Video footage refutes account by Israeli forces following settler attack on Palestinians
Video footage obtained by the AP news agency and backed up by testimonies from Palestinian witnesses refutes the official account by Israeli forces after Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the south of the occupied West Bank on Friday.
Footage from one camera shows vehicles speeding up to the edge of the village of Jinba. A number of settlers pile out and run out of the frame as the screams of Palestinian women can be heard.
Many of the settlers are masked and at least three are carrying bats or sticks, with one armed with an assault rifle. One can be seen throwing a rock, and then bending to collect more.
Palestinian Oula Awad told AP the settlers approached her house between 8am and 9am as her son, Qusai, 17, and husband, Aziz, 63, were washing up to prepare for Ramadan prayers.
In security footage taken from a second camera, settlers are seen converging on the teenager. One settler begins hitting him with a stick as he tries to run away. Another settler smashes his head with a rock, sending him to the ground. Four settlers then kick and beat him before running away. Five Palestinians remain in hospital after the attack.
Following the incident, Israeli police said they arrested 22 Palestinians from the village on suspicion of stone-throwing and brought them in for further investigation.
They said Palestinians had attacked two settler shepherds nearby, slightly injuring them.
No Other Land co-director shares video of settler ‘pogrom’ against Palestinians
Yuval Abraham, the Israeli co-director of the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, has highlighted another Israeli settler attack that badly injured a 17-year-old Palestinian boy in the Masafar Yatta area of the occupied West Bank.
Abraham had earlier won an apology from the Academy for its failure to name Hamdan Ballal in a statement following his Palestinian codirector’s beating by Israeli settlers during an attack on his home and subsequent arrest by Israeli forces.
In a post to social media, Abraham – who was critical of the academy when it failed to name Ballal – described the vicious attack on the teenager as a “pogrom”.
“Qusai, 17, isn’t an Oscar winner, so people won’t hear about it, but here’s the video of masked settlers beating him with metal rods as his mom screams in the background,” he said.
Medics treating teenage girl, Palestinian man beaten by Israeli forces
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said its medics are treating an 18-year-old girl and a 40-year-old Palestinian man who were beaten by Israeli forces in their home in the at-Taawon neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Israeli forces have also arrested Palestinian man Mahmoud Awada after raiding his home in at-Taawon. It’s currently unclear if the two incidents are related.
Israeli forces have also stormed the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
