On Saturday morning, a group of human rights workers were attacked by three Israeli settlers in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank. The settlers threw stones at the human rights workers and hit them with a metal pipe. A local man who tried to videotape the attack became a victim himself, when he was pelted with rocks thrown by the Israeli settlers.
According to the International Solidarity Movement, the human rights workers were walking down the street in Tel Rumeida when a group of Israeli settlers living illegally in the Palestinian town descended upon them with stones and metal pipes.
In Tel Rumeida, there is a heavy Israeli military presence put in place to protect a group of 500 illegal Israeli settlers who chose to settle in the middle of a heavily-populated Palestinian area in which nearly 200,000 Palestinians live.
Palestinians are not allowed to drive any type of cars, including buses, taxis, ambulances, and fire trucks. Israeli settler civilians are allowed to carry guns, while Palestinians are not allowed to have weapons of any kind. Palestinians are subjected to random detentions and ID checks (Israeli settlers are not). Israeli soldiers frequently invade Palestinian homes or use their roofs as outposts. The security forces in the neighborhood are Israeli only and, according to local residents, completely ignore complaints made by Palestinians.
The Tel Rumeida district has been the site of frequent and violent Israeli settler attacks against both Palestinians and internationals. Last month, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian resident's car. Israeli soldiers refused to allow Palestinian fire trucks to enter Tel Rumeida to extinguish the fire.
