Settler attack on Palestinian hamlet included brutal sexual assault — report

An attack by extremist settlers on a Palestinian hamlet in the northern Jordan Valley over the weekend included a violent sexual assault, Haaretz reports, citing witness testimony.

“They pulled down the Palestinian man’s pants, poured water all over him, and brutally beat him into the dirt,” an American activist who was on site during the attack in Khirbet Humsa tells Haaretz.

“All he could do was curl into a fetal position and scream when they beat him with their clubs,” she recalls. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

Against the backdrop of near-daily settler attacks that have gone largely unchecked by the Israeli government, a small, but growing number of activists from Israel and abroad have started taking part in a practice known as “protective presence” in some of the Palestinian communities that have been under frequent attack.

Haaretz also speaks with several Khirbet Humsa residents, with one of them recalling her own assault.

“I woke up to the settlers’ shouts. They slapped me and dragged us outside, bound us, tore off my head covering, and ripped some of my clothes.”

“They pulled the girls out and beat them, even the little ones. They mocked us and celebrated our humiliation,” she says.

The oldest victim, a 74-year-old male, tells Haaretz, “Three of them beat me hard on the head, hands, and stomach. The other smashed the security cameras, the router and the lights.

“I started to lose consciousness. They poured water on me, and during this time, one settler stole the watch from my hand,” he adds.

Haaretz says that the Shin Bet is investigating the attack.