Ammon News - Colonial Israeli settlers today assaulted and injured a Palestinian child and attacked herders in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, said Aref Daraghmeh, an official in charge of monitoring the Israeli settlement file in the area, WAFA reported.

He said a group of settlers assaulted Palestinian herders while grazing their sheep near Khirbet Makhoul village and forced them to leave. He added that a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Hussein Yousef Besharat, was assaulted by the settlers, and sustained bruises as a result.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are commonplace, but attacks on farmers and herders are particularly intensified in the Jordan Valley area. Most of these attacks occurred in the presence of the Israeli occupation army, which usually does nothing to stop the attacks and rather provides protection for assailants, according to WAFA.

Armed settlers and soldiers often prevent Palestinian shepherds from herding in the open pastures of the occupied West Bank in order to force them to abandon the area.