Obtained by CNN
Masked Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers and foreign activists in the West Bank town of Qusra on Sunday, in this screenshot taken from video obtained by CNN.
Jerusalem
CNN
—
Masked Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian farmers and foreign activists who were accompanying them for protection in the West Bank town of Qusra on Sunday, according to victims of the attack and video footage obtained by CNN.
Eight activists were taking part in a Palestinian grassroots campaign called “Defend Palestine,” which calls for international volunteers to travel to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to protect Palestinians from attacks by Israeli settlers.
Two Americans and a German national were taken to hospital after the attack with suspected fractures, their campaign said, adding that another American volunteer was lightly injured. One of the Palestinian farmers was hospitalized.
Three of the foreign victims, Vivi Chen, David Hummel and Jedda, who declined to give her last name, spoke to CNN about the attack from a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus, where they were receiving treatment.
They explained that they were accompanying Palestinian farmers to their olive fields, which they have not had access to since October due to attacks by Israeli settlers. At one point, the group was approached by several young settlers on a hill.
“They stood there for a while, then they came over to our group of international volunteers and started hitting us with these big wooden sticks, almost like baseball bats,” Chen said.
Videos recorded by the activists show them trying to retreat as they are attacked. One of them immediately falls to the ground, another tries to protect himself with his arms as he is struck, and at least one is kicked in the leg and hit by a rock thrown by an attacker.
A woman fell down the hill and was also hit by a rock. The settlers then “smashed her phone and she lost her documents and cards,” Chen told CNN.
“We weren’t doing anything,” Hummel said. “We had our hands up, we were backing up and trying to protect each other. So eventually we just tried to keep backing up because we had been hit so many times.”
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and quickly began settling Jews there. Today, there are more than 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. However, the international community considers the area occupied and Israeli settlements there illegal. The Palestinians want the territory for a future independent state.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest court, ruled Friday that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, in an unprecedented opinion that calls on Israel to end its occupation. It calls on Israel to cease all new settlement activity, evacuate settlers and repair damage caused.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack on Sunday, saying in a brief statement to CNN that “a number of masked Israeli civilians attacked a group of foreign citizens as they were planting trees in the area.”
The Israeli army condemned any violence, adding that its soldiers were dispatched to the scene and that it would act to maintain security in what it considers to be its jurisdiction. It added that soldiers were dispatched to the scene and fired warning shots into the air, causing the attackers to flee.
But activists said that when the soldiers arrived, they immediately pointed their guns at a Palestinian accompanying the volunteers and fired in his direction.
“He was our friend and everyone was shouting, ‘No, no! He’s our friend, he’s our friend!’ And they shot him with live ammunition,” the activists said. The Israeli military did not respond to CNN’s question about the alleged targeting of the Palestinian volunteer.
The injured activists were taken to a hospital in Nablus for treatment by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Photos taken at the hospital show the victims with multiple cuts and bruises all over their bodies. Hummel, the German activist, had severely swollen face on the right side.
Mohammed Khatib, organizer of the Defend Palestine campaign, said: “Today’s attack, less than 24 hours after the ICJ ruled that the Israeli occupation is illegal and that settlers enjoy impunity for violence, is further evidence of the urgent need for international civilian protection in Palestine.”
Chen said the group did not expect to face violence, but was “aware of settler violence” against Palestinians.
“Our injuries are very light compared to what Palestinians face every day,” she said.
Sunday’s attack follows another on Saturday in the West Bank, south of Hebron. Video obtained by CNN shows Israeli settlers attacking a Palestinian family with sticks and knocking some of them to the ground before a soldier fires a warning shot and the video cuts off.
