Israeli settlers attack Palestinian Bedouin family in West Bank

Hardline Jewish settlers have assaulted a Palestinian Bedouin woman, who is also a citizen of Israel, and four other members of her family, sparking concerns about rising extremist settler attacks in the occupied West Bank.

Twenty-two-year-old Lamis al-Jaar was driving with her young daughter, two sisters, and a niece from the Bedouin city of Rahat, in southern Israel, on 10 August toward the West Bank city of Nablus, when they asked a man for directions.

He directed them down a wrong road and blocked their car, as around a dozen men swarmed the vehicle, hurling stones and brandishing weapons in what was described by Israeli police as a "serious attack".

Al-Jaar told news agency AFP how one of the men pointed a gun at their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Elaf.

Her sister, Raghda al-Jaar, 29, said the attackers shattered the car windows and sprayed the occupants with tear gas.  

"I told them we were Israeli citizens," Raghda recalled, but when one of the men realised she was calling the police, he hurled a rock at her and shouted: "You will not leave here alive!" 

Despite being outnumbered, the group managed to escape and were eventually escorted away by Israeli police and soldiers.  

Lamis suffered a fractured finger and back pain, while Raghda sustained a head injury and her left leg is now in a cast. 

Israeli authorities later claimed the women had "accidentally entered" Givat Ronen, an outpost of the illegal Jewish settlement of Har Bracha, located south of Nablus. 

The aftermath of the harrowing attack was met with condemnation by several ordinary Israelis, while President Isaac Herzog expressed his "shock" over the violence and affirmed that "all citizens of Israel deserve equal and decent treatment". 

The father of Lamis and Raghda, Adnan al-Jaar, told AFP that while such outreach "makes us feel good", he remains concerned that, like many other violent incidents, this crime might go unpunished. 

So far, police have announced the arrest of five suspects, with four men remaining in custody and a fifth-placed under house arrest.  

The attack on the al-Jaar family took place amid an escalation in violence in the West Bank against Palestinian civilians.

On Saturday, extremist Israeli settlers launched a pogrom on Palestinian villages in both the north and south of the West Bank, injuring several people and setting fire to vehicles and olive groves, according to local Palestinian media. No arrests have been reported. 

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported a series of attacks on Palestinians by armed settlers in the villages of Susta, Rujeib, and the neighbouring area of Khallet al-Abhar, while settlers torched olive groves in the village of Sira, located south of Nablus. 

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law, are viewed by the United Nations as a significant obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.