Wadi Rahal, Bethlehem District: Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian laborers working village farmland

On Friday morning, 11 October 2024, five laborers from Dheisheh Refugee Camp were tending to a plot of farmland that belongs to the Faraj family from Wadi Rahal, a village in Bethlehem District. They worked in two groups, about 100 meters apart, three working by agricultural structures and two at the other end of the plot.

Around 3:00 P.M., three settlers arrived, one masked and bearing a rifle and the other two carrying clubs. They approached the two workers at the edge of the plot, who started running away. The settlers ran after them, throwing stones, until the settler with the rifle fired in the air. The workers stopped running and the settlers caught them, tied their hands with zip ties, and then beat them with the clubs and kicked them all over their bodies.

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Soldiers detain the laborers working by the agricultural structures. Photo courtesy of residents
Soldiers detain the laborers working by the agricultural structures. Photo courtesy of residents

Meanwhile, more settlers arrived and joined in the assault. Soldiers who were there went over to the other three workers and attacked them, beating them with their rifles and hands. About 10 minutes later, an officer arrived, at which point the soldiers stopped attacking the workers. The officer and other soldiers then drove in a military jeep towards the settlers, who were still abusing the first two workers, and ordered them to stop. The soldiers replaced the zip ties on the workers’ wrists with looser ones, and then put them in the jeep and drove them to the other three workers, where more military jeeps were waiting, along with a Palestinian ambulance. The ambulance took the five injured workers to Al-Hussein Hospital in Bethlehem, where they were given first aid and painkillers, and then discharged.

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Wadi Rahal, Bethlehem District: Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian laborers working village farmland
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During the October 2023 war
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During olive harvest
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