Palestinian Bedouin in West Bank pack up and prepare to flee due to harassment by Jewish settlers

(16 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ras Ein al-Auja, West Bank - 16 January 2026
1. Wide of Ras Ein al-Auja Bedouin village
2. Residents dismantling a structure in Ras Ein al-Auja
3. Residents carrying belongings
4. A child playing on the ground near temporary shelter
5. Wide of personal belongings
6. Pan of Ras Ein al-Auja Bedouin village
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Harizat, Ras Ein el-Auja resident:
"The suffering we have been experiencing, we have been suffering for two years because they (settlers) came and set up a settlement outpost, bringing sheep and camels, and they prevented us from taking our sheep to the pastures. They have denied us access to water, electricity, and all the essentials of life that were available to us."
8. Residents carrying belongings
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Harizat, Ras Ein el-Auja resident:
"We are afraid for our sons, afraid for our daughters, afraid for our sheep and our properties. We were forced to leave because of how much we have suffered; we cannot continue."
10. Wide of activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
11. Activist holding banner reading (English/Arabic/Hebrew): " Palestinian lives matter"
12. Activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
13. Activist holding banner reading (English): "Apartheid will fall. Human dignity always wins."
14. Activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarit Michaeli, International Director at B’Tselem:
"Recently Israeli settlers have established several outposts around and even within the community of Ras Ein el-Auja using their own sheep, goats and even camels to harass, to intimidate, to threaten, and to attack the Palestinian residents of this community that have no protection. Because the only bodies that can have any authority over the Israeli settlers are Israeli bodies, the Israeli army, the Israeli police, and those bodies have been assisting the settlers, so not protecting the Palestinians and in fact harming the Palestinians."
16. Wide of activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarit Michaeli, International Director at B’Tselem :
"Israeli policymakers support it. They make decisions that fund and support the settlers in this project and the Israeli authorities, the army and the police don't do anything to protect Palestinians from this violence."
18. Activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
19. Small vehicle driving across the barren landscape of Ras Ein al-Auja
20. Close up of banner with text reading (English/Arabic/Hebrew): "Save Ras Al-Ayn"
21. Various of activists gathered to support Ras Ein el-Auja residents
STORYLINE:
Families from one of the last remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the dusty corridor between Ramallah and Jericho packed up and prepared to flee from their homes on Friday.

Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities; others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"We are afraid for our sons, afraid for our daughters, afraid for our sheep and our properties. We were forced to leave because of how much we have suffered; we cannot continue," said Mohammed Harizat, a resident of Ras Ein el-Auja.

The village of Ras Ein el-Auja was originally home to some 700 people, about 130 families which lived there for dozens of years.

Activists gathered on the hills of Ras Ein el-Auja to protest against the expansion of Israeli settlers and subsequent dismantling of the village and displacement of its Palestinian residents.



















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