News / Palestine

Video shows Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians under army protection

Monday, 20 May 2019 6:16 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 20 May 2019 7:06 AM ]

A Palestinian child looks at Israeli soldiers standing guard as settlers stroll through the market in the occupied West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron), on April 13, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

A recently released video footage has showed Israeli settlers hurling rocks at Palestinians in a village in the occupied West Bank in the presence of Israeli forces.

Settlers were filmed by Palestinians at a home in a West Bank village while hurling stones at Palestinians, as four soldiers stood by without intervening to stop them.

The clashes reportedly erupted on Friday after a fire broke out between the villages of Urif and Asira al-Qibliya.

The Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, said after the fire, dozens of Israelis arrived from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar accompanied by soldiers and started hurling rocks at Palestinian homes.

The settlers also burned a number of Palestinian fields, damaging several homes.

A spokesman for Yitzhar blamed the clashes on the residents of Urif, saying they started the fire intially.

The area is seen as an epicenter of settler violence and has witnessed several attacks on Palestinians and their property.

On April 13, masked Israeli settlers from Yitzhar were caught on camera attacking a Palestinian family in neighboring Urif with rocks.

PressTV-Watch: Masked Israeli settlers attack Palestinian family

Masked Israeli settlers have been caught on camera attacking a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank with rocks.

“The incitement-preaching yeshiva [Orthodox Jewish seminary] in Yitzhar should be shut down,” said Tamar Zandberg, the chairwoman of Israel's left-wing opposition party.

"The settlement has become an incubator of Jewish terror and should be evacuated."

The United Nations said in a February report that acts of violence and vandalism committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property have risen since the beginning of 2019.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories has been a major sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian talks, which have stalled since 2014.

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