-Palestinian Red Crescent says illegal settlers assaulted residents, activists, vandalized property, set farmland ablaze

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

A Palestinian woman and two foreign activists were injured Saturday evening when illegal Israeli settlers attacked a community in the southern occupied West Bank, officials and witnesses said.

The assault was part of a broader wave of illegal settler violence that included beating residents, damaging property, and torching farmland.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a brief statement that its crews transferred three people to a hospital after they were assaulted by illegal settlers in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. The injured included two foreign activists, the medical group said without identifying their nationalities.

Illegal settlers attacked the al-Fakhit community in Masafer Yatta, assaulted Palestinians, and vandalized their property, Osama Makhmara, a local activist who monitors Israeli violations in the area, told Anadolu.

A woman suffered bruises as illegal settlers destroyed several items, including sheep fodder, he added.

In northern Hebron, the Bedouin rights group Al-Baidar reported illegal settler attacks on a main road near the town of Sa’ir.

In a statement, the group said four illegal settlers entered Wadi Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, and carried out provocative actions, including trying to set fire to agricultural land.

“These repeated attacks target the land and its owners and heighten tensions in the area, where residents are under constant pressure from ongoing incursions and assaults,” the organization said.

Further north, in the Jordan Valley, illegal settlers attacked residents in the al-Hamma community, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The agency said a group of illegal settlers stormed Palestinian homes and assaulted residents, including a man and his son.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, illegal settlers committed 431 attacks on Palestinians and their property in August alone. The commission estimates some 770,000 settlers live in 180 settlements and 256 outposts, including 136 designated as grazing outposts.

Since October 2023, at least 1,046 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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.