Palestinian family survives settler attack in West Bank

Jewish settlers attempted to assault and threatened to kill a Palestinian family on Tuesday, after they tried to attack the family's home in the a West Bank village near Nablus.

The incident, which occured in the village of Qaryout, in the north of the West Bank, is the latest in a long line of attacks by Jewish Israeli citizens living in settlements on illegally-occupied Palestinian land.

Activist Bashar al-Qaryouti told al-Araby al-Jadeed that the settlers started lurking around the house of the Sabry family late on Monday night, before the mother saw them on her way home.

"She started screaming and calling on the locals and the neighbourhood watch guards deployed across the village to fend against the expected settler attacks," Qaryouti said.

Qaryouti added that another armed group of settlers was lurking around the trees near the al-Boum family home, only a few meters away from the settlement outpost of Huval, which is populated by settlers known to have extremist tendencies.

Neighbourhood watch guards managed to deter the settlers from attacking the house and chased them over a long distance before the Israeli army interfered and fired stun grenades to stop them from catching the settlers.

According to Qaryouti, the settlers threatened to kill the family at gunpoint if they did not stop their call for help.

"The family was terrified and the mother was hospitalised after the incident," he said.

Qaryouti called on international human rights organisations to stop the settler attacks on Palestinian houses, as well as to pressure the Israeli government into ending support for extremist right-wing groups.

The village is surrounded by three large settlements, mostly populated by extremist settlers who carry out attacks against Palestinians, as well as four settlement outposts that are populated by militant Jewish settlers who support the killing of Palestinians.

Dozens of different attacks have been carried out against Qaryout and other villages by these armed groups, including an attack two weeks ago, where a Palestinian toddler was burnt to death and four family members injured in an arson attack committed by suspected Jewish settlers.