HEBRON, Wednesday, April 15, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers today afternoon attacked a Palestinian shepherd to the east of Yatta, south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, local sources said.

Fo‘ad Amour, a local rights activist, told WAFA that a number of fanatic Israeli settlers forced their way into farmlands in At-Tuwani locality, east of Yatta, under heavy military protection by Israeli forces, where they assaulted shepherds, injuring one of them and causing terror among local residents.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Settlers‘ violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

There are almost 834,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The number of settlers has almost tripled since the Oslo Accords of 1993, when settlers’ number estimated 252,000. Illegal colonial settlements have leapt from 144 to 515 in that time.

Israel’s nation-state law states that building and strengthening the settlements is a “national interest.”

K.T./ K.F.