Victim of settler shooting left with life-altering wounds, ongoing pain 6 months on
Zakaria al-Adra was shot in the abdomen at point-blank range by an armed Israeli in an incident caught on camera; the State Attorney’s Office says it’s reviewing the case now
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Some six months ago, the life of Zakaria al-Adra, a resident of the small Palestinian village of A-Tuwani, took a sharp turn for the worse.
On October 13, Friday prayers had just finished in A-Tuwani’s mosque when children outside began to shout in panicked voices “settlers, settlers are in A-Tuwani,” al-Adra told The Times of Israel in an interview this week.
Al-Adra, 30, dashed outside and saw two Israelis in civilian clothes, one of them holding a military assault rifle, entering the outskirts of the village close to the mosque, accompanied by a uniformed IDF soldier.
In video footage of the incident, the armed Israeli man can be seen approaching al-Adra aggressively, whereupon the two exchange words for several seconds.
“This settler came down toward me and told me, ‘Get out of here,’ and I said, ‘You go. I didn’t come to you, you came to me. You get out of here,’” said al-Adra, whose cousin Basel al-Adra translated from Arabic to English.
Al-Adra and Basel said the armed man came from the direction of Maon Farm, an illegal outpost that overlooks A-Tuwani, but that they did not know whether he was a resident of the outpost.
In the video footage of the incident — taken by Basel himself, who works as a field researcher for the B’Tselem human rights organization — the Israeli man can be seen striking al-Adra in the shoulder with the barrel of his rifle, taking a step back, and then shooting him in the stomach at point-blank range.
Al-Adra was rushed to a hospital, where he had emergency surgery to treat the wounds to his abdomen. He spent 60 days in intensive care, first in a local hospital in Yatta and then in the al-Ahli hospital in Hebron. It took 82 days of hospitalization before he was strong enough to go home.
A police spokesperson told The Times of Israel two days after the incident that the shooter, who was described as a resident of the area, had been brought in for questioning. But the police only began to interview witnesses some six weeks after the shooting, after al-Adra’s family hired a lawyer.
Despite being alerted to the incident immediately by relatives of al-Adra, the police never arrived at the scene to take evidence, said Basel.
In response to a request for comment for this article, the police informed The Times of Israel that the investigation had been completed and the case sent to the State Attorney’s Office to decide whether to indict the shooter.
The State Attorney’s Office said it received the case file from the police two months ago but sent it back for the investigative work to be completed. The police “recently” sent a final report back to the State Attorney’s Office, which is now “evaluating the evidence” before making a decision on the case, it said.
Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank spiked in October and November 2023, following the October 7 invasion and atrocities carried out by Hamas in southern Israel and the ensuing outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.
Although the level of violence has since come down, it remains at a historically high level, according to statistics published by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Meanwhile, indictments against Israelis for violence perpetrated against Palestinians in the West Bank remain extremely rare. A study by the Yesh Din organization published in January found that of the 1,664 police investigations conducted from 2005 to September 2023 in which it had access to the case file, some 94 percent were closed without an indictment.
For al-Adra and his family, the fact that his shooter is still free — despite the large body of evidence against him and the fact the law enforcement authorities are fully aware of his identity — is a source of anger and a deep sense of injustice.
The shooter was part of a local civilian security squad for one of the nearby settlements. As such he had a military assault rifle, which cannot otherwise be obtained by civilians.
“It’s totally unjust that this settler is still free,” said al-Adra. “This settler came all the way inside the village, hit me, shot me, went back, and right now is totally free.
“Imagine if this incident was reversed. If a Palestinian would go inside an outpost and shoot a settler there. He would be shot, the army would come to blow up his family home, and his family members would be imprisoned.”
In the nearly six months since al-Adra was shot, his father has supported him and his family — he is married with four children — since al-Adra is not fit to work, especially not in construction as he did before the incident.
Al-Adra’s wounds continue to cause him ongoing pain.
The bullet struck him on the left side of his abdomen, causing injuries to his stomach, intestines, pancreas, and three of his ribs.
Because of the injuries to his intestines, the doctors fitted al-Adra with a colostomy bag; he is slated to have surgery in the coming weeks to have it removed.
He has, however, been told that he will not be able to return to work in construction because such physical labor would be both painful and harmful.
“If I laugh too loudly it causes me pain in my stomach, if I speak too loudly it’s also painful. If I bend over too far someone needs to help me up,” al-Adra said, adding that the colostomy bag itself causes him pain.
He appeared uncertain as to how he will earn a living going forward, although he said that he may try and develop some “smaller projects,” without specifying.
His father too is facing financial difficulties since his permit to work in construction inside Israel was revoked in October.
Al-Adra said he was angry not only over the shooting incident but because of what he said was the ongoing harassment and violence by extremist settlers against the local Palestinian population.
“The settlers have been causing trouble for a long time and it keeps going on,” he said. “When we harvest olives, hay, when we go out with the sheep, the settlers cause trouble for everything.”
