1 September 2010 | ISM Media
Just after midday a large group of settlers from an illegal outpost near to where four Israeli settlers where shot and killed last night, carried out an attack on an innocent Palestinian family.
At about 12.30 between 50 and 70 Israeli settlers emerged from the Givat Gal outpost near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and came down the hill towards a Palestinian home.
Palestinian Younis Idris and his large family, including 8 children, watched as the settlers hurled rocks at the house, smashing four windows. A family member told an employee of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem that the settlers had tried unsuccessfully to open the door of the house.
They also knocked over and smashed a number of ceramic plant pots outside the family home and then set fire to the grass outside the house.
The family told ISM activists that Israeli soldiers were present during the attack but did nothing to prevent it. One soldier pointing his gun at family member who was outside the house, and ordered him to go inside.
The attack lasted about ten minutes, after which time the settlers departed in the direction they had come from.
Police were called and took photos of the damage caused. The family told police that the settlers were aged in their twenties. Police arrested one settler.
ISM members on the scene report that there is now a large Israeli military presence, as well as persistent settler presence though it is calmer than earlier.
The family have been attacked by settlers many times before, with the most recent being an incident two months ago when settlers cut down 70 olive tress.
Following the shooting of four Israeli settlers last night, an attack which the militant wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility for, Palestinians in the Hebron area are fully expecting even higher levels of settler violence than usual.
An ISM activist based in Hebron said: “So far we have not heard of any other settler attacks on Palestinians in the region, but we are expecting that there will be more.”
Several areas of Hebron have been sealed off by the Israeli army. Meanwhile the Baqa’a Valley has been declared a closed military zone and Road 60 remains open to Israeli settlers only.
Another attack following the shooting saw settlers in the Nablus region randomly targeting Palestinian vehicles on the Jet junction between Nablus and Qalqilya last night. They broke care windows by throwing stone and were also cutting down olive trees, Ma’an news agency reported.
