Several foreign Palestinian activists were attacked and injured today by masked Israeli settlers in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, in the agricultural lands of Khusra, where they accompanied Palestinians, reported France Presse, quoted by BTA.
Two women and a man were transported to Al-Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus, all with major bruises, an AFP journalist noted.
These foreign volunteers have accompanied Palestinians to olive groves near Israeli settlements. Foreign activists regularly escort Palestinians they consider vulnerable to the occupied territories, where violence often breaks out, AFP notes.
„Earlier today, a number of masked Israeli civilians attacked a group of foreign nationals, believing that they were planting trees in the vicinity of Khusra,”, the Israeli army said, when asked by AFP.
The army claims it fired warning shots into the air, causing "Israeli civilians to flee".
„They arrived with huge sticks and started beating us”, an American woman called Vivi described to AFP, condemning the “reasonless” attack.
„They were armed with metal pipes and wooden sticks and were looking for conflict,” added David Hummel, a German member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Hummel said he had a jaw injury and pain in his legs and arms.
The mayor of Qusra, Hani Odeh, confirmed the facts to AFP and added that the activists had accompanied the farmers to fields that had been "recently burned" by settlers.
He reported "four wounded" and confirmed that the attackers came from the neighboring village of Esh Kodesh. According to him, the warning shots were intended to scare the Palestinians and the activists.
Odeh said the foreigners have been living in Khusra for about a month.
Since the creation of the International Solidarity Movement, several of its activists have been injured.
The war in the Gaza Strip has sparked an increase in violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where tensions have already been high for two years.
Since October 7, at least 579 Palestinians have been killed there by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority. At least 16 Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks or raids, according to official Israeli figures.
Even before the start of the war, the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs was sounding the alarm about “settler violence”, noting that incidents between Palestinians and residents of settlements illegal under international law had never been so high since the 2006 census. .