Seven Palestinian herders, including four siblings, were detained by the Israeli occupation army today shortly after a group of settlers attacked and chased them out of a pasture in the northern Jordan Valley region, northeast of the occupied West Bank, according to witnesses.

The herders were grazing their sheep when around 60 Israeli settlers broke into the area, assaulted them and pelted them with stones, injuring at least one herder, said Muataz Besharat, an official in charge of the Israeli settlement file in the area.

Besharat said an Israeli army force which later arrived at the scene to secure the settlers out of the area detained seven of the herders who were assaulted, including the one injured. Four of the seven herders are siblings. They were identified as Mohammad, Mahmoud, Ahmad and Ismail Awad.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are commonplace, but attacks on farmers and herders are particularly rampant in the Jordan Valley area. Most of these attacks usually occur in the presence of the Israeli occupation army, which does nothing to stop the attacks and rather provides protection for assailants.

Armed settlers and soldiers often prevent Palestinian shepherds from herding in the open pastures of the occupied West Bank in order to force them to abandon the area.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency