Jewish settlers throw stones at Palestinians, injuring 15, including 3-year-old boy

Dozens of Jewish Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinians in the south Hebron hills yesterday, injuring fifteen people, including a three-year-old boy, local sources have revealed.

According to Palestinian and Israeli witnesses, the settlers were masked at the time. People, vehicles and homes were hit in the attack, a video of which has gone viral on social media.

Palestinian paramedics said that 15 people were wounded and received medical treatment, including three-year-old Mohammad Bakr Hussein. The boy was evacuated to the Israeli Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba. A spokesman described his condition as “fair”.

“This was the worst attack we’ve seen for years,” said Mahmoud Hussein, the boy’s grandfather. “There isn’t a house they didn’t smash up.”

Eyewitness Basil Al-Adra said that there must have been “around 100 settlers” who smashed windows, punctured car tyres and broke into homes. “They injured a child when they hurled stones into his home. We don’t even feel safe in our own homes any longer.”

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Wafa news agency reported that the settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, entered several communities in the Masafer Yatta area and attacked Palestinians and their homes, damaging several vehicles and solar heating plants, destroying crops and uprooting dozens of trees.

The local coordinator of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Committees, Rateb Al-Jabour, said that residents fended off the settlers’ attack.

Israeli forces did nothing to stop the settlers, said witnesses. Instead, soldiers joined the attack and fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades at the Palestinian residents and their homes. Dozens were affected by the gas.