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Israel court extends detention of settler accused of attacking Palestinians with axe

January 28, 2019 at 1:33 pm

Masked Israeli settlers watch after Palestinian fields were set on fire in the village of Asira al-Qiblyia in the northern West Bank on June 2, 2010. According to Palestinian villagers, Jewish settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement set ablaze their olive and wheat field. Photo by Wagdi Eshtayah

An Israeli court yesterday “extended the remand of a Jewish settler who was arrested on suspicion of attacking and lightly wounding two Palestinians with an axe”, reported the Times of Israel.

The settler is a 23-year-old resident of Emmanuel, an ultra-Orthodox settlement in the northern occupied West Bank.

According to the report, he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces on Saturday in a field near the nearby Palestinian village of Dir Istiya.

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The settler reportedly attacked two Palestinians working in a field for what Israeli media called “an unknown reason”. Both men sustained light injuries during the incident.

When Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, the settler called them “Nazis” and attempted to flee.

Yesterday, the court ordered the settler to be “held for a further three days”.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is common place in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, with Palestinians and human rights groups long accusing Israeli occupation authorities of allowing such attacks to continue with impunity, or even participating in them.