Two Jewish youths sustained injuries, one of them suffering serious wounds, on Thursday morning following an altercation with Palestinians on an agricultural farm near the West Bank settlement of Rimonim. They said they were assaulted with rocks and stones and that the Palestinian suspects managed to escape to one of the neighboring villages.
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Emergency MDA teams provided initial medical treatment and transported the two a Jerusalem hospital.
The Palestinians alleged that a family was attacked ear Ramallah when armed settlers interfered with their olive harvest. There have been multiple instances of clashes between settlers and farmers on the West Bank over the years, especially during the harvest season.
During the olive harvest, Palestinians are given access to their olive trees including in areas that they are barred from entering in other times of the year, including in close proximity to settlements and illegal outposts, where tensions have been high.
Settlers have claimed that allowing Palestinians to harvest olives during times of war jeopardizes their security.
"Permitting the harvest to proceed as usual during times of war is simply unjust, an official in a nearby settlement said. "This provides an opportunity for planning future attacks and undermines security in the most obvious manner. We are not opposed to the tradition itself, but we are currently in extraordinary times, experiencing war, and we must adjust our behavior accordingly."
Since the beginning of the war in the south, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in clashes with IDF forces. Security forces arrest dozens of terror suspects in nightly raids many of whom are Hamas operatives.