From hospital, severely hurt Palestinian, 18, describes beating by settlers near Ramallah

His face and body full of bruises, a young Palestinian man in the West Bank said Friday that four settlers kidnapped him, punched him, and beat him with an M-16 rifle as they threatened to kill him a day earlier.

Speaking to the Saudi-owned Asharq News from his hospital bed in Ramallah Governmental Hospital, Owais Hamam, 18, said he was leaving Khirbet Bani Hairth, west of Ramallah, toward nearby hills to pray the Maghrib, the fourth of Islam’s five prayers, when the settlers came at him, surrounding him and firing shots in the air. He turned back but was unable to escape, he said.

“They sat me down on thorns and started hitting my face and head with fists and an M-16,” said Hamam.

They then took him westward to the area of Bab a-Taqa, where the military arrived and took him, he said.

It was unclear how Hamam was taken to Bab a-Taqa. Nor was it clear if the settlers were still present when the army arrived.

The troops who found Hamam detained him for interrogation, during which they also beat him, he said.

“They said to me, ‘Why did you come here?’ And I said I was going to pray the Maghrib,” said Hamam. “They said to me, you’re a liar, you want to be a mujahideen and a shahid,” he says, referring to religious fighters and martyrs in Islam, respectively.

The assault left Hamam in serious condition, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sharing footage of Hamam on his hospital bed, veteran Arab MK Ahmad Tibi accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir of facilitating settler violence.

“Owais Hamam, from the village of Khirbat Bani Harat near Ramallah, was kidnapped and brutally tortured by settlers under the protection of the army and the police of Ben Gvir and Zamir,” wrote Tibi on X.

"أجلسوني على الشوك وانهالوا عليّ ضرباً".. الشاب الفلسطيني أويس همام يروي لـ"الشرق" تفاصيل اعتداء مستوطنين عليه قرب رام الله بالضفة الغربية pic.twitter.com/O3QnTgX7rs

— Asharq News الشرق للأخبار (@AsharqNews) December 5, 2025

The incident was one of a number of reported settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank on Thursday. Palestinian sources reported that at least 11 Palestinians in total were wounded throughout the day.

Settler attacks have been escalating in recent months, prompting security agencies to invest more in fighting the trend. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, however, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.

As of early November, the IDF had recorded over 750 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.