Israeli settlers arrested for attacking Palestinian women and toddler

Two Israeli settlers have been arrested by the Shin Bet internal security service for attacking four Palestinian women and a toddler from the city of Rahat in the Naqab desert. The victims of the attack apparently entered the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Givat Ronen by mistake.

Shin Bet reported that the Israeli suspects are accused of throwing stones, threatening with a weapon and setting the women’s car on fire. They are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow for a hearing to extend their detention.

The women and the toddler, who sustained bruises, were treated in hospital and have since been discharged. One of the women, Nufa, told Haaretz that they were en route to Nablus when they took a wrong turn.

“We accidentally went somewhere, and then people started running after the car, throwing rocks from the hill,” she explained. “After they broke all the windows, they sprayed tear gas. What they were throwing wasn’t stones. It was blocks, big rocks.”

The attackers were all armed, explained Nufa, and there were a lot of them. “One of the Israeli attackers pointed his gun at the baby’s head. They told us to get out of the car. We told them we were Israeli citizens, we weren’t doing anything, we just got confused but they didn’t even hear us.”

Nufa recounted that the women left the car and fled before the settlers set the vehicle on fire. She pointed out that they called the police, who were slow to respond. “The baby started crying, and she’s traumatised,” she added.

According to international law, all of Israel’s settlements and settlement outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. Israel, however, distinguishes between the two, legalising settlements and saying outposts are set up without due process.

The head of the West Bank Settlement Council, Yossi Dagan, urged people “not to take the law into one’s own hands,” although he did not explicitly address the attack against the Palestinian family which prompted his request. “Those who act with violence should be punished accordingly. There is no room for bad behaviour. Those who take violent actions do a morally wrong act, that’s harmful to the country and the settlements, and directly serves the propaganda of the extreme left organisations and Israel’s enemies around the world.”

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