Settlers reported to assault Palestinian olive harvesters, burn car
Group from Adei Ad outpost said to mace at least one man with pepper spray; incident comes days after 2 arrested over alleged settler attack in area
A group of settlers on Saturday attacked Palestinians and vandalized vehicles outside a West Bank town near Ramallah, according to Palestinian media reports.
Israelis from the Adei Ad outpost assaulted villagers from nearby Turmus Ayya as they harvested olives, with one man requiring medical treatment after being maced with pepper spray, the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency reported.
The settlers also reportedly set a car on fire and vandalized three others.
“This is what terror looks like,” tweeted MK Mossi Raz of the left-wing Meretz party.
The incident came amid a recent uptick in attacks by extremist settlers, many of them specifically targeting Palestinian olive groves amid the fall olive harvest in the West Bank that began earlier this month.
On Sunday, police arrested two suspects for allegedly macing two soldiers and attacking a Palestinian man outside Adei Ad last week. The assault came after a group of settlers allegedly destroyed a Palestinian-owned olive grove near another Palestinian village close to Ramallah.
Separately, prosecutors filed rare indictments on Thursday against two Israeli minors for their alleged involvement in a recent stone-throwing assault on a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills that reportedly left at least 12 Palestinians injured, including a three-year-old boy.
מתנחלים תקפו חקלאים בתורמסעיא, 3 פלסטינים פונו לטיפול בבית חולים; בהמשך שרפו המתנחלים רכב ופגעו ברכבים נוספים
תחקירן @YeshDin מדווח כי היום בסביבות 15:00 ירדה קבוצה של עשרות מתנחלים מכיוון המאחז עמיחי, ותקפו באלות ובאבנים חקלאים פלסטינים באדמות שלהם. pic.twitter.com/65IrIKMUA2
— Lior Amihai (@lioramihai) October 23, 2021
Assault and vandalism by settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank are commonly referred to as “price tag” attacks. Perpetrators claim that they are retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies seen as hostile to the settler movement.
