Illegal Israeli settlers injure 4 Palestinians in West Bank attack

By Qais Abu Samra and Mohammad Sio

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL (AA) – Four Palestinians were injured in an attack by illegal Israeli settlers on Wednesday in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, a local activist said.

A group of illegal settlers from the Susiya settlement, built on Palestinian land in the Masafer Yatta area, which includes 28 villages, assaulted residents in the Khillet al-Hums area, southeast of Yatta, Osama Makhamreh told Anadolu.

He said illegal settlers severely beat the residents, with Israeli soldiers providing protection during the attack.

The injured were transferred to Yatta Government Hospital, where their conditions ranged from “moderate to mild,” he added.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly warned that illegal settler attacks – often carried out under army protection – are part of a “systematic policy” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to terrorize residents and force them to flee.

Alongside the two-year war in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 people have been killed, assaults by the army and illegal settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,082 Palestinians and injured about 11,000, while more than 20,500 have been detained, according to official Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.