- Title: WEST BANK: Villagers reflect on recent violence against settler assailants
- Date: 9th January 2014
- Summary: QUSRA, WEST BANK (JANUARY 8, 2014) (REUTERS) OLIVE GROVE OF QUSRA BOYS STANDING IN VANDALISED OLIVE GROVES DAMAGED OLIVE TREE QUSRA RESIDENT INJURED WHILE PROTECTING SETTLERS FROM ATTACK, FUAD HASSAN, ON CRUTCHES TALKING TO PEOPLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) QUSRA RESIDENT INJURED WHILE PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM ATTACK, FUAD HASSAN, SAYING: "About 22 settlers armed with hammers, axes and pipes started breaking the olive trees, people followed them. The head of the village council told me to go with other guys to avoid a confrontation with them but they started hitting each other anyway. It escalated until they surrounded them (referring to the settlers) in a room in a building, and there the problems began." UNFINISHED HOME WHERE GROUP OF JEWISH SETTLERS WERE DETAINED BY PALESTINIANS VARIOUS OF HOME UNDER CONSTRUCTION BLOOD STAINS ON THE GROUND IMAM AND MEMBER OF THE QUSRA VILLAGE COUNCIL, ZIAD ODEH, POINTING TO THE OLIVE GROVES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IMAM AND MEMBER OF THE QUSRA VILLAGE COUNCIL, ZIAD ODEH, SAYING: "This is a message to the settlers, and to the Israeli army, that what has happened was enough. We had to protect them and their lives, because many people were saying that we had to break their limbs and send them to the hospital, others were saying that we should kill them and get rid of them, but as members of the council, and officials in the town, we acted wisely when we protected the lives of those people. When they raised their arms and surrendered they became captives, and in our religion captives should be treated well, and indeed we brought them water and tissues to wipe their blood, and treated them until the army arrived 40 minutes later." TOWN OF QUSRA AND SETTLEMENT OF MIGDALIM OVER THE HILL SETTLEMENT OF MIGDALIM MADAMA, WEST BANK (JANUARY 8, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VANDALISED VEHICLE TORCHED CAR ENGINE SPRAY PAINT ON VILLAGE WALL READING (Hebrew): 'ESH KODESH REVENGE' AND 'EGARDS FROM ESH KODESH' AND 'PRICE TAG' VARIOUS OF VANDALISED WALL
- Embargoed: 24th January 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA5RT7WJ6YCDTTUZDU6V6HGCGJR
- Story Text: West bank villagers in the occupied village of Qusra reflected on the recent violence, two days after residents protected a group of Jewish settlers who were briefly held and beaten by Palestinians.
The Israelis, who appeared to be aged between 15 and 30, were detained on Tuesday (January 7) in an uninhabited house on the outskirts of Qusra, after Palestinians said there had been a settler assault on local farmers.
The incident was disputed by a representative of a nearby settlement and stoked tensions long simmering on land where Palestinians seek statehood under struggling U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with Israel.
Villager Fuad Hassan said his ankle was fractured and he had to have multiple stitches in the back of his head, after a settler hit him while he tried to stop clashes between the settlers and Palestinians.
"About 22 settlers armed with hammers, axes and pipes started breaking the olive trees, people followed them. The head of the village council told me to go with other guys to avoid a confrontation with them but they started hitting each other anyway. It escalated until they surrounded them (referring to the settlers) in a room in a building, and there the problems began," he said.
A Reuters witness said villagers beat 15 settlers with their fists and sticks. Some bled from the head and mouth. The Palestinians later released the group to Israeli soldiers.
The army said it recovered 11 Israelis who had taken part in a stone-throwing confrontation with Palestinians triggered by an Israeli police evacuation of an unauthorized building in the nearby settlement of Esh Kodesh.
Imam and member of the village council, Ziad Odeh, said that, as a town official, he had to protect the lives of the settlers.
"This is a message to the settlers, and to the Israeli army, that what has happened was enough. We had to protect them and their lives, because many people were saying that we had to break their limbs and send them to the hospital, others were saying that we should kill them and get rid of them, but as members of the council, and officials in the town, we acted wisely when we protected the lives of those people. When they raised their arms and surrendered they became captives, and in our religion captives should be treated well, and indeed we brought them water and tissues to wipe their blood, and treated them until the army arrived 40 minutes later," he said.
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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