Palestinians face ‘indiscriminate intimidation’ by Israeli occupiers: MSF

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced the "increased violence, indiscriminate intimidation and insecurity" facing Palestinians from Israeli occupiers across the occupied West Bank.

MSF said in a statement late Monday that one of its staff members was "violently assaulted" by Israeli occupiers during a deliberate attack on his village in the southern West Bank on Oct. 15.

"On the evening of Oct. 15, Israeli settlers violently assaulted a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) colleague with a hand-sized rock launched by a slingshot during a targeted attack," the group said, adding that he required immediate medical treatment.

"This incident is not isolated," MSF said, noting that Palestinians across Hebron province and other parts of the West Bank have faced increasing violence, intimidation and insecurity in recent months.

The injured staff member said around 20 occupiers initially descended from nearby hills to attack residents before more arrived, armed with clubs, rifles, stun grenades and slingshots.

"The settlers were armed with batons, rifles, stun grenades and slingshots," he said.

"The violence experienced by our colleague, the barriers to reaching medical care and the growing restrictions imposed on Palestinian communities are not coincidental," MSF said, describing it as part of an Israeli strategy that undermines people's safety and restricts their movement, access to health care and ability to live with dignity.

The organization said an ambulance was unable to reach the area because of unpaved roads, forcing the injured staff member to be taken by private vehicle to meet an ambulance before receiving treatment at a clinic and later a hospital.

Separately, Al-Baidar rights organization said that attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers had forced 20 Palestinian families to leave the Ras al-Ahmar Bedouin community in the northern Jordan Valley.

"Another 27 families remaining in the community had been threatened with displacement by Friday," the group said.

"Restrictions preventing water and animal feed from reaching the community were worsening living conditions and threatening residents' ability to meet basic needs and preserve their livelihoods," it warned.

Many residents rely on livestock as their main source of income, making access to water and feed essential, the group said.

Since October 2023, attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers against Palestinians and their property have intensified across the occupied West Bank, involving killings, arrests, displacement, home demolitions, land bulldozing and settlement expansion.

Official Palestinian figures indicate that around 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, across 194 illegal settlements and roughly 400 settlement outposts.