Israeli settlers attack foreign activists and Palestinian farmers in West Bank

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian farmers and foreign activists accompanying them for protection in the West Bank town of Qusra on Sunday, according to victims of the attack and videos obtained by CNN.

Eight activists were participating as part of a Palestinian grassroots campaign called Defend Palestine, which calls on international volunteers to travel to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to protect Palestinians from Israeli settler attacks.

Two Americans and a German national were taken to hospital with suspected fractures after the attack, their campaign said, adding that another American volunteer suffered minor injuries. One of the Palestinian farmers was hospitalized.

Three of the foreign victims, Vivi Chen, David Hummel, and Jedda, who declined to give her last name, spoke with CNN about the attack from hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus, where they were receiving treatment.

They said they were accompanying Palestinian farmers to their olive fields, which they haven’t been able to access since October because of attacks by Israeli settlers. At some point, the group was approached by several young settlers on a hill.

“They sort of stood there for a while and then they came up to our group of international volunteers and they started hitting us with these thick wooden sticks almost like baseball bats,” Chen said.

Videos recorded by the activists show them trying to retreat as they were attacked. One of them immediately falls to the ground, another tries to shield himself with his arms as he is struck, and at least one is kicked in the leg and hit with a rock hurled by an attacker.

One woman fell down the hill and was also struck with a rock. The settlers then “smashed her phone and she lost her documents and cards,” Chen told CNN.

“We were doing nothing,” the Hummel said. “Our hands were up and we were backing up and trying to protect each other. So eventually, we tried to keep moving back because we had been hit so many times.”

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and soon started settling Jews on the land. There are currently more than 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The international community however considers the area to be occupied and Israeli settlements there illegal. The Palestinians want the territory for a future independent state.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court, said Friday that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, in an unprecedented opinion that called on Israel to end its occupation. It called on Israel to cease new settlement activity, evacuate settlers and make reparations for the damage caused.

‘Dire need’ for international protection

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack on Sunday, saying in a short statement to CNN that “a number of masked Israeli civilians assaulted a group of foreign citizens while they were planting trees in the area.”

The IDF said it condemns any acts of violence, adding that its soldiers were sent to the scene and that it will operate to maintain security in what it considers its jurisdiction. It added that soldiers were dispatched to the scene and fired warning shots into the air, causing the attackers to flee.

But the activists said that when the soldiers arrived, they immediately pointed their guns at a Palestinian man who was accompanying the volunteers and fired shots in his direction.

“He was our friend and everyone was screaming, ‘No, no! He’s our friend, he’s our friend!’ And they shot live bullets at him,” the activists said. The IDF didn’t respond to CNN’s question about the alleged targeting of the Palestinian volunteer.

The injured activists were taken for treatment by the Palestinian Red Crescent to a hospital in Nablus.

Pictures taken at the hospital showed the victims with multiple cuts and bruises across their bodies. The face of Hummel, the German activist, was severely swollen on the right side.

Mohammed Khatib, an organizer with the Defend Palestine campaign, said: “The attack today, not even 24 hours after the ICJ ruled that Israeli occupation is illegal and that settlers enjoy impunity when exercising violence, serves as further proof for the dire need for international civil protection in Palestine.”

Chen said the group didn’t expect to encounter violence but was “aware of settler violence” against Palestinians.

“Our injuries are very minor compared to what the Palestinians face every day,” she said.

Sunday’s assault followed a separate attack on Saturday in the West Bank, south of Hebron. A video obtained by CNN shows Israeli settlers attacking a Palestinian family with sticks and beating some of them to the ground before a soldier fires a warning shot and the video ends.