Masked Israelis attack foreign activists, Palestinian farmers in West Bank

Foreign activists and Palestinian farmers in the West Bank town of Qusra were attacked by masked Israeli settlers on Sunday, Israeli and foreign media outlets reported on Monday,

In a video seen by the Jerusalem Post, masked men can be seen beating the activists with clubs, causing the person taking the video to drop the phone. The activists can be heard telling the masked men to “not engage” with them and ask them to stop. The men wearing masks cannot be identified in the videos, others have their face visible and are wearing tzit-tzit.

This marks the second incidence of settler violence over the last few days after two Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians with clubs in the Mount Hebron region on Friday before an IDF soldier arrived and shot into the air to disrupt the incident. 

The area in which the incident occurred falls under Area B, which is under Israeli security control. 

According to videos and witness testimonies obtained by CNN, Israelis attacked the foreign and Palestinian individuals with “thick wooden sticks almost like baseball bats.” Two US and one German citizen were taken by the Palestinian Red Crescent to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus with suspected fractures, and one Palestinian farmer was hospitalized.

The eight foreign activists were in the region as part of an organization called Defend Palestine, which brings volunteers into the West Bank to protect Palestinian residents from settler violence.

Three of the foreign victims, Vivi Chen, David Hummel, and Jedda, who declined to give her last name to CNN, told the news outlet that they had been accompanying the farmers to olive fields when young settlers approached them on a hill.

“They sort of stood there for a while, and then they came up to our group of international volunteers, and they started hitting us with these thick wooden sticks almost like baseball bats,” Chen told CNN.

The activists’ videos showed them trying to retreat as they were attacked, according to CNN, and one tried to defend himself as he was being hit, while another was hit by a rock.

CNN reported that one woman fell down the hill and was hit by a rock. The attackers then “smashed her phone, and she lost her documents and cards,” Chen told CNN.

פיגוע ופצועים. קוסרהשטח b מעצרים - 0 רמז: המחבלים שלא נעצרו נמצאים בסרטון. @IntlCrimCourt https://t.co/BQo0wB3N8E pic.twitter.com/m0yKnlzyrk

— מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים (@Mistaclim) July 21, 2024

Hummel said that the activists did not fight back and had their hands up as a sign that they did not wish to engage. 

He told French outlet AFP “we were standing there peacefully, not a threat to anyone, when they started coming towards us and pushing us down the path."

"They started attacking and beating us all with sticks and metal pipes, and they were throwing rocks as well at us," he told AFP. "I was attacked on my legs, on my arms and here on my jaw as well, and it was ... very violent."

תעשו פרצוף מופתע. אלות, מוטות ברזל ואבנים, פצועים. מתנחלים-טרוריסטים יהודים מ״אש קודש״ התנפלו באלימות על פלסטינים ופעילים ישראלים וזרים, שנטעו עצים בכפר קוסרה (قصرة), מדרום לשכם. חיילים ירו באוויר, אבל אין אף לא עצור אחד. "גורם בטחוני" עלום מודה שהתקיפה היתה ללא סיבה, אבל לא… pic.twitter.com/G8H47HZXV8

— מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים (@Mistaclim) July 21, 2024

An IDF spokesperson said: "Earlier today, a number of masked Israelis attacked foreign citizens while planting trees in Area B, in the Qusra area of Samaria. As a result, several foreign nationals were injured and evacuated by the Red Crescent for medical treatment. An IDF force that was dispatched to the spot fired into the air, following which the Israeli civilians fled the area. The IDF views every attack and harm to civilians with severity and acts to maintain order and security in the area."

Conflicting accounts

The activists denied this account when speaking to CNN, saying that the soldiers had pointed their guns at a Palestinian man who was accompanying the volunteers and not the settlers.

“He was our friend, and everyone was screaming, ‘No, no! He’s our friend, he’s our friend!’ And they shot live bullets at him,” the activists told CNN.

Pictures taken at the hospital showed the victims with wounds across their bodies, according to CNN. Hummel’s face was severely swollen on the right side.

German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, wrote on X: “International and Israeli activists, also a German citizen, were violently attacked by extremist settlers in the West bank while peacefully helping Palestinians in their olive groves. These attacks are well documented criminal behaviour and must be persecuted by all legal means.”

International and Israeli activists, also a German citizen, were violently attacked by extremist settlers in the Westbank while peacefully helping Palestinians in their olive groves. These attacks are well documented criminal behaviour and must be persecuted by all legal means. pic.twitter.com/Gu7vKthy7A

— Steffen Seibert (@GerAmbTLV) July 22, 2024

No suspects have been arrested reported Ynet; the incident is being investigated by the IDF.