From hospital, severely hurt 18-year-old Palestinian describes kidnapping, beating by settlers near Ramallah

His face and body full of bruises, Owais Hamam, 18, tells Asharq News that four settlers kidnapped him, punched him, and beat him with an M-16 rifle as they threatened to kill him yesterday.

Speaking to the Saudi-owned outlet from his hospital bed in Ramallah Governmental Hospital, Hamam says 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 says.

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

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

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 says.

“They said to me, ‘Why did you come here?’ And I said I was going to pray the Maghrib,” says 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 yesterday.

The IDF does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sharing footage of Hamam on his hospital bed, veteran Arab MK Ahmad Tibi accuses 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,” writes 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