UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS CHANGES HEADLINE
By Qais Abu Samra, Lina Altawell, and Betul Yilmaz
HEBRON, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) – At least four Palestinians, including an infant, were injured in attacks by illegal Israeli settlers and army forces across the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to a rights group and local sources.
The Bedouin rights group al-Baydar said an 8-month-old baby was wounded and hospitalized after illegal settlers attacked Palestinian homes and property with stones late Wednesday in the al-Rabia area of Sa’ir town, northeast of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Al-Baydar said the assault caused significant damage to Palestinian homes and property, calling the attack a dangerous escalation in the settler assaults on civilians.
It held the Israeli authorities fully responsible for the repeated settler violations and called on human rights organizations to intervene urgently to protect Palestinian residents and ensure accountability for those responsible.
A 17-year-old Palestinian was also shot by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
According to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa, Israeli forces were deployed across Beit Furik’s neighborhoods and used live fire and tear gas grenades, leaving several residents suffering from suffocation.
Witnesses told Anadolu that armed settlers stormed Palestinian houses in the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah in the central West Bank under army protection, opening fire, which injured one person.
In the same village, another Palestinian was injured after an illegal Israeli settler ran over him with a four-wheeled bicycle while he was praying at the entrance to the village, local sources told Anadolu.
Videos circulating online showed the moment of the assault.
An Israeli military statement said a reservist soldier in civilian clothing opened gunfire and ran over a Palestinian in Deir Jarir. His weapon was confiscated, and his service was terminated, the army claimed.
- Illegal settler violence
Illegal settlers also uprooted dozens of olive trees in the town of Dayr Balut, west of Salfit in the central West Bank.
According to Wafa, the attack caused extensive damage to farmland and local livelihoods in the area.
Israeli settlers also plowed 4 dunams (around 1 acre) of land planted with olives in Turmus Ayya town, north of Ramallah, local sources said.
The attack came a day after illegal settlers plowed 5 dunams (1.2 acres) of farmland in the same town.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, an official body, illegal Israeli settlers carried out 621 attacks against Palestinians and property in the occupied West Bank in November.
Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,102 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000 since October 2023, according to 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.