Israeli military and settler attacks upend life in the West Bank's Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik

Dozens of Israeli bulldozers have been carving through the hilly terrain of the occupied West Bank's Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik villages, levelling more than 200 dunams (roughly 50 acres) of Palestinian land in response to a mid-May drive-by shooting attack that killed an Israeli woman and injured her husband.

In the past weeks, settler mobile homes have already been installed, and local officials say a new Israeli outpost is underway, marking the latest expansion of Israel’s settlement enterprise, considered illegal under international law.

Tzeela Gez was killed when a gunman opened fire on her car near her home in the settlement of Bruchin. She had been on her way to the hospital to give birth. In the days that followed, Israeli forces launched a sweeping operation across the nearby villages of Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik. Residents report home raids and mass arrests, while officials have condemned the actions as collective punishment and a deliberate attempt to tighten Israeli control over the area.

According to Faed Sabra, mayor of Bruqin, the Israeli army, over the course of a nine-day military operation, converted 22 Palestinian homes within the village into military outposts, evicting residents and leaving widespread destruction behind.

"They have carried out a wide-scale, punitive military campaign since 14 May," said. "Their government claims it’s to find those responsible for the attack, but in reality, it’s about land control and settlement expansion."

Cut off from basic needs

The distraught official told The New Arab that the bulldozers are operating just metres from homes on land "historically and legally owned by local families." He described how caravans are now being erected where "people once planted olive trees." 

According to residents, the area surrounding Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik is already heavily settled, with outposts such as Bruchin, the Ariel Industrial Zone, Yad Yamin, and Eli Zahav, as well as several military outposts that dot the region. 

"People lived through a terrifying nine days, cut off from food supplies, medical care, and basic movement," Sabra said. "Even ambulances were denied access. The injured couldn’t reach any hospitals."

Roughly 1,000 Israeli soldiers took part in the operation. One resident, Nael Samara, was killed. Two homes were demolished on the grounds of lacking permits, an argument often used by Israeli authorities in Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control since the Oslo II Accords of 1995.

Although Israeli forces eventually withdrew from the residential centres, the main entrances to both villages remain sealed off, forcing residents to take long detours to reach work, schools, or medical facilities. 

Ahmed al-Deek, Assistant to the Palestinian Foreign Minister, condemned the operation as "unjustified," accusing the Israeli government of escalating tensions to appease ultranationalist figures like Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance.

"Two small villages were turned into prisons," al-Deek told TNA. "Over nine days, Israel imposed a complete blockade, denying food, medical aid, and even access to humanitarian workers."

He warned that the events in Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik are part of "a larger Israeli policy aimed at forcing Palestinians from their land."

"This is state-sponsored violence designed to drive out indigenous communities and entrench occupation, whether in the West Bank or in Gaza, where we are witnessing a campaign of destruction on a massive scale," he explained.

'By what right?'

From a hill overlooking the newly bulldozed strip, Khaled Sabra, a local farmer, watched as earthmovers carved into land that had belonged to his family for generations. For years, Israeli authorities had prohibited the family from working the land, citing its proximity to the main road. Now, Sabra said, settlers were building on it.

"By what right," he asked, "does a settler arrive and claim ownership of land that has been in my family for generations?"

He told TNA that his home was turned into a military outpost for three days, and when Israeli forces finally left, he found it wrecked, with rubbish and food scraps scattered throughout the rooms. Just days later, he said, "the army raided it again."

In Kafr ad-Dik, resident Rashad Naji described the ordeal as "nine days of prison-like siege."

"The house next to mine was taken over by the army. Dozens of soldiers were stationed there, and we weren't even allowed to step outside," he explained. "We ran out of food, and after five days, we were given a single hour to go to a local grocery shop and buy whatever remained on the shelves."

He added that most young men in his neighbourhood were detained for field interrogations, and many were subjected to physical abuse before being released. 

According to Alaa Samara, a resident of Bruqin, "the entire military operation was designed to please the settlers."

"It has emboldened them to seize even more land," he said, warning that the community is losing most of its territory to expanding settlements. 

Settler violence

As the Israeli military intensified its crackdown, settlers launched their own wave of violence in tandem. According to residents, settlers attacked homes in both villages and torched 14 vehicles in the early hours of 15 May. Another attack on Sunday saw dozens of Israeli settlers enter Burqin, throw stones, and set fire to a house that may have been occupied at the time.

Fuelling the fire were statements from Smotrich, who publicly called for the destruction of Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik, comparing them to the Gaza neighbourhoods of Shujaiya and Tel al-Sultan, both of which have been virtually flattened by Israeli bombardments in recent weeks.

Human rights groups have warned that the scorched-earth tactics deployed in Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been razed, infrastructure levelled, and thousands displaced, are now finding parallels in the occupied West Bank.

On 21 May, Israel's Shin Bet, the agency responsible for internal security, along with the military and police, announced it had "solved" the shooting that killed Gaz. In a statement, the agency claimed that Samara, who had previously served time in an Israeli prison for alleged Hamas activities and was briefly detained in 2019 for what authorities called "online incitement," was behind the attack. 

Samara allegedly ran toward soldiers shouting "God is Great", carrying a backpack and allegedly concealing an M-16 rifle, according to Israeli reports.

The statement also claimed that several other suspects had been arrested, including the alleged cell leader, and that the group was responsible for three other shootings in recent months, including one near the Ariel settlement on 12 March, which injured an Israeli civilian.

The latest escalation in Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik comes as Israel wages a devastating campaign in Gaza, now widely described by Palestinian and international rights groups as a genocide. Meanwhile, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli military raids, settler violence, and land seizures have sharply intensified.

More than 969 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank alone since the start of Israel's ongoing military attacks. Over 17,000 people have been arrested.

This story is published in collaboration with Egab.