[ 15/05/2008 - 10:03 PM ]
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Scores of extremist Jewish settlers from the settlement of Yizhar, on Friday afternoon, attacked residents of the nearby Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibleya to the south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Local sources said that around forty settlers entered the village and started throwing stones at Palestinian houses causing damage to some houses. An IOF patrol forced the settlers to leave the village, but no arrests were made in lines of the settlers who mounted the aggression.
The same village was attacked last week by settlers from the same settlement. The settlers set the crop fields on fire and attacked the house of Jamal Saleh at the edge of the village.
Villagers rushed to the scene to try and put the fire out and protect the Saleh family. T
he settlers assaulted them causing serious injuries to 16-year-old Abdelrahim Abdellatif and 44-year-old Rebhi Asayrah. The two were taken to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus.
Asayreh said that on the day of the attack at noon he had a technician at home repairing the fridge when he received a phone call on his mobile to let him know that the settlers set fire to some fields near the settlement which is built on land stolen from the villagers.
He rushed to the scene and found the villages have gathered there and were trying to put out the fire, while youth started throwing stones at the settlers to push them back despite the fact that some of the settlers carried firearms.
He said he saw
about 10 settlers wearing white and carrying cans of petrol which they poured over the crops in other fields and setting them on fire causing damage to tens of dunums (one dunum= 1000 square meters) of crops.
Asayreh said that the fire fighters arrived after 15 minutes and started to tackle the fire, and 5 minutes later,
two IOF jeeps followed by about 20 soldiers and a group of settlers arrived. The villagers moved back and two soldiers drew closer and called Asayreh, one of the soldiers hit him in the stomach with his fist, the other got a plastic tie out and tied up his hands behind him.
A settler, who had a stone in his hand, drew closer and tried to hit Asayreh on the face, but Asayreh ducked quickly avoiding the blow.
The soldiers then held him and allowed the settler to hit him on the left cheek while he had the stone in his hand. Then they threw him to the ground on his face and started kicking and beating him for 15 minutes during which he said he heard heavy firing of live ammunition.
Asayreh's ordeal did not stop here,
when the kicking stopped, they sat him up and one of the settlers tore Asayreh's shirt and blindfolded him with it. Then they started beating him again, then dragging him on his face and beating him. The cycle of dragging and beating took place three times, on the fourth time he was dragged and thrown into a pit and left there. He managed to remove his blindfold by scratching it on the stones and he found he was in this pit which he estimated to be one meter deep. He managed to drag himself out and walked back to the village to get his wounds treated.