US, UK condemn attacks by Zionist settlers on Palestinians in West Bank

The United States and United Kingdom condemned an attack on Palestinians perpetrated by Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. 
 

Dozens of masked Zionists threw stones at Palestinians in the village of Khirbat al-Mufkara on the south Hebron (Al-Khalil) Hills as well as damaging around 10 vehicles and water tanks.  
 

Some 12 people were injured in the clashes, including a three-year-old boy who was taken to hospital for a head wound.  
 

"The UK condemns this violent act against a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills by settlers on 28 September," wrote UK minister for the middle east and north Africa James Cleverly on Twitter.
 

The US government also slammed Tuesday's attack. 

"The US government strongly condemns the acts of settler violence that took place against Palestinians in villages near Hebron in the West Bank on September 28," a US Embassy spokesperson was quoted saying on CNN. 

The violence began when settlers "attacked one of the [local] shepherds, stabbing and killing five sheep", said Qassem Mahamdah, a local resident, to The New Arab earlier this week.

Around half a million Zionist settlers live in more than 250 illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

Armed with weapons, radical settler groups living in these settlements stage frequent attacks on Palestinian residents, making life hard for the Palestinian people in the West Bank.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, many Zionist settlers in Ma'ale Adumim settlement – one of the largest in the West Bank with a population of approximately 70,000 people – said they consider settlements "part of Israel."