Palestinian family alleges father shot by settlers then arrested amid West Bank land grab

The shooting of a Palestinian man by a settlement security chief in the southern West Bank during an arrest last week has sparked questions after video and eyewitness accounts appeared to contradict Israeli claims that the man and his son had attacked settlers.

Said Rabae, a resident of the village of Khirbet al-Rakiz in the South Hebron Hills in his 60s, and his son Elias Rabae, 17, were released on bail Sunday by an Israeli military court despite serious allegations leveled against the pair, including aggravated assault and attempting to steal a weapon from a soldier, according to their lawyers.

Rabae, whose leg was amputated as a result of an injury sustained in the shooting, said that he and several of his children had gone Thursday afternoon to work a plot of land that his family claims is privately owned, according to his lawyer, Shahada Ibn Bari.

According to Rabae, they arrived to find Israelis setting up tarps on a piece of land where the family had previously set up their own tarpaulins, Ibn Bari said.

Rabae’s daughter Asya Elias told the Times of Israel that just days before the incident, unknown assailants had destroyed the tarpaulins set up by the family.

Asya, who captured footage of the moments surrounding the shooting, said she and other family members rushed to the scene as an altercation was taking place after being alerted by a younger sibling soon after her father had left home.

“When we got there, I saw a settler grab my brother Elias from behind and throw him to the ground,” Asya recalled. “My father went to Elias to see how he was. The settler fired two shots in the air. When my father got closer to Elias, the settler hit my father, and then he shot him in the leg.”

Two short videos filmed by Asya show a man identified as the civilian security coordinator for the nearby settlement of Avigayil firing a weapon during the altercation, though faces are silhouetted by the setting sun.

תיעוד מאירוע הירי בפלסטיני: ישראלי ירה באוויר ולאחר מכן ברגלו, בשעה שישראלי אחר מכה פלסטיני (ככה”נ מי שנורה) כשהוא על הרצפה. פלסטינים אמרו לי כי האירוע התחיל כשישראלים תקעו ברזנט על האדמה הפרטית של הפצוע, הוא ומשפחתו דרשו שיעזבו, אז התחילו דחיפות הדדיות ובמהלכן נורה –> pic.twitter.com/saNBsnooZv

— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) April 17, 2025

One video appears to show Elias lying on the ground while his father tries to reach him. At this point, the security coordinator fires two shots into the air, and a second Israeli man is seen kicking the teen as he lies on the ground.

The second clip, taken moments later, appears to show Elias still on the ground, while his father turns back toward the Israelis, at which point a gunshot is heard, apparently striking the elder Rabae in the leg.

After the shooting, Israeli army and police forces arrived at the scene and arrested both Palestinians.

In a statement released after the incident, the Israel Defense Forces claimed that the shots had been fired by the civilian security coordinator while trying to arrest Palestinians who had assaulted settlers.

“Several Palestinian suspects attacked Israeli civilians near Avigayil,” the army said. “The security coordinator on the scene carried out a suspect arrest procedure, which included warning shots in the air and a shot aimed at the lower body of the suspects. A hit was confirmed.”

According to what Rabae told his lawyer, both he and his son were choked by the Israelis before the shooting.

Said Rabae was hospitalized as a detainee at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where doctors were forced to amputate his leg. Family members were not allowed to visit, due to his arrest.

Footage taken by Ibn Bari, who visited his client Saturday, showed Rabae handcuffed by both hands and his remaining foot, a standard procedure for detainees held in hospitals.

“He was not doing well,” Ibn Bari told the Times of Israel. “He sat and cried over his son and his leg.”

Police told The Times of Israel that the two Palestinian men were suspected of “endangering regional security, assault, and stone-throwing.”

However, attorney Rihan Nasra told The Times of Israel that during a hearing on Sunday, police said the two were also suspected of “aggravated assault on a soldier,” and that Elias Rabae was accused of attempting to grab the soldier’s weapon.

No stone throwing or attempt to grab a weapon could be seen in the footage, though it does not show the beginning of the incident.

Despite the enhanced charges, the military court ordered the pair freed on bail of NIS 5,000 ($1,350) each on Sunday, after determining that there was no suspicion of obstruction of justice or danger posed by the suspects to justify keeping them detained.

They have both since been released, with the elder Rabae transferred to a Palestinian hospital.

The IDF, which has oversight over the settlement’s civilian security coordinator, declined to answer questions on whether the coordinator had been questioned and whether he was still on duty, stating only that “the incident is under investigation.”

According to Asya Elias, after shooting her father, the security coordinator also threatened the family, yelling at them to stay back. “He told us to leave and warned he would shoot us if we came closer,” she said.

The following day, settlers were documented working in the same area, accompanied by soldiers as they erected fences.

Asya said that her family attempted to return to the site on Friday, but were told by soldiers and settlers that they were not allowed to be there because it was considered state land.

One man in uniform told her, “It’s best for you to stay at home if you want to avoid problems,” she recalled.

The Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration told The Times of Israel that the area is registered as state land, though Rabae contended that the designation only applied to the adjacent land. He claimed that settlers had nonetheless made several attempts to encroach on his claimed property, filing multiple police complaints against settlers he accused of trespassing in recent months.

Israel has drawn protests by using the state land designation in some areas of the West Bank where it is building roads to be used by settlers or security forces, effectively barring Palestinians from accessing the acreage.

The South Hebron Hills region has seen numerous violent incidents involving settlers and Palestinians, as well as acts of violence involving soldiers, in recent months.

In late March, soldiers were filmed vandalizing Palestinian property in the village of Jinba following an attack by masked settlers, in what a military investigation later called “a serious incident that contradicts the professional and ethical standards expected of IDF soldiers, particularly during operational activity in the West Bank.”

In the aftermath of the Jinba attack, several officers and soldiers were reprimanded and a number of troops were jailed for seven days.