Israeli settlers injure 3 foreign pro-Palestinian activists in West Bank
Ramallah: Three foreign pro-Palestinian activists were injured during an attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian sources reported.
The settlers assaulted the activists, two American women and one German man, with sticks while they were assisting Palestinian farmers in ploughing farmland and clearing weeds, local sources said on Sunday.
According to these sources, Qusra has witnessed repeated attacks by settlers against Palestinians and their property, Xinhua news agency reported.
The activists are affiliated with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The volunteers were part of the recently launched “Defend Palestine” campaign, organised by Palestinian grassroots organisers, the ISM said in a press statement on Sunday.
Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene did not make any arrests, and the Israeli Police emergency hotline declined to dispatch forces, telling the volunteer who called for help that “the army notified them there is no need to send forces,” the ISM added.
Ghassan Daglas, the Palestinian Authority Governor of Nablus, condemned the attack on the activists.
Israeli media reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel who responded to the incident fired shots in the air, causing the assailants to flee. The IDF did not arrest the attackers, who reportedly fled the scene masked, and the incident was not reported to the police.
More than half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, alongside nearly 3.2 million Palestinians. Confrontations between the two sides frequently escalate into violence.