Israeli settlers injure Palestinian child, burn olive trees in West Bank

By Awad Rjoob

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – A group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked and injured a Palestinian child and set fire to olive trees in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that settlers from the Havat Maon outpost in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron abducted 15-year-old Salama Kaid Makhamra and took him into the settlement.

According to WAFA, the settlers severely beat the child before abandoning him near the village of Maghayir al-'Abid in Masafer Yatta.

Palestinian medical teams transported him to Yatta Government Hospital to treat the injuries and bruises he sustained all over his body.

In the northern West Bank, the agency reported that settlers set fire to olive trees owned by Palestinian residents of the village of Yasouf, located in Salfit Governorate.

Dozens of olive trees were destroyed in the attack.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, there have been 2,777 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7 last year, resulting in the deaths of 19 Palestinians and the displacement of 292 families from 28 Bedouin communities.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has regularly conducted raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war.

Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 760 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 6,250 injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion last July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio