Dozens of settlers attacked Palestinians while they were picking olives, smashed their cars, and assaulted a 53-year-old woman, causing her to suffer a brain hemorrhage. The commander of the West Bank police promised to arrest the assailant, but so far, nothing has happened.
This was reported in a piece prepared by Israeli writers Gideon Levy and Alex Levak, who added that the woman, named Iffaf Abu Aliya, received a strong blow to her head that caused her to bleed from the brain, fall to the ground, and lose consciousness.
The report states that the perpetrators attacked a foreign volunteer who came to protect the woman and her family. As for Iffaf, the story did not end there, as the settlers continued to beat her while she lay on the ground, kicking and slapping her.
At the age of their grandmothers, Iffaf Abu Aliya (53 years old) - a Palestinian mother of five and grandmother of nine grandchildren - could also be the same age as the grandmothers of those who assaulted her, as they nearly killed her with their deadly blows.
Iffaf was wearing a traditional embroidered black dress, and her only apparent crime was joining her family in their orchard to pick olives.
Younger pickers in a nearby orchard rushed to carry her while she lay on the ground moaning, half-conscious, with her head bleeding.
The report clarified that a video showing these atrocities was widely circulated on social media, and unusually, excerpts from it were broadcast on Israeli television.
The police chief pledged, and Israeli Channel 12 News reported, according to the report, that the commander of the Israeli police district "Shai," Major General Moshe Ben-Shemesh, wrote in an internal WhatsApp group for the police that he "could not sleep" because of the footage.
He stated that "this brutal assailant, who strikes elderly women and harms them in this way, will be arrested and held accountable," and today, the writers say, nearly two weeks have passed since the incident that occurred in the village of Turmus Ayya in the West Bank northeast of Ramallah, and nothing has happened.
Strangely, Levy and Levak comment, the investigation is still ongoing, and the police have begun to accuse the victim Iffaf, whom the police spokesperson refers to as "the Palestinian woman," because she did not appear to testify at the police station.
The police implicitly suggest that the continued impunity of the assailant is due to her absence.
Another assault occurred on the same day when Ayman, Iffaf's brother-in-law, went to the orchard accompanied by his brothers' wives, Iffaf and Watfa, and his 32-year-old nephew Salah, Iffaf's son.
About half an hour into their work, they were suddenly attacked by between 10 to 15 masked settlers, armed with pistols and sticks with metal heads, coming from a nearby hill.
The first assailants began smashing Ayman's old car, breaking its windows and puncturing its tires, at which point Ayman shouted for help from the other families.
A group of locals arrived and evacuated the women, causing the settlers to retreat under a hail of stones from some young Palestinians.
The report mentioned that the settlers had established a point about half a year ago on the outskirts of this very orchard, which overlooks the villages.
When the settlers withdrew, Ayman and two other men from Turmus Ayya tried to move his car from the site, but due to the punctured tires, they could only move it about 200 meters.
Meanwhile, forces from the Israeli army arrived in their vehicles, and about 15 soldiers got out and detained Ayman for nearly 40 minutes, warning him that he was not allowed to stay there without giving him any reasons.
The soldiers left, but then a large number of masked and armed settlers appeared, whom Ayman estimated to number around 50, and they began attacking him while he was taking shelter in his partially damaged car.
They tried to force open the door; they began to beat him, but he managed to jump out of the car and escape.
The report attributed to Muhammad Ramana, a field researcher at B'Tselem (the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), stated that the settlers set fire to Ayman's car and two other cars belonging to olive pickers that day.
Later, a Palestinian ambulance transported Iffaf, accompanied by Ayman, to a hospital in Ramallah, and the doctors informed the family that Iffaf might be
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Two Israeli writers: Despite depicting the settlers' brutal attack on Afaf, no one was arrested.