"Besides, one of them looked very familiar. He was one of the ones who beat me and my brothers the first time. I'm sure he's from Itamar. And they both had hair ringlets and beards, which all the Orthodox men wear." Itamar is a very Orthodox, some would say extremist, settlement.

Israel lets settlers do their army reserve service in the regions surrounding their settlements. It is adamant that letting them do their service near their homes, protecting Palestinians from attacks by people who could be their neighbours in the settlements, doesn't give rise to a conflict of interest.

"I won't specify the nature of the soldiers," says an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokesperson. "It doesn't matter if they are from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Itamar. They are IDF soldiers and will follow army orders as closely as possible."

We return to the village with the Abu Mahmouds and on the way spot another white van, stopped on the road near the settlement. "It's been driving in and out of view for about an hour," says Hassan Awad. "I think it's trying to make sure we don't start picking the olives from the trees closer to the settlement. The army has told us we can't harvest those trees."

I call the Israeli Civil Administration spokesman for more information on the nature of the white vans and the order that Palestinians can't go into the fields nearest the settlement. He doesn't return my call.