Israeli Jewish settlers attacked Palestinians in southern occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Kheir, located in Al-Khalil District, on Monday.
Coordinator of popular committees in the southern West Bank Ratib al-Jabour said that a group of the Israeli Jewish settlers from the illegal Karmel Settlement threw stones at Palestinian farmers while working in their fields in Umm al-Kheir.
Al-Jabour also said that the Israeli occupation forces arrived in the area to protect the settlers, fearing that the Palestinians would gather and respond to their attack.
Palestinian activists and rights groups have long accused Israel of fostering a “culture of impunity” for Israeli settlers and soldiers committing violent acts against Palestinians.
While the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Jewish-only settlements across the West Bank in violation of international law are permitted to carry guns, and are rarely held accountable for stone throwing, Palestinians face up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones.
Israeli authorities served indictments in only 8.2 percent of cases of Israeli Jewish settlers committing anti-Palestinian crimes in the West Bank in the past three years, according to Israeli NGO Yesh Din.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were a total of 107 reported settler attacks against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in 2016.
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