A Palestinian man from the occupied West Bank said he was kidnapped, beaten and interrogated for hours by illegal Israeli settlers before being thrown to the side of the road and left unconscious, amid growing warnings about settler violence in the territory.
Lying in a hospital bed in Ramallah, 28-year-old Owais Hammam spoke with visible bruises on his face and body, saying that settlers surrounded him as he prayed during a walk near his village of Bani Harith west of Ramallah.
"I went for a short walk near a spring in the al-Risan area and, while I was praying, I was surprised by a group of illegal settlers approaching rapidly. They surrounded me from all directions and started hitting me on the body," he told Anadolu.
He said the settlers took him to a mountain when he could no longer stand, where the attack intensified.
"After they beat me, they took me and kidnapped me to the top of the mountain. There, the beatings, insults, humiliation, and degradation continued without a break."
Hammami said he eventually lost consciousness from the beatings.
He said the settlers tied his hands, beat him with rifle butts, dragged him to the ground, and threw stones at him, adding that some were soldiers disguised as settlers.
"They interrogated me while beating me, insulting my religion, and hitting me all over my body until blood flowed from all sides."
Despite the violence, he said he believed he would survive.
"My faith in God was strong that He would provide a way out for me - and that's what happened."
He said that illegal settlers put him in a vehicle at dawn and drove him through various streets before abandoning him.
“In the morning, they put me in the vehicle, drove around for a while, then threw me aside and drove away… I went straight to the hospital.”
His father, Hammam, said the family panicked when Owais disappeared before receiving a call from Israeli intelligence claiming that settlers had detained him.
"They called and said that illegal settlers had caught him while he was walking on the mountain."
"My son was brutally beaten by illegal settlers on top of the mountain. Then the army took him and continued to beat and torture him until the next morning. He was fasting and they didn't even allow him a sip of water," he said.
The officer later called back, saying that Owais had surrendered to the Palestinian Authority, advising the family to "be careful and keep him away from the area."
The father thanked God that his son came back alive.
He added that Owais is under medical supervision. /AA/
