Ramallah, November 25, 2025 (WAFA) – Yamen Noubani
“His heart is working, his heart is beating!” With these words, the mother and sister of the martyr Baraa Maali cried out over his body lying on the hospital bed. “Martyr.”
Baraa, a student at the Faculty of Law and Public Administration at Birzeit University, was martyred after settlers opened fire on young men who confronted the settlers’ attack on the outskirts of the village. He became the third martyr in three months, as on October 8, Jihad Muhammad Ajaj (26 years old) was martyred by settlers’ bullets, and before him, Muhammad Issa Ahmad Alawi (21 years old) was martyred by settlers’ bullets on September 13. All three were martyred by settlers’ bullets, in the same way and in the same place.
Baraa Maali is the sixth martyr in the village of Deir Jarir in the last three years. In addition to the three martyrs in the last three months, Qais Imad Khaled Shuja’iya was martyred on October 14, 2022, Randa Abdullah Abdul Aziz Ajaj on October 12, 2023, and Abdul Aziz Youssef Abu Saleh on October 3, 2024.
Baraa’s funeral is postponed until the arrival of his brother, who lives abroad in the United States of America. He insisted on bidding him farewell, traveling thousands of kilometers, thinking of meeting his brother, but as a “martyr,” and his family, but as “lost.”
Deir Jarir, like the rest of the country, and like the rest of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, and especially its eastern and northern countryside, is witnessing a violent attack by settlers, as they attack towns and villages, fire live bullets at citizens, burn houses and property, destroy crops, uproot trees, build colonial roads, poison livestock, and prevent farmers from accessing their lands.
Fathi Hamdan, head of the village council in Deir Jarir, said in a telephone call with Wafa: “Our village has been subjected to a fierce colonial attack since before October 7, aimed at killing, displacement, seizing land and trees, restricting and terrorizing the residents. We have offered martyrs, wounded, detainees and deportees.”
Meanwhile, Deir Jarir is considered one of the hottest points of contact in the friction with the settlers, who target it continuously, through what they call the “Hilltop Youth,” who lead organized attacks on the village, the residents and their property.
He added: “It’s incomprehensible how much land has been seized in Deir Jarir, which is being devoured by colonialism. The village’s lands that have been seized are estimated at approximately (20) thousand dunams, while the total area of the village is (33) thousand.”
He said: The eastern part of the village is the most targeted, due to the nature of the land’s extension and its connection to the Jordan Valley, as its lands reach the borders of the village of Al-Auja in Jericho. Along this long distance, we are prevented from accessing our lands.
Hamdan added: The settlers attack our village through a colonial outpost they established on “Tel al-Asur,” which is no more than 100 meters away as the crow flies from the houses. They come to it via “tractors” from the Ofra settlement, and we believe that they established a religious school near the army camp that has been established for a long time on Tel al-Asur, which is one kilometer away from the village.
In recent months, the settlers have carved out a colonial road on Tel al-Asour, and the village has become a stage for their attacks, from shooting and killing, to cutting down trees, bulldozing and seizing land, stealing livestock and agricultural equipment, and other violations.
Regarding the martyrs of the village, the latest of whom was Baraa Maali, Hamdan said: Every now and then the settlers attack the outskirts of the village and approach the houses, which prompts the citizens and young men to gather and confront them. The latest of them was Baraa, who was martyred while he was with a group of the villagers during an attack by the settlers, who arrive in the village under the protection of the occupation soldiers, and begin firing live ammunition at the villagers.
It should be noted that more than 20 young men have been killed since the beginning of this year by Israeli occupation forces and settlers in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. More than half of them were killed by settlers, and the martyrs were concentrated in the eastern, northern, and northeastern towns and villages of the governorate. They were distributed among the towns and villages of Kafr Malik, Deir Jarir, al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya, al-Mughayyir, Silwad, and Deir Dibwan.
It is worth noting that the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate has recorded the largest number of attacks by settlers and occupation soldiers recently. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission monitored the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate recording (5420) attacks by settlers, out of (2530) attacks in the West Bank governorates in the month of October last year.
(416) attacks were recorded in September out of (2215) attacks that were subjected to in the West Bank governorates, while August recorded (321) attacks in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate out of a total of (1613) in the West Bank governorates, while July recorded (302) attacks in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, out of a total of (1821) in the West Bank governorates, while May recorded (283) attacks out of (1691) in the West Bank governorates, while April witnessed (269) attacks out of (1693) in the West Bank, while March recorded (269) attacks out of a total of (1604) attacks in the West Bank, while February recorded (263) attacks out of a total of (1705) in the West Bank, while January recorded (342) attacks out of (2161) in the various West Bank governorates.
_
E.R.
About the Author
