In village battered by settler violence, Palestinian still in coma nearly month after attack

Zahran Shanabla has not woken since he was found unconscious after an early-April assault in Qusra, where ex-mayor predicts locals may start to fight back against daily harassment

For nearly a month Zahran Shanabla has been in a coma in a Nablus hospital, where he was brought after being found left for dead following a brutal attack by extremist Israeli settlers.

He spent three weeks sedated and intubated in Rafidia Hospital. According to his brother, on April 25 his condition improved slightly: He was transferred out of intensive care and is now breathing on his own. But he has yet to open his eyes or speak.

Doctors don’t know if he ever will.

Prior to his hospitalization, Shanabla, 32, had worked at a poultry farm on the outskirts of the village of Qusra, south of Nablus.

On the night of April 4, according to Palestinian reports, dozens of settlers attacked the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, setting fire to the poultry farm on the village’s outskirts.

Shanabla, 32, was one of several workers on site at the time of the attack. Initially reported missing, and feared abducted by the assailants, he was found some two hours later unconscious but alive. A photo taken at the time shows him lying next to a patch of dried blood, with bruises visible on his face. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent he had sustained severe head injuries.

The arson and beating in Qusra was only one of dozens such assaults carried out by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months. While injuries in such attacks are not uncommon, few have been left as badly hurt as Shanabla — though some have been killed on rare occasions, including in Qusra.

With Shanabla uncommunicative, his family can only speculate about what transpired during the attack that left him in his current state. Nor do they know if he will ever recover.

“The doctors don’t know what his condition will be going forward,” his brother said.

The brother spoke only briefly with The Times of Israel, and relatives have largely refrained from speaking to the media since the incident. Like others affected by settler attacks, they fear that media exposure could lead to them being targeted, according to a Palestinian journalist who requested anonymity.

Palestinians and other critics say Israeli authorities have failed to crack down on settler violence in any serious way, allowing the phenomenon to metastasize to unprecedented proportions.

The IDF said immediately following the attack that “troops were dispatched to the area following reports of Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli civilians who had entered the village. Additional forces were sent after reports that Israeli civilians had set fire to property and assaulted a Palestinian, who was subsequently evacuated for medical treatment at a hospital.”

In an unusually swift response for such cases, police announced the following day that eight suspects aged 13 to 48, who had been detained at the scene immediately following the attack, had been placed under arrest on suspicion of assault and arson.

Despite this, no progress in the investigation has been reported since.

In response to a query by The Times of Israel, Israel Police said that police forces had entered the area, accompanied by IDF troops, to collect testimonies, evidence, and findings, and that the investigation is ongoing.

The police did not comment on the progress of the investigation or whether indictments were expected.

Relentless attacks

According to his family, Shanabla took the Qusra poultry farm job to support his parents, with his father unable to work due to illness.

The work required him to commute from his home in Taluza, a village north of Nablus. Though only 21 kilometers (13 miles) as the crow flies, the drive took an hour and a half each way, along 65 kilometers (40 miles) of West Bank roads.

Home to around 7,000 people, Qusra sits among several Israeli settlements and outposts, in an area of the West Bank that has been particularly hard hit by extremists.

Since October 7, 2023, the main entrance to the village has been blocked by the Israel Defense Forces, which sealed off direct Palestinian access to roads used by settlers across the West Bank as a security precaution following the Hamas massacre in southern Israel. Residents instead use a side road passing through the adjacent village of Jorush.

During a visit to the village one morning last week, the atmosphere was calm, but residents said the quiet belied the violence they have been facing.

On the southern edge of the village, a new municipal building stands next to a structure that was recently renovated, after it was badly damaged in a settler arson attack, according to now-former mayor Hani Odeh.

Odeh, 70, said he had been urged to run to keep his seat as head of the Qusra local council in Palestinian Authority elections held on April 25. But the settler attacks had left him feeling helpless, exposing the lack of control over events supposedly under his purview.

“What can you do for the people as a mayor? You have no power, no resources,” he said. The PA as well, he said, “can’t do anything, doesn’t do anything, and is unable to protect residents.”

According to Odeh, the village has seen nonstop attacks. Some incidents seem designed to intimidate residents, like when group of settlers on ATVs rode past Palestinian homes on the village’s edge days before, captured on security camera footage.

A day after he spoke to The Times of Israel, settlers were documented setting fire to several vehicles in Qusra’s industrial zone; no arrests were reported.

There have also been more serious incidents involving physical harm. On March 13, two masked individuals were filmed getting off an ATV and beating a Qusra resident near the village homes.

On February 27, two Israeli activists assisting Palestinians were injured when masked individuals armed with clubs arrived at the scene on an ATV. Both were hospitalized with injuries. No arrests were reported in those cases.

Odeh said the violence around the village has intensified in recent years following the establishment of illegal Israeli outposts in the surrounding area. Some of the assaults have been launched by settlers attempting to set up outposts on land designated as Area B, where Israeli civilians are prohibited from entering, he said.

Nonetheless, even though the army occasionally dismantles illegal outposts, no action is taken to remove the settlers residing there, Odeh charged.

“Every day, a settler comes to the hill, sits on the hill, and everything around him becomes his,” the ex-mayor said. “He doesn’t talk — he beats. That’s what he knows.”

Wary of being attacked, residents of his village no longer use a road that connects to the nearby village of Jalud but passes within a few hundred meters of the settlement of Esh Kodesh.

That road is also the main way to reach the poultry farm where Shanabla was allegedly attacked.

The farm remains operational, according to Palestinians working at a nearby business who spoke with The Times of Israel.

However, Odeh noted that nearby poultry coops had been abandoned due to the violence. The structures now stand empty, their doors left open to the wind.

The ex-politician predicted that the violence, if left unchecked, would eventually spark a backlash, leading to more violence.

“In the end, there will be an explosion,” he said. “It’s not reasonable to attack residents day after day. You can’t bear it. If you keep pressing people, where will it lead?”

He added that some Palestinians are looking toward upcoming Israeli elections in hopes that the government, backed by pro-settlement hardliners, may be ousted from power.

“People are waiting for October, for your elections, to see if maybe the government will change to a better one,” he said. “But if the same government remains — where will we end up?”