On Friday, 14 August, Palestinian landowners and roughly 100 Palestinian and Israeli activists, including members of Combatants for Peace, went to privately owned Palestinian land on the outskirts of Beit Sahour, east/southeast of Bethlehem. The immediate reason was that Israeli settlers had taken over an existing/abandoned building on the Palestinian property and had begun installing Israeli symbols there. Activists feared this was the beginning of a wider takeover of the surrounding land.

The activists entered the property with the Palestinian owners, removed Israeli flags and other symbols from the building, replaced them with Palestinian flags, and planted olive trees.

The armed settlers

An armed Israeli settler then arrived, and called other settlers by phone. One of the little gang (pproximatively 6 people) repeatedly fired live ammunition into the air. Video shows him subsequently pointing a loaded firearm directly toward Palestinian and Israeli activists. One account says a bullet struck stones in the wall close to the people present. No injuries were reported.

Reuters footage from the scene also documents the armed settler approaching the activists and Palestinian landowners, with other armed settlers present.

There were journalists at the scene, at least a Palestinian one, a japanese and an Italian, meaning the incident was not only a confrontation between settlers and Palestinian residents; the live-fire episode occurred in the presence of Palestinian activists, Israeli activists and members of the press.

Israeli soldiers subsequently arrived. According to Haaretz and the testimony of activists present, the soldiers ordered the activists and Palestinian landowners to leave the property, while the settlers remained. The IDF described its intervention as responding to a “disturbance” and said that forces dispersed the gathering and restored order.

As ususal, the armed settler who had fired live ammunition was not the person removed from the site; the Palestinians and solidarity activists were removed. The settlers subsequently returned to the building and reinstalled the Israeli flags and symbols that the activists had removed.

The nearby settlement is called Shdeman. But some of the armed settler may come, by appearance, from the Har Hamor yeshiva that sits in the Har Huma settlement/neighborhood.

Testimony of an activist to Haaretz:

As part of their attempts, the settlers hung Israeli flags and the Star of David on a stone building located between the settlement and inhabited residences in the town. "The way we arrived, we were divided into groups, and at an early stage we started hearing shots that got closer and closer, one of them hit the stones of the nearby wall", said the activist. "One of the settlers fired in the air and then pointed the weapon at us and fired in the air again, like that about three times. Four armed settlers arrived and shouted at us to fly away from the place, which is their territory".

Testimony of Roni, Israeli activist/ protective presence

"This morning, I took part in a solidarity action in Beit Sahour organized by Combatants for Peace (@cforpeace1). The plan was completely different from what ultimately happened. The intention was to stand in solidarity with the residents of Beit Sahour and the landowners in the area, who are dealing with the threatening and violent presence of settlers from the new and violent Shdema outpost, established in November 2025 near the city.

We planned a nonviolent action: to reach the Palestinian lands, plant olive trees, and go to a Palestinian home on which settlers had hung Israeli flags and a Star of David. We wanted to remove the symbols that had been placed on a house that does not belong to them, clean up the site, and replace them with a Palestinian flag and peace flags carrying messages of Palestinian-Israeli partnership, justice, and equality.

We managed to do that part. We removed the Israeli flags and the Star of David from the house and hung a Palestinian flag and peace flags.

Then the settlers from the outpost arrived. They were armed, and one of them did not hesitate to simply point his weapon at us and fire. I’m sharing the video of the settler shooting. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Later, the settlers tried to take the ladder from us so they could climb back onto the Palestinian house and put back the flags and symbols we had removed.

Then came the part that has become routine in the West Bank. The settlers called the army. The army arrived. They refused to take our complaint about the shooting and ordered us to leave.

The settlers stayed, and the Israeli flags were put back up on the Palestinian house and on the hill opposite. We didn’t have time to plant the olive trees.

And this is about much more than a story about a shooting, flags, or a single action that was stopped.

The residents of the area have been dealing for some time with an outpost that exerts relentless pressure on them. Settlers come down toward the homes and agricultural lands, threaten and harass them, while Palestinians are struggling to reach and cultivate their own land.

This is how territory is taken over. Not in one day, but step by step. Establish an outpost. Move down onto Palestinian land and prevent its owners from reaching it. Instill fear. And anyone who comes to stand with them and try to enable them to remain on their land is removed by the army.

Not “friction.” Not “both sides.” One system, with a clear division of roles."

Expertise from Dror Etkes

In order to understand how disturbed this story is, you need to know the area. The Shadma settlement was established and is still an illegal settlement also according to the laws of the apartheid regime. The official jurisdiction defined for it is about 93 dunams, which are based on a Jordanian expropriation from 1965 for a military base, which was established there and which Israel inherited after the occupation of the West Bank in 67. The building seen in the photographs is 500 meters as the crow flies east of the settlement's jurisdiction, a place that is privately owned by Palestinians who were expelled from the place by the settlers with the backing of the army. The settlement is adjacent to a military base, receiving water, electricity, an access road from it. Babysitting services 24/7 - everything a rotten outpost in the West Bank needs. The settlers, who by appearance can be understood to come from the Har Hamor yeshiva that sits in the Har Huma settlement/neighborhood, take over the area around the base/settlement. This is of the order of about 500 dunams owned by the residents of Beit Sahor and Bethlehem."