eastern area of the village. Settlers used materials and equipment stolen from Palestinians to construct it.
More than 2,250 attacks on Palestinians in July alone
Burqa is not the only Palestinian community experiencing intensified settler pressure. Across the West Bank, these illegal colonists continue to terrorise Palestinians, repeatedly attacking their homes, agricultural land, infrastructure and livestock.
Figures from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, show the IOF and settlers carried out 2,256 attacks against Palestinians, their land and property during July. The commission attributed 798 of those incidents to settlers and 1,458 to Israeli forces.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,040 Palestinians had been injured in settler attacks between the beginning of 2026 and 28 August.
The violence continues to escalate sharply. In 2020, an average of one Palestinian was injured every three days by Israeli settlers. This rose to two per day in 2025 and more than three per day so far in 2026.
More than 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have also been displaced in the occupied West Bank this year, due to settler violence, demolitions and evictions.
Featured image via
By Charlie Jaay
