VIDEO: Israeli settlers attack human rights activists in West Bank

Gulf Today Report

A video of Israeli settlers attacking a group of human rights activists in West Bank draws ire from other international bodies. A Palestinian student living in the area shared the video.

Basil Adraa said on Facebook, “This just happened near my home: Settlers brutally attacked and injured two peace activists."

"They came here to protest against the occupation's ongoing policy to ethnically cleanse Masafer Yatta of Palestinians. In the face of racism and violence, there's bravery and hope…”

The video showed settlers from the outpost of Mitzpe Yair violently attacked some Israeli human rights activists in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills.

Recently, investigators commissioned by the UN’s top human rights body say tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are underpinned by Israel's "perpetual occupation” of Palestinian areas with no apparent intention of ending it.

The findings came in the first report by a Commission of Inquiry, headed by a three-person team of human rights experts.

It was set up last year by the UN-backed Human Rights Council following an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The Palestinian authorities said that some 1,200 Palestinians in the West Bank region of Masafer Yatta face the risk of forced removal to make way for an army firing zone after a decades-long legal battle that ended last month in Israel's highest court.

The ruling opened the way for one of the largest displacements since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war. But residents are refusing to leave, hoping their resilience and international pressure will keep Israel from carrying out the evictions.