Bethlehem:Four elderly Palestinian farmers were assaulted and briefly detained by Israeli colonists on Saturday while harvesting olives on their land near an Israeli colony built on Palestinian land south of Bethlehem.
According to Palestine news and Information Agency, the farmers were attacked by a group of colonists who held them for several hours and severely beat them. The victims have been identified as Taher Ahmad Najajreh, 64; Ziad Younis Subh, 60; Ibrahim Yaqoub Issa, 63; and Ibrahim Mohammad Issa, 64.
Ibrahim Issa was particularly severely assaulted and was transferred to a hospital, where he remains in a coma in the intensive care unit.
In a separate incident, Israeli occupation forces set up a military checkpoint at the southern entrance to Bethlehem, stopping Palestinian vehicles, searching them, and checking passengers' identification documents.
The attack on the farmers comes amid a rise in colonist violence targeting Palestinian farmers and their land during the olive harvest season. Several areas in the Bethlehem governorate have experienced repeated attacks, including assaults on farmers, preventing access to their land, damaging olive trees, and stealing harvested olives. Last Tuesday, colonists stole olives and damaged 40 trees on land belonging to the village of Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, as part of ongoing attacks on Palestinian agricultural land and property.