Masked Israeli settlers attack NBC News team in West Bank
Masked Israeli settlers attacked and injured a Palestinian woman and members of an NBC News team reporting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, reports BritPanorama.
Four members of the NBC team were interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family in the Palestinian town of Jalud, near Nablus. Abdullah stated they had been driven out of their home by Israeli settlers, and the team was walking down the hill toward the house.
A gray car with Israeli license plates then drove in reverse up the hill toward them, as captured in video of the incident.
A masked man in a blue tracksuit was leaning out of the rear passenger window as the vehicle approached. When the car stopped, at least four men in dark clothes with their faces covered leapt out, hitting Abdullah and the crew with sticks and throwing rocks at them.
“They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” said NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley, who was struck twice in the arm and later treated at a nearby clinic.
Abdullah, 51, who was on the ground after the attack, received medical care from the Red Crescent. Her injuries were reported not to be life-threatening, according to statements from the Israeli military and Israel Border Police. Her husband, Mahmoud Toubasi, noted that Abdullah’s condition improved but she remained in the hospital Saturday night.
Three additional members of the NBC News team, including a cameraman, producer, and driver, sustained injuries and were treated following the attack. Producer Lawahez Jabari described how the car rushed up the hill before its occupants beat members of the team and damaged camera equipment as well as one of the crew’s vehicles.
“Suddenly a car came to us,” she said after receiving medical care. “The settlers had sticks, I saw a gun, but they didn’t use the gun.”
Camera operator Khaldoon Eid, who lives in the West Bank, expressed surprise that an attack could occur in broad daylight in the middle of the village. “We didn’t expect that — that they would come to attack,” he remarked. “We were in the middle of a Palestinian area next to Palestinian houses.”
The attack coincided with several violent incidents in the area. Israeli security forces informed NBC News that they had received reports about “Israeli rioters” arriving in the locale, which involved violent clashes, including stone-throwing towards Palestinians and other civilians. This addressed violence in nearby Qusra, a Palestinian village under siege by Israeli settlers for weeks.
“Upon their arrival, the security forces identified dozens of rioters who had barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home while Palestinian residents were inside,” the statement indicated.
“The security forces who arrived at the scene initially operated to remove the rioters from the home and separate the groups, in order to protect the residents inside. In addition, the security forces confiscated vehicles belonging to the Israeli rioters suspected of having been used to reach the area,” the statement noted.
“IDF soldiers and Israel Border Police forces continue to operate in the areas of Qusra and Jalud to prevent further disturbances and restore order in the area,” it added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “criminal acts of violence committed in the villages of Kosra and Jalud by a handful of rioters who violate the law, cause enormous injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hinder the IDF in fulfilling its missions, and harm Israel’s standing in the world.”
Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows that between January 1 and July 24, Israeli forces or settlers killed 76 Palestinians, while three Israelis were killed over the same period.
Netanyahu’s hard-line government faces accusations of overlooking settler attacks in the West Bank, which many nations regard as illegally occupied. In their statement post-attack, Israeli security forces asserted they “strongly condemn all forms of violence.”
Captured during the 1967 Middle East war, the West Bank houses approximately 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers.
The uptick in violence has prompted increased pressure on the Israeli military to address these armed groups. Reports from the United Nations and media workers indicate a rise in attacks on foreign, Palestinian, and Israeli journalists in the West Bank.
