LONDON: A Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank has been hospitalized after being clubbed on the head by a Jewish settler while picking olives, the BBC reported.
The unprovoked attack on Afaf Abu Alia, 55, was filmed by American journalist Jasper Nathaniel in the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya.
Nathaniel said the settler knocked Abu Alia unconscious with a club before hitting her as she lay on the ground.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed that its personnel ended the confrontation after arriving at the scene, and that it “strongly condemns” settler violence.
However, Nathaniel said: “No Israeli forces showed up to the attack at any point.” He added that Israeli soldiers were in the area before the attack and had “lured” him and others into an “ambush,” before speeding off ahead of the settler attack.
He said of the video footage: “It’s the most vivid image that’s ever been seared in my mind. He swings it (the club) one time and I saw her body go completely limp. And then he stood over her and hit her twice more.”
Abu Alia was seen bleeding as she was carried into a vehicle to be taken to hospital. She was first admitted to intensive care but is now in a stable condition, doctors said.
The attack was part of a wider assault by 15 masked Jewish settlers on local Palestinians picking olives, part of the harvest season that began on Oct. 9
The group was seen throwing stones at the Palestinians and activists who had arrived to support them, including Nathaniel.
At least 80 percent of Turmus Ayya residents hold US citizenship or residency, according to Israeli media reports.
Nathaniel contacted a US Embassy official about the incident, but was told that the diplomatic body could not offer protection to him or other American citizens in the area.
The age-old Palestinian cultural ritual of the olive harvest has come under growing Israeli pressure in recent years.
Farmers in the West Bank regularly face organized assaults by Jewish settlers, as well as arbitrary roadblocks and land access bans by Israeli forces.
The UN’s humanitarian office documented 71 settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank from Oct. 7-13, with at least half related to the olive harvest.
Human rights groups say the assaults are designed to intimidate Palestinians into leaving their ancestral lands so that settlers can seize new areas.
From 2005 to 2023, just 3 percent of official Israeli investigations into settler violence resulted in a conviction, according to Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din.
