Zionist Settlers Assault Palestinian Woman, Her Kids in Al-Khalil

A group of Zionist settlers have physically assaulted a Palestinian woman and her young children in the Old City of al-Khalil (Hebron) in southern West Bank.

The assault occurred on Saturday when the illegal settlers waged an attack on Palestinian homes in the Old City’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood, Ma’an news agency reported citing an al-Khalil-based rights organization called Human Rights Defenders.

The report further quoted the group’s spokesman, Badee Dweik as saying that the Palestinian woman, Mirvat Abu Tuama, was walking home with her children Hazim, 10, Rahaf, 8, Lujayn, 5, and Liyan, 4, when a group of Israeli settlers chased and assaulted them.

According to Dweik, the attacking settlers also attacked the home of Yasser Abu Markhiyya in Tel Rumeida by hurling stones at it.

This is while another group of settlers attacked a Palestinian female teenager Madlin Abu Shamsiyya while she tried to film them as they were attacking the home of another area resident, Itidal Qiwar.

The latest attack by the Zionist settlers comes less than a week after another group of the Israeli occupiers harassed a delegation touring al-Khalil’s Old City that included the head of the Palestinian National Union for Football, Jibril al-Rajoub, and South African politician and anti-racism activist, Tokyo Sexwale, the report added.

Nearly 700 settlers live in 80 homes in the center of al-Khalil, surrounded by nearly 200,000 Palestinians.

The settlements, illegal under international law, remain protected by the Israeli military forces in the tightly controlled city, where many streets are off limits to Palestinians.

Zionist forces arrest 5 Palestinians in West Bank town of Silwad

Meanwhile, Zionist forces have clashed with Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank, arresting five of them.

The clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli forces who were trying to arrest Palestinian activists in the town of Silwad, located 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The clashes intensified after Israeli forces raided the homes of the Palestinian activists.

Israeli forces fired tear gas to disperse the protesters who were trying to stop the Israeli forces from detaining the activists.

Three activists and two protesters were arrested by the Israeli forces.

In recent months, Israeli forces have frequently raided the houses of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, arresting dozens of people, who are still being held without any charges leveled against them.

On Friday, dozens of Palestinians held a demonstration in the town of Silwad to express their resentment at illegal Israeli settlements. Violence erupted when Israeli soldiers stormed the gathering and fired tear gas canisters as well as live bullets at demonstrators to break up the protest.

Young Palestinian men hurled stones and empty bottles at the Israeli troopers in return.

Israel has been trying to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds (Jerusalem) over the past decades by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were occupied by Israel in 1967, and they are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

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