Under the cover of darkness early Friday morning, armed Zionist settler militias launched a coordinated attack on the peaceful agricultural village of Jibiya, located northwest of the city of Ramallah. Witnesses and local sources told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that heavily armed gangs stormed the village at dawn, heading directly for the local mosque. There, in a scene reminiscent of medieval inquisitions, they set the holy house of worship ablaze, reducing a significant portion of the building to charred ruins. The attackers then proceeded to torch several civilian vehicles parked outside. Before fleeing, they sprayed racist slogans and hate-filled graffiti across the walls of Palestinian homes, a final act of humiliation aimed at a community already suffocating under the weight of a brutal military occupation.
The attack, which has drawn widespread condemnation, was described by a leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Mahmoud Mardawi, as a direct manifestation of "organized terrorism under the protection of the extremist right-wing Zionist enemy government." Speaking via the movement's official Telegram channel, Mardawi warned that such heinous acts are aimed at "displacing the Palestinian people and emptying the land of its inhabitants" through systematic "killing, burning, and intimidation."
While Jibiya was burning, another squad of Israeli colonists launched a simultaneous assault on the town of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus. Security sources told WAFA that a large group of settlers stormed the town, focusing their aggression on homes lining the main road. With brute force, they smashed down the doors of several residences, forcing their way inside and terrorizing the families within. The panicked screams of women and children echoed through the streets as the attackers sought to impose a state of absolute fear and helplessness.
This wave of settler violence occurred concurrently with, and was tacitly sanctioned by, a violent military escalation. As the fires raged in Jibiya and the doors were smashed in Al-Lubban, the Israeli forces were conducting another operation in the same area. Hours earlier, and into the dawn, military sharpshooters were deployed. In a horrific outcome, a 16-year-old Palestinian child, Fahd Oweis, was shot dead by a live bullet fired by occupation soldiers in the town of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya. According to local sources and the Red Crescent, the young boy’s body was withheld by the army, while Israeli forces blocked and assaulted paramedic crews attempting to reach the scene, effectively sealing his fate.
According to official Palestinian figures compiled since October 2023, the terror unleashed by the Israeli army and armed settlers has resulted in the deaths of 1,155 Palestinians, the wounding of some 11,750 others, and the arrest of nearly 22,000 men, women, and children. In just the first week of May, the United Nations documented a staggering 33 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage, bringing the total for 2026 alone to over 800 attacks targeting over 220 Palestinian communities.