West Bank family says IDF order has barred them from accessing their own bathroom

An Israeli military order has blocked a Palestinian family in the West Bank from reaching their bathroom for three weeks, local residents said Monday, after tensions with nearby settlers prompted the army to intervene in the area.

The family’s complaint comes as violence has continued in the West Bank, with two Palestinians reported killed by the Israel Defense Forces overnight. The IDF said its troops opened fire in response to attacks during a riot.

The bathroom dispute is taking place in the village of Umm al-Kheir, near the Israeli settlement of Carmel, where Ikhlas al-Hathalin, 42, lives with her family of 14.

Their outhouse sits between their home and a trailer that Israeli settlers installed less than 100 meters (330 feet) away last year. Hathalin said the family faced harassment from the settlers, who “would come to the bathroom and knock on the door, wanting us to leave.”

The dispute escalated earlier this month when settlers installed a swinging chair between the family’s house and the outhouse, triggering a confrontation that drew in Israeli forces.

The Israel Defense Forces declared the area a closed military zone “in order to disperse all parties involved,” the military told AFP.

The family now goes “to the community center’s bathrooms or to the neighbors,” Hathalin said. “The embarrassment and hardship of going to the toilet is beyond what you can imagine.”

The military said soldiers stationed in the area regularly witness “unlawful activity by Israelis, some of which may include violent incidents or actions directed at Palestinians or their property.”

Hathalin said the military order also prevents the family from accessing the nearby sheep pen — its source of livelihood — except when Israeli forces are in the area, every three to four days.

The military said the closure was temporary, without giving an end date, and maintained that the family retains access to its livestock.

“We are trying to put pressure on the occupation authorities, but the matter is in the hands of the settlers, and the current occupation government is itself a government of settlers,” said Ahmed al-Hathalin, a member of the village council.

Behind the Hathalin home, five new mobile homes mark the latest settlement outpost taking shape in the area.

Settler attacks against Palestinians take place on a near-daily basis across the West Bank, having soared after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Palestinians as well as Israeli activists charge that the attacks are often carried out with the tacit approval or active participation of IDF soldiers, including settlers tasked with protecting their own communities as part of the IDF reserves.

The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.

Perpetrators of such attacks are rarely arrested, and prosecutions are even rarer.

In the same period, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority health ministry. Sixty-six Israelis have been killed in Israel and the West Bank in terror attacks over the same period.

The IDF claims that the majority of Palestinian fatalities were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

2 Palestinians reported killed by IDF, which says it was responding to violent riot

On Monday, Palestinian media reported that two Palestinians, aged 26 and 52, were killed overnight by IDF fire during clashes that erupted in the village of Deir Jarir, near Ramallah.

Several other residents were also reported wounded. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, one man was also critically injured in the abdomen in a confrontation with settlers.

The IDF said troops were dispatched to the area of Deir Jarir following reports that Israeli civilians had entered the village to retrieve livestock belonging to them.

According to the military, troops entered the village to prevent friction and evacuate the Israeli civilians. The forces then secured a small number of Israeli civilians as they searched for the livestock, based on identifying markings indicating ownership.

The IDF added that “a violent riot developed in the area, during which terrorists began throwing stones and concrete blocks at the forces. As a result, two security personnel were injured and received medical treatment at the scene. The forces responded with live fire to remove the threat, and hits were identified.”

#عاجل | مواجهات عنيفة بين شبان ومسـ.'ٰتوطنين خلال هجومهم على بلدة دير جرير شرق رام الله، وقوات الاحـ.'ـتلال تطلق الرصاص الحي بكثافة. pic.twitter.com/jNSBKTKnZZ

— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) July 19, 2026

Israelis arrested on suspicion of stealing from Palestinian driver

In a separate incident on Monday, the Israel Police announced that two Israeli men had been arrested on suspicion of stealing cash from a Palestinian driver three weeks ago, on June 25.

The Palestinian, Abd al-Rahman Shaheen, a resident of the city of Salfit, told The Times of Israel that while driving in the Salfit area, in Wadi Sha’ar in the Palestinian-governed Area A, two settlers approached his vehicle and took cash from his wallet, which was inside the car — 500 Jordanian dinars, $300, and NIS 250 (roughly $780 in total).

Footage from Shaheen’s dashboard camera showed two people exiting a vehicle with Israeli license plates, chasing him, stopping next to his car, and then driving away.

Shaheen filed a complaint with the Palestinian police. About two weeks ago, he said, the Israel Police contacted him and asked him to come to the Ariel police station to file a complaint there and hand over the dashboard camera footage. A week ago, Shaheen said he attended an identification lineup at the police station and identified one of the men who had stolen the money from him.

According to police, detectives took part in the investigation, assisted by forces from the Judea and Samaria District, Border Police troops operating in the West Bank, and other security forces. The two suspects were taken in for questioning and are expected to be brought before a court for a hearing on extending their detention.