(OSV News) ─ For the past three months, Israeli settlers have been bringing their sheep herd up to the Kaabnah family compound just outside Taybeh village twice a day like clockwork, in the morning and in the evening.
Sometimes, like last week, they violently break through the fencing and allow their animals to roam freely in the family's compound, clashing with protective presence volunteers who come to provide support to the family.
On Aug. 16, two masked settlers sprinted menacingly around the perimeter of the compound and threw rocks at the two tin structures where the families of the Nayef and Suleiman Kaabnah live, and at family members.
"Every day they come," Nayef Kaabnah, 55, reported to the Israeli police in a phone call after the settlers left following 1.5 hours of harassment. "We call the police and tell you they are throwing stones, and you don't come. You say to come file an incident report. We have filed reports more than 10 times."
He told OSV News attacks by the extremist settlers from illegal settlement outposts ─ often euphemistically called "hilltop youth" ─ began about three years ago following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities and the ensuing Gaza war. The attacks have intensified over the past three months, he said.
On Aug. 9, the IDF issued an order declaring Taybeh a closed military zone for non-residents, Israelis and foreign nationals effective until July 2027, in what they said was an effort to protect residents and address the issue of the continuing attacks by illegal settlers on the last remaining entirely Christian village in the West Bank.
Initially, journalists were included in the ban, but later, after complaints, an exception was made.
Police finally arrived Aug. 16, shortly after the settlers left, and briefly detained two OSV News journalists, leading Kaabnah to believe that the settlers informed the police that journalists were inside the compound. Activists have also accused the police of allowing harassment to continue. Although it is illegal for the settlers to be in the area, the activists accused police of telling the settlers when they are about to arrive, giving them enough time to leave the area.
Neither the IDF nor Israeli police responded to requests for comments from OSV News.
Taybeh, a traditionally quiet and peaceful village on the outskirts of Ramallah, is identified as the place where Jesus sought refuge in Ophrah and Ephraim.
Currently, a gate at Israeli roadblocks at both entrances to the town can be randomly closed for undetermined amounts of time. On Aug. 16, at midday, the line of cars from Taybeh trying to make their way out of the eastern exit was delayed for almost two hours as the line snaked down the main eastern exit road.
The Bedouin Kaabnah family has been living peacefully on Taybeh land at the town's eastern entrance for almost 27 years, with the town's permission, noted Father Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Church in Taybeh. When they come under attack, so do the people of Taybeh, he said.
"Unfortunately, we are all targeted by the fanatic and radical settlers," he told OSV News. "We need a lot of clarification about the military zone. Until now, we don't know exactly what that means. We welcome any decision taken by the authorities, but we also want to say clearly that protection must mean protection.
Protection would mean that people can feel safe inside their homes and farmers can reach their lands safely, he added.
Still, he said, they continue to put their lives in the hands of God, asking for international political and diplomatic support to put an end to all the extremist settler attacks in the West Bank.
During his Sunday Angelus address Aug. 16, Pope Leo XIV called for an end "to the repeated acts of violence against the Palestinian population of the West Bank" and urged the international community to work towards a two-state solution "for a just and lasting peace."
Since March, Taybeh resident Roland Bassir and his brother have not been able to reach their quarry and concrete plant at the western end of the town, and now that olive picking season is approaching, town residents are again fearful they won't be able to reach their olive groves for the harvest because of attacks by settlers.
"We are living in a very bad situation. As of yesterday, we have not yet been able to go to our land," 38-year-old Ramiz Al-Khoury told OSV News Aug. 16.
Concerned for his children's future, Al-Khoury said he would consider moving abroad. "It is very scary. It is not safe for our children. This harvest season we will not pick our olives, though it should be a good season because there has been a lot of rain. When we pick our olives, we feel we have a way of staying on our land."
In normal times, his groves on the eastern edge of the town produced about 200 gallons of olive oil, he said. But last season, they were only able to pick enough for five gallons of oil because of settler attacks.
Elderly resident Suheil Nazzal, 76, recalled how, in his youth, they used to spend all summer sleeping outside between the olive trees, while now they are afraid to walk alone in the village streets, sometimes even during the day, for fear of running into settlers.
"These days we don't know what will happen. We can't go out alone," he said. "We pray to God for it to return to like it was."
Another stress factor, said Victor Barakat, 44, a dual U.S.-Palestinian citizen who opened a distillery in Taybeh, is taking his three children to school in the nearby city of Ramallah as the school year begins next month. He was once confronted by settlers on the road while in the car with his children, and he does not relish another such encounter.
"The situation is getting worse by the day. It is dangerous and unsafe. You are worried about your life and about the lives of your children," he said.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of June 11, 2026, there have been over 1,000 settler attacks this year in the West Bank, affecting more than 230 communities across all parts of the West Bank, expanding from just remote shepherding communities.
As reported in The Times of Israel, extremist attacks by Jewish settlers in the West Bank have increased by 63 percent during the first six months of 2026, according to Israeli security establishment reports.
At the Kabbanah compound, three volunteers from the Israeli human rights organization, Torat Tzedek, continued to monitor the two settlers along the perimeter of the compound fence for over an hour.
"I hate coming here," said Dani Livney, 68, from Kibbutz Gezer. "I am afraid every time I come. But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't come. (What is happening) is so very against why I came to Israel. I can't believe these are Jewish people doing this."
Last week, volunteer Moishele Alfonso, 46, a volunteer from New York and a recent Catholic convert to Judaism and teacher of Yiddish, struggled with the settlers as they broke through the fencing, destroyed the electricity connection and the families' toilet outhouse, and let in herds of sheep and camels on two separate occasions. He said the settlers have not broken into the compound for four days, possibly due to the increased attention on the settler violence.
"As a convert, it is sometimes hard to take a stance against what Israel is doing, but these are not Jewish values," Alfonso said. "It is extremely hard to convince people when I go back (to the U.S.) to believe this is happening...for no reason other than just pure cruelty."
As the settlers patrolled around the compound fence, the women and children of the family took cover inside the house, with Ekhlas Kaabnah, 26, calling the police three times and taking videos with her camera from the safety of the doorway.
"I was born here, I don't like this life, but there is nothing I can do," she said. "Before the settlers came, we lived just fine. Let them leave, not us. We are so tired of this."
Her father Nayef ─ who was not in the compound when the settlers arrived ─ points out that while the settlers are wreaking havoc on their lives, there are also Israelis who have come to stand by their side.
"All the prophets ─ Jesus, Moses, Muhammad ─ said that the just person will prevail," he said. "These settlers have an ideology and only love themselves. They don't love the Jews who come to help us and even hit them hard. But I still think justice will win out."
- - -
Judith Sudilovsky writes for OSV News from Jerusalem.
