‘Our lives are cheap’: Palestinian mother urges probe into settler attack on her son

A Palestinian-American woman whose son sustained severe head wounds during an assault by extremist Israeli settlers on the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya over the weekend has demanded a police investigation into the incident, as well as the involvement of US authorities.

Hasna Kouk, 38, says her son Mashhour was hanging out with friends in a residential neighborhood of Turmus Ayya on Saturday afternoon when the assailants, apparently from nearby settlements, descended on the town and attacked.

During the assault, 16-year-old Mashhour was hit in the head with a rock Kouk says was flung at him with a slingshot, causing him massive head trauma, fracturing his skull in numerous places, and requiring extensive surgery to remove bone fragments.

As well as demanding an investigation from the Israeli police, Kouk, who was born and grew up in Chicago, said she was calling on US authorities to pressure their Israeli counterparts to investigate the attack and prosecute the culprits.

“We want the US to press the Israeli government for an investigation, to find whoever did this and prosecute them,” Kouk told The Times of Israel.

“Our lives are that cheap, our lives aren’t worth anything. Our kids go out to play and we don’t know if they’re going to come back alive,” she said.

“Everyone has a right to feel and know that when their kids are outside they will come home safely,” she added.

Police said in response that a formal complaint had not been filed over Mashhour Kouk’s injury.

Palestinians wishing to file a police complaint often face numerous obstacles, including gaining access to an Israeli police station, since these are located inside settlements. They must frequently wait many hours or even an entire day to file a complaint. Few police investigations result in prosecutions, and are therefore often seen by Palestinian as a waste of time.

The IDF said that army and Border Police forces entered the village “minutes after” reports of the attack were made to disperse all involved in the ensuing clashes, and asserted that Mashhour had been injured before they arrived.

Neither the police nor the IDF explained why the Israeli citizens were in Turmus Ayya.

Two Palestinians were said to have been detained and questioned at the scene, and released a few hours later.

The US Office for Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Settler violence has become a severe problem for Palestinian towns and communities in Areas B and C of the West Bank, where Israel retains security control.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2024 witnessed the highest number of settler-related incidents across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, since OCHA began keeping records almost two decades ago.

The percentage of cases in which Israelis are prosecuted for such crimes is in the single digits, according to the anti-settlement Yesh Din organization.

Turmus Ayya was one of three Palestinian towns attacked on Saturday by extremist settlers, along with assaults in nearby Yatma and in the town of Kisan in the Bethlehem region.

The attacks appeared to be reprisals for a terror shooting last week in which Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israeli vehicles passing through the West Bank village of al-Funduq, killing two elderly women and an off-duty cop and wounding at least eight others.

It is unclear how many Israeli citizens were involved in the attack on Turmus Ayya, although videos and photos taken by residents, purportedly of the Israelis, show at least 10 assailants, all of them masked, inside the town.

Some Palestinian residents of Turmus Ayya went to confront the Israelis, with the footage showing both the Israelis and Palestinians throwing rocks at each other.

???????????????? BREAKING: Confrontations are taking place right now following an attack by Israeli settler militias on the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah.

Vulnerable locals are trying to fend off the attack with whatever means they have. pic.twitter.com/eYUThDqTUe

— Aditya Juans Mandagie (@AdityaMandagie) January 11, 2025

Kouk was not with Mashhour at the time of the attack, but heard about it in announcements made over loudspeakers in the town’s mosques.

She insisted that he was not involved in throwing stones at the Israeli attackers.

When Kouk heard of the attacks, she tried to call her son but his phone battery was dead and she then started to worry, especially when she heard, apparently erroneously, that some of the injured had been hit by gunfire.

Kouk said she jumped into her car and sped off to the local clinic.

“I was hysterical. Imagine a mother who thinks her child was hit by a bullet,” she recounted. “They fired the stone with a slingshot; at those speeds it’s like a bullet.”

Photographs from the attack appear to show at least one of the assailants with a slingshot.

“His forehead was busted open, his head was smashed in, there was a hole in his head,” Kouk said of Mashhour’s injuries.

She said she waited with her son for 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived, during which time Mashhour’s condition was deteriorating, with him saying he couldn’t breathe, that his tongue was numb, as well as other concerning signs.

He was taken to Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah where, Kouk said, the surgeons needed to open up his skull from a separate point in order to fully remove the bone fragments from his head, in an operation that lasted three and a half hours.

“My son is 16. He’s traumatized, we fear for our lives,” she said, saying that settler attacks have become a routine and worsening threat. “You feel hopeless. Imagine living in constant fear. I haven’t slept for a year because of trauma, because you might be attacked at night.”

Kouk said Mashhour is now recovering but that the healing process will be long. He may need reconstructive surgery as a result of his injuries, she said.

“There has to be someone held accountable for this,” she insisted, adding that she did not have much hope this would happen.

“I would like my American government to get involved, to at least respond to this terror. I would like my American government to condemn this incident. I want them to get involved, and find a way to protect their citizens,” she said.

Kouk acknowledged she had not yet filed a police complaint.

The IDF said in response to a request for comment: “On Saturday, a report was received of violent friction which developed between Israeli and Palestinian civilians in the Turmus Ayya area in the Samaria District, in which mutual stone-throwing took place in the area and fireworks were fired by Palestinians at Israeli civilians.

“IDF and Border Police forces rushed to the village a few minutes after receiving the report, used riot-dispersal measures, and dispersed the violent disturbance.”

Police said “the incident in question took place within the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya. IDF forces arrived at the scene and dealt with the disruption to public order. It should be emphasized that the report received by the police was over a disturbance to the public order alone, not of injuries.”