Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount during West Bank olive harvest

By JALAL BWAITEL and NATALIE MELZER RAMALLAH West Bank AP Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian robustness administrators commented sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries Related Articles The Louvre s crown jewel heist is now a race against time for agents and the brazen thieves Russia s new power assault pushes Ukrainians into another winter of blackouts Memoir by Prince Andrew s accuser reignites a disgrace that has long dogged UK royals Belize signs safe third country agreement as part of Trump s immigration crackdown Paris prosecutor says stolen Louvre jewels worth an estimated million The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya which was captured in videos obtained by The Associated Press came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening The United Nations and rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at growing exposure while gathering olives Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency Ajith Sunghay the head of the U N Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory reported in a comment distributed Tuesday Two weeks into the start of the harvest we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men women children and foreign solidarity activists In one of the videos obtained by the AP a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit a ritual fringed garment for Jews This Oct image taken from video shows what appear to be masked settlers beating activists and Palestinian farmers in Turmus Ayya West Bank AP Photo The woman was hospitalized with serious injures the Ramallah-based Palestinian Robustness Ministry reported In a separate video more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove pursuing a car One settler clubbed the car and opened the door A traveler managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him A third video indicated flames and smoke rising from several torched cars Israel s Channel stated that the head of the West Bank police force declared in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman kept him up at night and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice Israel s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack Turmus Ayya whose population is predominantly Palestinian American has long been a target of settler attacks but villagers say the violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war It s nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts Since the killing of a -year old Palestinian-American Amer Rabee by Israeli forces in the town in April protests against settler violence and the military s perceived failure to curb it have provoked regular clashes with settlers An Israeli soldier restrains a Palestinian woman during a confrontation in the village of Idhna west of Hebron on October Settlers attacked farmers during the harvest as Israeli forces expelled Palestinians from their lands and confiscated their equipment Photo by Mosab Shawer Middle East Images via AFP Photo by MOSAB SHAWER Middle East Images AFP via Getty Images A Palestinian man reaches for olives on a branch during the harvest in Idhna west of Hebron on October Settlers attacked farmers during the harvest as Israeli forces expelled Palestinians from their lands and confiscated their equipment Photo by Mosab Shawer Middle East Images via AFP Photo by MOSAB SHAWER Middle East Images AFP via Getty Images Israeli soldiers carry ladders confiscated from Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the village of Idhna west of Hebron on October Settlers attacked farmers during the harvest as Israeli forces expelled Palestinians from their lands and confiscated their equipment Photo by Mosab Shawer Middle East Images via AFP Photo by MOSAB SHAWER Middle East Images AFP via Getty Images A Palestinian man harvests olives from a tree in an olive grove in the Palestinian village of Yabrud near Ramallah in the Israeli occupied West Bank on October Israeli settlers forcibly blocked Israeli and foreign activists who had gathered to assist Palestinian farmers with the annual olive harvest in Yabrud on October Photo by HAZEM BADER AFP Photo by HAZEM BADER AFP via Getty Images Show Caption of An Israeli soldier restrains a Palestinian woman during a confrontation in the village of Idhna west of Hebron on October Settlers attacked farmers during the harvest as Israeli forces expelled Palestinians from their lands and confiscated their equipment Photo by Mosab Shawer Middle East Images via AFP Photo by MOSAB SHAWER Middle East Images AFP via Getty Images Expand More broadly settler violence is surging across the West Bank The U N says the first half of has seen settler attacks causing casualties or property damage a increase compared with the same period last year The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than settler attacks and over olive trees uprooted broken or poisoned according to Muayyad Shaaban who heads an office in the Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence Israel captured the West Bank along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the Mideast war The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state Settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an pivotal say over the West Bank Melzer informed from Tel Aviv