Italy and Canada have raised concerns about the treatment of their citizens who were beaten and looted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Three Italians and a Canadian were attacked early Sunday morning in the village of Ein al-Duyuk, near Jericho, where they had volunteered to help protect the Palestinian population from increasing violence.
All four were hospitalized and one, an Italian man, was still being cared for in Ramallah on Monday with more serious injuries.
In a written account, the Canadian said: “At 4.30 am on November 30, 10 masked residents, two of whom had army-issued rifles, burst into the house where we were sleeping after a night vigil.
“They beat us for about 15 minutes. I was kicked repeatedly on my head, ribs, hips and thighs. They insulted us in Arabic and said we had no right to live there. They destroyed the interior of the house and also destroyed solar batteries before leaving.”
The woman, who did not want her name published for security reasons, said: “This is not about us. We were beaten for 15 minutes. Palestinians here endure this violence every day, every hour, a thousand times over.”
The pace and intensity of attacks in Ein al-Duyq have increased significantly over the past two months since the establishment of a settler outpost nearby and the arrival of young and aggressive settlers.
Activists say that violent incidents have become almost a daily occurrence. The attacks included settler mobs breaking into homes and beating villagers, stealing 200 sheep, two cars and destroying solar panels.
While all settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law, unregulated outposts are illegal under Israeli law. Ein al-Duyq is in Area A of the West Bank, meaning it is administered by the Palestinian Authority and entry by Israelis is illegal.
The Canadian Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns the violent acts committed by extremist settlers and opposes any action or talk regarding the occupation of Palestinian territories”.
“We have had enough of this aggression. This is not the way (for settlers) to assert their rights,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters.
Israeli officials in the West Bank have been contacted for comment. Villagers and activists say there has been no meaningful police intervention to stop the attacks or destroy the outpost. Key members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition actively support settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers and security forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, including 233 children, in the West Bank over the past two years, according to UN figures, in what many Israeli and Palestinian observers believe is a concerted campaign of violence aimed at seizing the territory.
Manal Tamimi, a Palestinian activist at Faz3a, an organization that recruits foreign volunteers to help protect Palestinian villages in the West Bank, said: “In the two months since they built a new checkpoint near the village, they have brought in people from the far-right, who are very violent and appear to belong to an organized group, because they attacked the volunteers in a really organized way.
“The people there are very resilient and they refuse to leave the area. So it is very important to retain international volunteers.”
The Canadian volunteer said that, despite the attack and his injury, he felt that the volunteers’ presence at Ein al-Duyq was valuable.
“The villagers stood by while we were present,” he said. “Children played freely. People slept through the night. That alone made our presence worthwhile.”
quick guide
Contact us about this story
show
If you have something to share on this topic, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.
Secure messaging in the Guardian app
The Guardian app has a tool for sending suggestions about stories. Messages are end-to-end encrypted and hidden in the routine activity performed by each Guardian mobile app. This prevents the observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.
If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.
SecureDrop, instant messenger, email, telephone and post
If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian through our SecureDrop platform.
Finally, our guide on theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each.
<a href