A 5-year-old Palestinian girl was struck by a car driven by an Israeli man coming out of the West Bank settlement of Carmel on Friday afternoon. She was hospitalized with a laceration to her face.
The young girl, Siwar Salem Hthaleen, was hit by the car in the hamlet of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills, a hotbed for extremist settler activity. She was discharged from the hospital later in the day after receiving seven stitches for her facial wound, and is now resting at home, a resident of the hamlet said.
The driver initially left the scene of the incident without waiting for police to arrive, but subsequently returned, civil rights activists who witnessed the incident said, adding that the driver was not arrested at the scene.
Police refused to answer questions from The Times of Israel as to whether the driver was arrested or detained at any stage following the incident, and whether he was questioned by officers. The response also failed to state whether the police opened an investigation into the incident.
The police in their response said that a “preliminary examination” of the incident found that the driver “was not responsible,” since the 5-year-old girl “ran into the road.”
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The three activists present in Umm al-Khair who witnessed the incident, all of whom were Jewish Americans, were detained and questioned in the nearby Kiryat Arba police station.
Illustrative: Police remove coexistence activists from the Palestinian hamlet of Umm al-Khair in the West Bank who volunteered to plant olive trees on the dwelling’s agricultural land. The IDF imposed a closed military zone order on the village after the activists arrived, meaning that they and all non-residents had to leave. The police were called to ensure the activists left the hamlet immediately, February 2, 2026. (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)
In its response to questions on the incident, police accused the activists of acting violently and damaging the driver’s car, but offered no evidence of such claims and did not charge the activists with those or any other crimes.
One of the activists was subsequently deported from Israel after a hearing with the Population and Immigration Authority of the Interior Ministry, on claims that she violated the terms of her tourist visa.
In response to the expulsion, Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, who chairs the Knesset Aliyah and Diaspora Committee, accused the Population and Immigration Authority of working as the “operational arm” for expelling left-wing activists from the West Bank.
Kariv was referring to repeated instances of nonviolent civil rights activists, including several Jewish Americans, being deported or banned from entering Israel due to their activities, and called on Jewish American leaders to speak up on the issue.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police, said explicitly last October that the police and PIBA have cooperated in having activists expelled from Israel.
The incident on Friday occurred on a road that leads out of the Carmel settlement and runs directly through Umm al-Khair, on a section of the road that passes by a children’s playground.
Speaking to The Times of Israel, Avital Raff, 27, an activist with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence organization, said that she had just gotten into her car to leave Umm al-Khair when she saw a vehicle exit Carmel and drive through the Palestinian hamlet at an excessive speed.
Hthaleen was crossing the road when she was hit by the car. Raff said that she saw a piece of the car come off the vehicle after the impact.
Elijah, another activist who was present at the time of the incident, said he saw Hthaleen lying on the floor screaming, and that she ran over to her, picked her up, and took her to her mother.
Video footage of the incident showed the driver exiting his car with an assault rifle slung over his shoulders, and, after speaking on the phone for several minutes, getting back in the car and driving off.
Raff and Elijah said he returned soon afterwards. According to police, the driver called the emergency services after the incident.
Palestinians and left-wing activists protest against settlers from the Nachala Settlement Movement trying to establish illegal outposts, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 20, 2022. (Flash90)
Several activists, including Raff and the activist who was ultimately deported, stood in front of the driver’s car for several moments to try to stop him from leaving, but the driver knocked one of the activists with his car, and they then stood aside, and he drove away.
Raff, Elijah, and the third activist were then taken to the Kiryat Arba police station, where they were questioned on suspicion of damaging the driver’s car and disturbing public order, a catch-all allegation frequently used by the police against civil rights activists.
Raf and Elijah were issued with a restraining order barring them from the South Hebron Hills region for two weeks, and with a warning that they too could be expelled from Israel if they are involved in any further incident of disturbing the public order.
The third activist, who had previously received a police warning for “disturbing the public order,” was deported Sunday morning via the Taba crossing with Egypt.
In a hearing with a Border Control Officer of the Population and Immigration Authority, the activist was quizzed about her political beliefs, social media posts, and her activity with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence.
The officer determined that she had misused her tourist visa to participate in activities “connected to organizations of a political activist nature,” and that she might participate in further activities in which she might “disturb the public order,” and therefore ordered her deported.
“It’s insane to me that the problem in this situation is the nonexistent damage to the driver’s vehicle and not the fact that a 5-year-old girl got hit by a car,” said Elijah.
HORRIFIC: A video shows Sawar Salem Al-Hathaleen, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl from the village of Umm al-Khair in Hebron in the West Bank, after an Israeli settler ran over her in front of her home today and fled the scene.
She is now in the hospital receiving treatment, while… pic.twitter.com/k5QlTZXhXK
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 13, 2026
He said that the police officer who interrogated him did not ask any questions about how Hthaleen was injured in the incident at all, and instead questioned him about his political beliefs, at one point alleging that he would not have cared if a Jewish girl had been hit in a car accident.
“It was horrifying that we were the ones who were detained, and the driver got to go home and do Shabbos with his family, and it’s legal for him to hit this girl with his car and have zero repercussions,” said Elijah.
Raff said that she felt police were “excited to detain activists,” and congratulated themselves on having done so.
Raff was also asked political questions during her interrogation, including whether she supports the boycott Israel, or BDS, movement, and about her position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“I said I was here as a witness to a crime, but they wanted to question my political affiliation,” she said.
Kariv, the Knesset member, said that the only reason the activist was expelled was her civil rights activism.
“We are talking about inappropriate collaboration between the police and the Population and Immigration Authority, which is acting in practice as the operational contractor for expelling left-wing Jewish activists,” he wrote on X.
“This won’t help them. They won’t silence the Israeli and Jewish public that looks the disgrace of settler violence in the eye,” he continued, adding that his committee would address the problem once again.
The police said in response, “This was a traffic accident in which an initial examination revealed that the driver was not at fault, after a 5-year-old girl ran into the road. The driver immediately stopped at the scene, called emergency and rescue services, and provided assistance.
“During the incident, several Palestinians and three foreign activists began to disrupt order at the site situation, were violent, and damaged the driver’s vehicle. As a result, they were arrested for questioning,” police said, adding that the activist who was eventually deported had been warned previously.