Palestinian Mother and Daughter Escape House Fire in Hebron

(The homeowner, Aliya al-Nawajaa. Photo Screenshoted)

A Palestinian home was set on fire while a mother and her daughter were inside, according to local reports from the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday.

Five masked attackers arrived at the house early in the morning in the Khirbet al-Fara area near the city of Yatta.

The homeowner, Aliya al-Nawajaa, said one of the attackers opened the window of the bedroom where she was sleeping with her daughter and threatened them.

The attackers then set fire to the bedroom.

The flames spread quickly before she could put them out.

Nawajaa woke her daughter immediately, and the two managed to escape the house safely.

Because of the early hour, local residents and neighbors did not wake up in time to help.

Nawajaa called her husband, who was not home, to get assistance.

In a separate incident on the same day, Israeli military forces began moving mobile homes to a settlement outpost on Mount Tarousa, west of the city of Dura in the southwestern part of the Hebron area.

Local sources said this operation was part of plans to expand settlements in the region.

Heavy machinery transported the mobile homes while military vehicles accompanied the operation.

Since October 2023, when Israel began military operations in Gaza, Israeli forces and settlers have stepped up attacks against Palestinians and their property throughout the occupied West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.

These attacks have included k!llings and injuries, arrests, demolition of homes, burning of places of worship and vehicles, destruction of farmland that keeps farmers from their fields, forcing people from their homes, and building new settlements on Palestinian land.

Palestinian leaders have warned that these actions are meant to prepare the way for Israel to take control of the West Bank, which would make it impossible to create an independent Palestinian state as called for in relevant United Nations decisions.

Israel was established in 1948 on Palestinian land that armed groups took by force, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel later occupied remaining Palestinian territories and has not withdrawn from them.

Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian home while a mother and her children were sleeping inside.

It’s the latest example of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which rights groups say is putting dozens of Palestinian communities at risk of erasure. pic.twitter.com/iqgq56YwvP

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 21, 2026