Palestinian youth attacked by Israeli settlers, police in east Jerusalem

Israeli settlers on Saturday carried out a series of attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territories of east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The settlers, as well as police officers, assaulted and beat up a Palestinian youth at Damascus Gate, located at the Al-Aqsa compound in the Old City of east Jerusalem, reported the Palestinian WAFA agency on Saturday, citing witnesses.

The boy, whose identity was not revealed, was later detained by Israeli police officers.

Settlers also attacked a group of Palestinian herders in the southern West Bank,  who were herding their sheep in fields near the Jawiya area of Masafer Yatta, according to a local activist.

Rateb al-Jabour told the Palestinian news agency that the herders were forced to leave their field while a settler attempted to steal one of the group’s livestock.

The Masafer Yatta region has been the site of increased anxiety and confrontations, due to Israel wanting to forcibly expel Palestinian residents of the region’s 12 villages to make way for a military live-fire training ground.

In May 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a law enabling the expulsion of some 1,000 Palestinians from the area, after a two decades-long legal battle.

Since then, Israeli authorities have gone on to demolish a number of homes and structures belonging to Palestinians, and have put forward the eviction of several residents. The Israeli Supreme Court claims that Palestinians living in the villages were not permanent residents of the area in the 1980s, when the army declared the area as a firing zone.

Rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have slammed the move.

Israel has carried out a number of violent incidents in the occupied territories this year, in what has been described as the "bloodiest" period in recent Palestinian memory.

At least 80 people have been killed in 2023 so far, including 15 children, while scores more are subjected to attacks at the hands of Israeli settlers and forces.