Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village, assault elderly couple in northern West Bank

A Palestinian farmer in his sixties was taken to hospital after being attacked by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Qaryoot near Nablus on Friday.

Wael Bahjat, who works as a farmer, was transferred to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus city, where he received treatment.

Samiha Bahjat, Wael’s wife, told The New Arab that a group of Israeli settlers surrounded the house at around 3:00 am, before breaking in.

Last night Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian houses and vehicles, 3 Pal. were injured, many cars windows were broken.The attack came as a revenge for the killing of a settler in the same area. Always Pal. victims pay the price , settlers are not accountable for their violence pic.twitter.com/pmNPbk2geO

— Issa Amro عيسى عمرو 🇵🇸 (@Issaamro) December 17, 2021

“I woke up to the sound of violent banging on the door and told my husband that there were people outside,” Samiha recalled.

Wael “went down to see who was there, and as soon as he opened the door, some 15 men broke in and began to break and destroy everything in the house. I asked them who they were and what they wanted, and one of them said in broken Arabic: ‘We are settlers’", she said.

Holding sticks and rocks, the settlers destroyed furniture and windows around the house.

“They took my husband outside, threw him to the ground and began to beat him. When I began to scream and ask for help, one of them ran after me with a rock”, Samiha said.

“Before I locked myself up in the room, another settler managed to spray tear gas to my face,” she said, adding that the attack lasted around 10 minutes.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian homes in Qaryut village southeast of Nablus, under the protection of the Israeli occupation troops. pic.twitter.com/BPsTFHK5Cu

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) December 17, 2021

Large-scale attack

A few hours later, groups of Israeli settlers raided the village of Burqa, not far from Qaryoot, and began to attack houses.

Dozens of Israeli settlers entered Burqa at around 7 am and began to fire at houses with rocks and gunfire, Ghassan Daghlas, a resident of Burqa and head of the local popular committee against settlements told The New Arab.

رغم إطلاق الرصاص الحي ومساندة جيش الاحــتلال.. أهالي بلدة برقة يستطيعون الوصول لمدخل القرية ويمنعون المستوطنين من إحراق منازل ويسيطرون على حريق بركس زراعي pic.twitter.com/CNoYDBvmSY

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 17, 2021

“The Israeli settlers opened fire and threw stones at some 25 houses”, Daghlas said.

Young villagers clashed with the settlers, preventing their attempts to set fire on some 10 houses and to farmland.

Israeli occupation forces fire tear gas toward Palestinians in the village of Burqa near Nablus. Dozens of Israeli settlers attack the homes in the village under the protection of occupation forces. #FreePalestine #Nablus #Jerusalem #FreeThemAll #HumanRights #StopViolence pic.twitter.com/hC6QthQ7nO

— therealabdulrahman (@abdulrahmaan189) December 17, 2021

According to Daghlas, Israeli forces entered the village two hours after the attack and began to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinian youth.

“Hundreds of Israeli troops blocked the village entrance and started to disperse the village youth”, he said. “There have been several injuries by the Israeli soldiers, but we don’t have an exact number because the attack is still ongoing.”

Late on Thursday, an Israeli settler was killed and two more wounded in a gun attack on their car, on the road between Nablus and Jenin. The Israeli army claimed that Palestinian militants were behind the attack.