Rampaging Israeli settlers injure five Palestinians, including 13-year-old boy, 4 others

IMEMC – Several groups of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian with rocks on Sunday, mainly in the Nablus area in the northern West Bank. At least five were wounded, including a 13-year old boy who was hit in the head with a rock, and taken to Rafidiya Government Hospital in Nablus. Settlers also torched one car, and broke the windshield of another.

According to local eyewitnesses, Israeli settlers gathered on hilltops near Beit Furik, Urif and Madama villages on Sunday afternoon, and began throwing rocks at Palestinian villagers in the area. One group of settlers attacked Palestinian drivers on a road near Huwwara, south of Nablus, setting fire to a taxi belonging to Murad Mustafa Al-Yatem, and breaking the windshield of a car carrying three passengers – two of whom were injured in the attack.

The incidents of attacks against Palestinian residents escalated Sunday afternoon, after an Israeli settler was killed near 'Joseph's Tomb' in Nablus Sunday morning – allegedly by Palestinian security forces.

The Palestinian Authority has established an investigation of that incident.

Settler attacks against Palestinians in the northern West Bank have increased significantly in the last six weeks, after the murder of an Israeli settler family in their beds in Itamar. Israeli authorities claim to have extracted confessions for the murders from two Palestinian teenagers, but their families have denied the boys' involvement in the murder. One of the boys recently underwent surgery which prevents him from walking more than a few meters, and his parents said he was at home in bed recovering from his surgery at the time the murders took place.