Hebron:Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has condemned the rising violence and intimidation faced by Palestinians from Israeli settlers across the occupied West Bank, which has resulted in the displacement of 20 families.
According to Anadolu Agency – English, MSF reported that one of its staff members was violently assaulted by Israeli settlers during an attack on his village in the southern West Bank on October 15. The staff member was injured by a hand-sized rock launched with a slingshot and required immediate medical treatment.
MSF highlighted that this incident is part of a broader pattern of increasing violence, intimidation, and insecurity affecting Palestinians in Hebron province and other parts of the West Bank. The injured staff member recounted that around 20 settlers initially attacked the village, with more arriving armed with clubs, rifles, stun grenades, and slingshots.
The organization criticized the Israeli strategy, which they claim undermines safety and restricts movement, access to healthcare, and the ability to live with dignity for Palestinian communities. An ambulance could not reach the injured staff member due to unpaved roads, necessitating transport by private vehicle to meet an ambulance before he received treatment.
Separately, the Al-Baidar rights organization reported that Israeli army and settler attacks had forced 20 Palestinian families to leave the Ras al-Ahmar Bedouin community in the northern Jordan Valley. An additional 27 families have been threatened with displacement, exacerbating the already difficult living conditions due to restrictions on water and animal feed.
Since October 2023, there has been an escalation of attacks by the Israeli army and settlers against Palestinians, involving killings, arrests, displacement, and other aggressive measures. Official Palestinian figures indicate that approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, across 194 illegal settlements and roughly 400 settlement outposts.