Two settlers arrested for shooting Palestinians

Police arrested two residents of the West Bank settlement of Itamar on suspicion they shot and injured two Palestinians at the beginning of the month in an incident that allegedly began with a false report of Palestinian aggression.

One of the Palestinians was shot in the hand, the other in the foot, the Hebrew news site Nana10 reported.

The two suspects were part of the Itamar rapid-response security detail, and together with a detachment of IDF soldiers answered a distress call from a shepherd, a resident of the settlement, who reported that he was being assaulted by four Palestinians.

After rushing to the location, the soldiers arrested the four Palestinians and detained them until they could be questioned by police.

A subsequent investigation discovered that there had not been any confrontation with the shepherd.

But after the IDF soldiers left the area, a clash developed, apparently between the Itamar residents and local Palestinians. The altercation reportedly ended with gunfire that wounded two men from the nearby Palestinian village of Kafr Akraba in the northern West Bank.

The right-wing legal aid group Honenu, which is representing the Itamar suspects, said the arrests are “scandalous. They are arresting security personnel instead of the rioters,” the group said in a statement.

The suspects will be brought before the Petakh Tikvah Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for a remand hearing.