Assaults by Israeli soldiers become a daily reality in West Bank’s Sebastia

On July 2, Khaled Azem was pulled from his car astatine a checkpoint successful the bluish occupied West Bank, helium tells Al Jazeera.

Israeli soldiers bushed and humiliated him, forcing him to say: “I emotion Israel”, portion filming him connected his phone, past posting it to his societal media.

Azem, 25, and his brother-in-law had conscionable near the Azem location successful Sebastia, a colony to the northwest of Nablus, to enactment connected a operation site.

That’s erstwhile helium fell unfortunate to 1 of the expanding attacks that villagers accidental are portion of Israel’s program to thrust Palestinians out.

Israel has been eyeing Sebastia’s important archaeological site, which dates backmost to the Iron Age, since 2023, wanting to crook the country into a nationalist parkland and tourism hub.

Khaled Azem connected the beforehand structure of his family’s yellowish location [Courtesy of Khaled Azem]

The babe of the family

On a blistery day successful precocious July, Azem is sitting connected his beforehand porch, framed by his parent and grandmother. He smiles shyly and, astatine 1 point, puts his arms astir some of the women.

He’s the babe of the family, the youngest of 4 siblings, and helium and the 2 women stock sloped hazel eyes. They besides stock the aforesaid anxieties implicit Israel’s progressively convulsive subject beingness successful and astir their town.

“I utilized to spell retired often with my family,” Azem told Al Jazeera. “But now, owed to the concern forces, I hardly spell retired astatine all.”

The household has lived successful this yellow-plastered location for 40 years – longer than Azem has been alive. Before the unit escalated, his days were quiescent and calm.

He worked arsenic a builder successful Tel Aviv and enjoyed going into municipality successful the evening to conscionable friends. Sometimes, he’d locomotion unsocial to the ruins overlooking the adust hills astir Sebastia, past the past Roman columns and chromatic amphitheatre, enjoying the peaceful solitude and beauteous landscape.

That bid has present disappeared.

First came the occupation losses. Israel revoked astir each borderline permits for Palestinians aft October 7, 2023, and barred Palestinian workers from the operation industry.

Unemployment soared implicit 30 percent, leaving Azem and his 2 brothers without regular work, and the household present relying solely connected the income of Azem’s father, Wael, a taxi driver.

Then came the Israeli subject incursions, which ramped up since precocious 2023, with soldiers present storming done the colony astir each night. One evening, connected January 19, an Israeli service sniper changeable and killed a 14-year-old child, Ahmad Rashid Rushdi Jazar, adjacent Sebastia’s kindergarten.

Now, galore families, including Azem’s, nary longer task extracurricular their homes, particularly successful the evenings.

‘A connection for Sebastia’

Azem recalls his onslaught arsenic helium drove to a operation gig earlier dawn with his brother-in-law.

Three Israeli soldiers stopped his car astatine a checkpoint successful the adjoining municipality of Deir Sharaf. The Israelis demanded their names and individuality cards and began to interrogate them, asking what they were doing and wherever they were from.

Azem told them helium was from Sebastia, astatine which constituent the soldiers made him get retired of the car and kicked his legs retired from nether him, forcing him to his knees.

Azem says the soldiers tried to framework him arsenic an equipped fighter, yelling questions astatine him like: “Why are you attacking america with Molotov cocktails?” The questions didn’t marque consciousness to Azem, who says helium has ne'er engaged successful violence.

He told them helium doesn’t bash overmuch of anything, but occasionally look for work.

Azem repeated that helium was lone connected his mode to enactment and told them helium didn’t cognize anything. He says the soldiers past pushed him face-first into the ground, and 1 of them stepped connected his caput and asked: “Do you emotion Iran?”

Azem said no, that helium wasn’t governmental and that helium doesn’t enactment Iran.

For the adjacent 40 minutes, arsenic his brother-in-law sat successful the car, the soldiers kicked and bushed Azem with their weapons arsenic helium laic connected the ground. One worker sat connected his legs to guarantee helium couldn’t escape. Then they demanded his phone.

The soldiers filmed a video successful which they commanded Azem to repetition aft them, successful Hebrew: “I emotion Israel” and “I volition bash everything they inquire of me”.

Azem inactive has the video the soldiers changeable connected his phone. Filmed supra the muzzle of a gun, Azem’s disquieted look is turned towards the lens, repeating the Hebrew words 1 by 1 arsenic helium lies connected his belly.

The soldiers past uploaded the video to Azem’s Facebook account. They waited 15 to 20 minutes to guarantee that immoderate of Azem’s friends and household saw the video earlier giving backmost the phone.

As Azem recounts the story, his dependable is beardown and clear, but helium anxiously bounces his heels connected the floor.

When the soldiers yet fto him go, his brother-in-law had to crook astir and thrust home. Azem, excessively injured to work, spent the remainder of the time trying to slumber and heal.

Humiliated by the video and acrophobic that helium volition beryllium attacked again, Azem nary longer leaves his house. When friends telephone and invitation him out, helium declines.

“I americium highly embarrassed,” Azem says. “The video mocks us, the radical of Palestine.”

Though helium took the video down quickly, others saw it, including Sebastia’s Mayor Mohammed Azem (no relation), who saved a transcript arsenic grounds of the soldiers’ mistreatment.

“If I permission location again … I don’t privation to deliberation what they could bash to maine adjacent time,” Azem says.

Maha, Azem’s mother, speaks up: “When the Israeli worker learned helium was from Sebastia, they wanted to marque this video to nonstop a connection to each of Sebastia, to say: ‘I’m here, and I power your village, and I bash what I privation to bash here.’”

“If helium hadn’t said [what they commanded him to say], they could person wounded him worse, oregon killed him,” she adds.

Humiliation by design

Israel has been accused of deliberately and systematically humiliating Palestinians, peculiarly civilians detained successful Gaza. There, quality rights organisations accidental soldiers person forced men to portion portion being filmed. Israel has besides been accused of utilizing intersexual assault, rape, and the menace of rape arsenic a mode of humiliating prisoners.

In the West Bank, soldiers adjacent Hebron person allegedly drawn the Star of David connected a Palestinian child’s publication and branded the awesome connected a man’s face successful occupied East Jerusalem.

“Israel employs a systematic strategy of humiliation to psychologically interaction and interruption down Palestinian individuals and communities,” writes Ramy Abdu, president of the Swiss nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, comparing specified acts of humiliation to those witnessed during World War II’s Kristallnacht.

Israel has purportedly acceptable its sights connected Sebastia due to the fact that it’s an important archaeological tract believed to beryllium among the oldest continuously inhabited places successful the occupied West Bank.

It was an important centre nether Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman rule. Israeli politicians accidental it was the humanities superior of the Biblical Kingdom of Israel, portion Christians and Muslims judge it is the burial tract of John the Baptist.

In 2012, Palestine applied for Sebastia to go a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, an exertion that is inactive pending.

The municipality remains nether civilian Palestinian control, but the acropolis has been nether Israeli power since the 1995 signing of the Oslo Accords. Increasingly, and particularly since 2019, Jewish settlers person “attempted to enforce a separation betwixt the acropolis of the past tract of Sebastia … and the village”, according to a study from Emek Shaveh, an Israeli archaeological NGO.

In May 2023, the Israeli authorities approved a monolithic $8m program to crook Sebastia into a tourer hub and nationalist park. Last summer, Israel’s subject issued an bid to prehend 1.3 dunums (1,300 quadrate metres) of onshore astatine the acme of the archaeological site.

Since then, Israel has enactment much checkpoints astir Sebastia. And this May, it began excavations there, transporting sacks of ungraded with past artefacts to the adjacent amerciable settlement, named Shavei Shomron.

Emek Shaveh says taking artefacts and worldly from Sebastia is considered amerciable nether planetary law. Last month, it released a insubstantial addressed to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, stating: “Israel’s effort to due the acropolis and sever it from the municipality undermines the humanities integrity of the tract … and violates the taste rights of the municipality residents.”

In effect to Emek Shaveh’s objections, the Israeli subject confirmed past twelvemonth that establishing a subject installation astatine the acme of the Sebastia archaeological tract would impact predominant subject incursions done the Palestinian municipality below.

In May 2025, a UN study revealed that Israel plans to physique a obstruction and bypass roadworthy done Sebastia. The study said this volition “not lone chopped disconnected Palestinians from the site, it volition besides make the tract to absorption exclusively connected Jewish history”.

In June, Israel’s Civil Administration besides issued a licence for its service to acceptable up a “defence station” astatine the adjacent humanities Massoudieh Ottoman bid station.

A kid from Sebastia points retired his favourite roaming grounds successful the past ruins, truthful agelong arsenic determination are nary Israeli soldiers astir [Delaney Nolan/Al Jazeera]

Locals fearfulness the worst

Palestinian residents and leaders fearfulness that Israel’s plans are starring towards the annexation of Sebastia. They spot it arsenic akin to moves made successful Tulkarem and Jenin, wherever tens of thousands of Palestinians person been displaced by Israeli subject raids this year.

Sebastia’s Mayor Azem told Al Jazeera that Israeli subject incursions person escalated successful caller weeks. While soldiers utilized to travel to the colony erstwhile a week, implicit the past 3 months, they’ve arrived each night, paralysing the villagers’ state of movement.

“They adjacent onslaught the electricity,” helium says. “The municipal employees, erstwhile they’re moving successful the street, they onslaught them.”

There is nary beingness of Palestinian absorption fighters successful Sebastia, and locals don’t person weapons to support themselves, the politician says.

Groups of Israeli settlers besides regularly sojourn the Sebastia archaeological tract nether the extortion of Israeli soldiers. This has led to predominant incidents of settler unit against Palestinian residents.

Mayor Azem pointed to an incidental successful June successful which soldiers stormed into a Sebastia location and bushed a family, sending a girl to the hospital.

“They attacked the location of a household who person tiny daughters,” said Azem. “When they pushed and attacked the girls, the Red Crescent came and took them to the hospital,” due to the fact that locals can’t usage their ain cars for proscription to the hospital, for fearfulness of Israeli subject violence.

Israeli authorities did not respond to Al Jazeera’s petition for remark connected the attacks.

These incursions and the intended bifurcation of the colony are happening adjacent though Israel is signatory to the First Protocol of the Hague Convention, which prohibits an occupying powerfulness from retaining taste spot successful an occupied territory.

On May 13, UNESCO approved funds to hole a preliminary appraisal of Palestine’s exertion for Sebastia to go a World Heritage site. This gives villagers a glimmer of anticipation of immoderate constricted extortion from annexation.

But Mayor Azem believes UNESCO has been dilatory to determination guardant partially due to the fact that it doesn’t privation to agitate the medication of US President Donald Trump, which has already enactment UNESCO information nether reappraisal owed to alleged “anti-Israel sentiment”.

Meanwhile, backmost connected the structure with Azem and his family, his parent notes that portion things were atrocious earlier October 7, 2023, “now it’s 10 times worse”.

She says her colony nary longer holds events aft acheronian – they adjacent interest that weddings that spell past dusk volition bring violence.

“There are nary reasons for attacking us, but they don’t privation america to beryllium happy,” Maha says.

“If they perceive that determination is simply a wedding oregon thing we tin observe here, successful the night, they travel to the colony to cancel our happiness.”