On November 18th, 2024, Mohammad Al Fayes was working his land in Khirbet Al Deir with three
of his sons and four workers, while he was attacked by the military security coordinator and by the
police.
Khirbet Al Deir is a community located east of Ein Al Beida, in the northern Jordan Valley. Before
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, it used to be a village with an active Palestinian
community and a working mill. After the Oslo Accords, the village has been slowly destroyed by
the Israeli occupation, through the Israeli forces’ control of the water springs surrounding it. At the
present moment, only six families are permanently living in the area.
It’s two years now that Mohammad Al Fayes is facing continuous settler attacks while working his
land. Since the beginning of March 2023 settlers from Rotem, Mehola and Maskiyyot are working
to annex the five natural water springs present in Khirbet Al Deir. Before November 18th, the
attacks on Palestinian farmers working their lands mostly consisted in damaging the water
networks, in breaking the water pumps and in confiscating farming material.
At 9am of Monday, November 18th, Al Fayes was attacked by both military security coordinator
and police, which confiscated one vast solar panel, two volture and six water pumps.
Mohammed Al Fayes is the owner of the land in Khirbet Al Deir (see document attached) and he
was using this material to work his vegetable plantations. Everything was taken by the police to the
station of Beit Yarden, in the Argot ha-Yareden Regional Council. When Mohammad Al Fayes
showed up in the police station to reclaim his properties, he was invited to come back with a
document declaring his ownership of the land he was working. He was told that only at that point,
perhaps, the police will be willing to open the case.