WEST BANK: Israeli soldiers remove a group of Jewish settlers from a Palestinian village where they were held and beaten on suspicion of attacking Palestinian farmers
Record ID:
564842
WEST BANK: Israeli soldiers remove a group of Jewish settlers from a Palestinian village where they were held and beaten on suspicion of attacking Palestinian farmers
- Title: WEST BANK: Israeli soldiers remove a group of Jewish settlers from a Palestinian village where they were held and beaten on suspicion of attacking Palestinian farmers
- Date: 7th January 2014
- Summary: QUSRA, WEST BANK (JANUARY 7, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SETTLER YOUTHS SITTING AFTER THEY WERE DETAINED AND BEATEN BY PALESTINIAN VILLAGERS / YOUTHS BEING PROTECTED BY MAN WITH BATON PALESTINIANS TRYING TO HIT YOUTHS AND BLOCKED BY OTHER PALESTINIANS ISRAELI SOLDIER ATTENDING TO WOUNDED SETTLER ON GROUND YOUTHS BEING SURROUNDED SOLDIER ATTENDING TO WOUNDED SETTLER YOUTHS ISRAELI SOLDIERS TALKING OVER RADIO PALESTINIANS HOLDING JEWISH SETTLER AND BRINGING HIM TO COMPOUND WHERE OTHERS ARE LOCATED PALESTINIANS HOLDING JEWISH SETTLERS AS SEEN FROM AFAR SETTLERS AND PALESTINIANS ARGUING / PALESTINIAN RAISING PLANK OF WOOD PALESTINIANS HOLDING SETTLER SOLDIERS AND SETTLERS AT SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) QUSRA RESIDENT, ABDEL HAKEEM, SAYING: "The settlers came here to Qusra, they hit a little boy in Qusra and attacked the farmers, so the people came out of the village and blocked them in this house. And that's what happened." ISRAELI SOLDIERS TALKING WITH PALESTINIANS ISRAELI SOLDIER HOLDING SETTLER, BRINGING HIM TO MILITARY VEHICLE VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS ESCORTING SETTLERS INTO VEHICLE WHILE PROTECTING THEM
- Embargoed: 22nd January 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Crime,International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA97HQ5H47V2AW51Z8DG5IE1ZXL
- Story Text: Palestinian villagers on Tuesday (January 7) briefly detained and beat up a group of Israeli settlers, accusing them of having thrown rocks at farmers tending their fields in the occupied West Bank.
The Israelis, who appeared to be aged between 15 and 30, were detained in an uninhabited house on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Qusra after Palestinians said there had been a settler assault on local farmers.
"The settlers came here to Qusra, they hit a little boy in Qusra and attacked the farmers, so the people came out of the village and blocked them in this house. And that's what happened," Palestinian resident of Qusra, Abdel Hakeem, told Reuters.
A Reuters witness said villagers beat 15 settlers with their fists and sticks, causing some to bleed from the head and mouth. The Palestinians later released the group to Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident - the details of which were disputed by a representative of a nearby settlement - stoked tensions long simmering on land where Palestinians seek statehood under struggling U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with Israel.
Violence in the West Bank has increased in recent months, and at least 19 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the territory since the negotiations got under way.
A 40-day survey, published two weeks ago by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, documented 27 cases of settler attacks on Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season last fall.
Palestinians seek to create a state in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an enclave ruled by Hamas Islamists opposed to the U.S. peace effort, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Middle East war and pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Palestinians say Israel's settlements on occupied land - which most countries consider illegal - will deny them a viable state.
Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and says it intends to keep major settlement blocs in any future peace deal. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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