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Photos:
Jewish Settlers attacking Palestinians with sticks in the West Bank village of Sha'ab al-Botum. Published by Haaretz
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by Bar Peleg and Jack Khoury for Haaretz
Jul 20, 2024 2:54 pm IDT

Jewish settlers attacked two Palestinians, a 38-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, with sticks on Friday in the West Bank village of Sha'ab al-Botum, south of Mount Hebron.

The two suffered head injuries and were brought to a hospital for treatment.

Two Israeli soldiers were present at the scene, and when the Palestinians called for their help, the soldiers fired a warning shot into the air and the settlers fled.

The attack occurred at the entrance to one of the houses in the village, after the settlers, who herd sheep in the area, entered the village.

A few hours prior, an Israeli settler shot a Palestinian who threw rocks at him during clashes between settlers and locals in the West Bank town of Hawara.

The settlers raided the town following the reopening of the local pizzeria, in which a poster was put on display mocking Esther Cunio, an Israeli from Kibbutz Nir Oz who has several family members currently held in Hamas captivity.

Also on Friday, several settlers set fire to an olive grove in the area, and a Palestinian ambulance was damaged.

Two settlers were arrested on suspicion of attacking soldiers and resisting arrest, police said.

An Israeli activist who arrived at the scene said it was "pretty tense, the soldiers were misbehaving and there was a lot of shouting." She added that the Palestinians tried to direct the soldiers to the area the attackers escaped to. "At some point, the soldiers agreed to go to the area the settlers attacked from. The Palestinians tried showing the army where they ran off to, and there were a few soldiers who were looking for them with a flashlight," she said.