Extremist settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in West Bank village

Israeli settler extremists attacked Palestinian residents of the southern West Bank village Hraibat a-Nabi this morning, according to Palestinian media and Israeli activists.

Around 15 assailants from a nearby outpost in the South Hebron Hills reportedly beat and pepper-sprayed Palestinians and Israeli activists who were staying in the village.

Beyond the Herd, an Israeli activist group that supports Palestinian villages targeted by settler violence, says the settlers attacked four activists, pelted their car with stones and punctured its tires with knives.

In a video shared by the group, one of the masked settlers can be seen grabbing an activist’s phone and smashing it on the ground. A camera was also reportedly stolen by the assailants.

Activists say that they called the police, but that IDF and officers called to the scene refused to intervene.

“Throughout the attack, police officers stood just meters away, conversing with the settlers and refusing to intervene even as the attackers fled back to the outpost,” the group writes on social media. They further claim that soldiers arrested a Palestinian resident of the village for allegedly having stolen a donkey from one of the settlers.