On Saturday afternoon, several international human rights workers were attacked by Israeli settlers living illegally on Palestinian land near Hebron, the third such attack in three weeks. In a statement from the group, called the Tel Rumeida Project, the human rights workers state: "Tension had been building in Tel Rumeda all afternoon. Settler children spat at, and verbally
abused human rights workers in the mid afternoon. A group of seven teenagers then
threatened the same workers, and were overheard complaining that they were "not enough,"
to make a successful attack. The teenagers, who were unaware some of the human rights workers spoke Hebrew, said they would meet at the home of Baruch Marzel to make a plan."
At approximately 3:45pm, a gang of 30 settlers marched through Shuhada Street near the
illegal settlement of Beit Hadassa. They then turned left just before the Army checkpoint and
marched up the hill where they attempted to attack some human rights workers who had
become concerned for local Palestinians’ safety. The human rights workers were backed up against a wall and only saved by the intervention of a squad of Israeli soldiers who happened to be
patrolling at the time. The gang continued up the hill, where they attacked a Palestinian shop.
The settlers flung sharpened metal bars as "spears" through the open doorway smashing
produce jars and knocking goods from the shelves. They also threw stones, punched and
kicked a group of Palestinian children playing just outside, and assaulted the 16-year-old
owner’s son.
Internationals were also attacked when they stood between the shop-front and the gang. The
settlers only stopped when confronted by soldiers from the Israeli Army. The gang, composed
of teenagers and older boys, all in Orthodox Jewish dress of white shirts, black pants, and
skull-caps and led by an adult man, then moved off into a nearby Palestinian olive grove,
where several Palestinian families live.
