Colonial Israeli settlers today assaulted and injured a Palestinian man and attacked herders in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, said Mutaz Besharat, an official in charge of monitoring the Israeli settlement file in the area.
He said a group of settlers assaulted Palestinian herders while grazing their sheep near Humsa al-Foqa village and forced them to leave, adding that a local Palestinian resident, Tareq Taleb Awawdeh, was assaulted by the settlers, and was hit in the head by a stone thrown by the attacking settlers.
Besharat pointed out that at least one sheep belonging to the local Palestinian herders was killed in the attack.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are commonplace, but attacks on farmers and herders are particularly intensified in the Jordan Valley area. Most of these attacks occurred in the presence of the Israeli occupation army, which usually 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: Palestine News & Information Agency