Settlers Attack Hawara, Injuring 13 Palestinians South of Nablus

Thirteen Palestinians were injured on Saturday morning during an attack by settlers on the southern outskirts of Hawara, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to Rana Abu Heneh, the Hawara Municipality’s director of public relations.

Abu Heneh said the assault targeted Palestinian homes and property and included assaults on residents and the theft of dozens of sheep and a vehicle, with injuries recorded from beatings, shrapnel, and asphyxiation from tear gas.

- IMEMC News

She added that a large group of settlers attacked the southern area of Hawara near the municipality building, besieged the municipality and attacked a Palestinian home adjacent to it, while another group attacked a shed behind the house and stole about 40 head of sheep.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews treated eight injuries during the settlers’ attack on Hawara near Nablus, including a rubber bullet injury, two beatings, and five injuries from tear gas.

In another incident south of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it sent ambulances to Ma'dama after extremist settlers attacked the village while Israeli forces arrested a civilian from the village outskirts as he tended to his sheep.

The Palestinian SAND News Agency quoted locals as saying violent clashes erupted in Ma'dama during the youths' attempt to fend off a settler attack on a house in the village, with settlers firing live rounds.

Anadolu Ajansı

SAND reported that its medical crews treated four injuries from live bullets and beatings during the ongoing confrontations in Ma'dama, and the medical association said a 72-year-old man was shot in the foot with live ammunition and a 53-year-old man was shot in the thigh.

The report also said Israeli forces obstruct the work of Palestinian rescue crews and prevent them from reaching the injuries in Ma'dama.

Across the West Bank, the Palestinian Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements said in a statement on Saturday that Israeli forces and settlers carried out a total of 1,659 attacks in the West Bank during May.

“Twenty-five Palestinians were injured on Friday in an attack carried out by illegal settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, against the village of Talfit, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to a local official”

Anadolu Ajansı

In a separate accounting, the Palestinian Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements documented that Israeli forces and settlers carried out 1,637 assaults in the West Bank and Jerusalem during April, including 1,097 assaults by the occupation army and 540 by the settlers.

The Anadolu Ajansı report on Talfit said twenty-five Palestinians were injured on Friday in an attack by illegal settlers under the protection of Israeli forces, with Mahmoud Abu Aisha, head of the village council, saying the settlers launched a coordinated attack against residents and their property.

Abu Aisha said the settlers fired live rounds toward a mosque in the village and that Israeli troops responded with tear gas, while the Palestinian Red Crescent had reported three injured earlier, including a man hit in the thigh by a bullet.