Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers in assault captured on video

[ad_1] RAMALLAH, West Financial institution (AP) — Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, beating them with golf equipment in an assault Palestinian well being officers stated despatched a minimum of one lady to the hospital with critical accidents.

The assault Sunday within the city of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in movies obtained by The Related Press, got here as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and rights teams have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at rising danger whereas gathering olives.

“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, the top of the U.N. Human Rights Workplace within the Palestinian territory, stated in an announcement launched Tuesday. “Two weeks into the beginning of the 2025 harvest, we now have already seen extreme assaults by armed settlers in opposition to Palestinian males, girls, kids and international solidarity activists.”

In one of many movies obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen operating by an olive grove and beating a minimum of two individuals with a membership, together with a lady as she lay immobile on the bottom. The masked man gave the impression to be sporting tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.

The lady was hospitalized with critical injures, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Well being Ministry stated.

In a separate video, greater than a dozen masked males have been seen operating down a village highway alongside an olive grove, pursuing a automotive. One settler clubbed the automotive and opened the door. A passenger managed to flee and run away with the group of males operating after him.

A 3rd video confirmed flames and smoke rising from a number of torched automobiles.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the top of the West Financial institution police pressure stated in an inside police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the lady “saved him up at night time” and instructed officers to convey the settler to justice.

Israel’s army and police didn't reply to an AP request for touch upon the assault.

Turmus Ayya, whose inhabitants is predominantly Palestinian American, has lengthy been a goal of settler assaults, however villagers say the violence worsened in the course of the Israel-Hamas warfare. It’s nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts. Since t he killing of a 14-year outdated Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces within the city in April protests in opposition to settler violence and the army’s perceived failure to curb it have provoked common clashes with settlers.

Extra broadly, s ettler violence is surging across the West Bank . The U.N. says the primary half of 2025 has seen 757 settler assaults inflicting casualties or property harm — a 13% improve in contrast with the identical interval final yr.

The primary week of olive harvest season has seen greater than 150 settler assaults and over 700 olive timber uprooted, damaged or poisoned, in keeping with Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an workplace within the Palestinian Authority that's monitoring the violence.

Israel captured the West Financial institution, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, within the 1967 Mideast warfare. The Palestinians search these territories for a future impartial state. Settler advocates maintain key Israeli Cupboard positions that grant them and the settlers an necessary say over the West Financial institution.

___

Melzer reported from Tel Aviv.

window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '870613919693099', xfbml : true, version : 'v2.9' }); };

(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); [ad_2] Source link