West Bank, Palestine, 11 January (H.S.): A harrowing video circulating widely on social media has exposed the brutal assault by masked Israeli settlers on 67-year-old Palestinian Basim Saleh Yassin at a German-Palestinian-run plant nursery in the occupied West Bank.

The footage, verified by multiple outlets, depicts Yassin—deaf and unable to heed warnings from fleeing workers—desperately running from a group of black-clad men before stumbling to the ground on Saturday.One assailant delivers a vicious kick, while another strikes him repeatedly with what appears to be a wooden stick; Yassin remains on his knees, hands pressed to the earth, enduring further blows including a final kick to the head as the attackers depart, leaving him sprawled on the pavement.

Admitted to a hospital with severe facial, chest, and back injuries alongside broken hand bones, Yassin's family attributes his vulnerability to his hearing impairment, which prevented escape when settlers stormed the facility.

This incident exemplifies a surge in settler violence plaguing the West Bank, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses perpetrators as a handful of extremists, yet Palestinians report daily attacks amid Israel's post-1967 occupation of the territory, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Over 500,000 Jewish settlers now reside in the West Bank—settlements deemed illegal under international law—with Netanyahu's Cabinet recently greenlighting 19 new outposts and clearing hurdles for a major project near Jerusalem that would bisect Palestinian lands, further eroding prospects for statehood.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar