Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinians in West Bank Villages
Violence escalates during olive harvest season, injuring six and damaging property; new restrictions imposed on Palestinian farmers.
Callum Smith
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in multiple villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday.
The attacks included setting fire to cars and trees. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported six people injured in two separate incidents in Abu Falah, outside Ramallah.
Settlers beat a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man; both required hospitalization. A foreign journalist, Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, also sought hospital care after an attack.
The Israeli Foreign Press Association stated this is the latest in a long series of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and civilians in the occupied West Bank. The association claims Israeli authorities have ignored calls for action.
This is the latest in a long series of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and civilians in the occupied West Bank.
About a dozen settlers, dressed in black, charged down a hill near an outpost to a field where Palestinians and activists were harvesting olives. This attack in Abu Falah followed a similar incident near Turmus Ayya, where settlers burned three cars after attacking Palestinians harvesting olives.
Israeli authorities imposed new rules on the olive harvest, prohibiting Palestinians from working in Area C. The military decreased the amount of land Israeli citizens could not enter.
Settler violence against Palestinians soared this year, spiking further in the weeks leading up to Israel's election on October 27. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported more than 1,600 attacks across the territory between January and August.
Palestinian officials claim at least four Palestinians have died and more than 100 suffered injuries since the harvest season began earlier this month. Thousands of olive trees sustained damage, costing farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Residents and rights groups claim Israeli authorities did little to stop the attacks. Some say the military aided, protected, or stood by as settlers lay siege to Palestinian villages. Yesh Din and other rights groups state authorities rarely arrest or indict the perpetrators.
Residents and rights groups indicated that Some say the military aided, protected, or stood by as settlers lay siege to Palestinian villages.
In one incident, residents claim soldiers fired live ammunition at village council member Abdel Jaber Hassan, even though he was unarmed and far from the trees. The Israeli military stated that soldiers fired because an individual ran toward them with a sharp object.
Nazem Saleh Shoman, another village council member, denied that account. Shoman said Hassan was shot at close range while carrying olive harvesting tools.