JERUSALEM, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police said on Tuesday they had arrested five Israelis suspected of attacking a Palestinian family in a West Bank town, injuring a mother and her three children.
The suspects are among at least six people seen in CCTV footage from the family's home in the town of as-Samu in the Hebron governorate in the southern West Bank. In the video circulating on social media, the assailants are seen beating sheep and damaging property during an overnight raid.
Family members were taken to the hospital after suffering pepper spray inhalation and other injuries, Israeli police said in a statement.
Israel's Ynet news site reported some sheep were killed and others mutilated.
Israeli daily Ha'aretz said the same family was attacked last month when masked settlers abused lambs, killed several of them and caused damage to the house.
Palestinians in the West Bank have faced intensified Israeli military raids as well as a rise in settler attacks since October 2023.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 7,500 raids by Israeli forces into Palestinian towns and villages have been recorded in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025, a 37 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024. Over 1,700 settler attacks, an average of five per day, were also documented so far this year, leading to casualties, forced displacement and property damage in more than 270 communities across the West Bank. More than 200 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the attacks. ■
