Israeli settlers on Saturday abducted two Palestinain children, including a three-year-old and tied them to a tree near the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, the Middle East Eye reported.
According to the report, the incident occurred in the afternoon, when a group of children were playing near their homes on the outskirts of Beit Furik, east of Nablus. A group of settlers approached the children and abducted two of them, 13-year-old Maryam and her three-year-old brother Ahmed. The settlers allegedly took them to a remote area where they tied them to an olive tree.
When the children's cousin followed the settlers and tried to intervene, they attacked him with stones, the report said.
"My two little girls came crying and screaming, so we chased after the settlers. We eventually found the children unconscious and tied to a tree... The settlers had fled to the outpost on an ATV. We untied the children and rushed them to the health centre," Middle East Eye reported Mohammed Hanani, the children's uncle, as saying.
"I wasn't afraid for myself, it's fine if they kill me. But I was afraid for my brother," 13-year-old Maryam is seen saying in a video that was shared widely on social media.
"Even if they killed me, does that mean we are going to give up our homeland? Even if they killed millions of people, we will never give up our homeland," she said.
According to the United Nations, settler violence in the South Hebron Hills has been on the increase, with attacks on Palestinians in Masafer Yatta by Israeli settlers on both 7 and 13 April injuring at least six Palestinians, including two children.
According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 14 April 2025, 915 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Of those, 109 Palestinians, including at least 17 children, were killed since the beginning of this year.