A PALESTINIAN teenager was assaulted and left for dead by a group of 20 Israeli settlers who launched an unprovoked attack against him and his cousin on Wednesday.

Speaking from his hospital bed in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, 16-year-old Osama Daghlas told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that he and Salah had been playing in fields near their home village of Burqa when a group of adult settlers accosted them.

They fled, but the Israelis caught Osama while Salah escaped.
“The settlers first threw rocks at me and one hit me in the head and I fell to ground unconscious,” he said.

“But this was not enough for them. After that they started to kick me and beat me up all over my body.

“Then they dragged me across the field for about one kilometre heading to their settlement at the top of the hill.

“My clothes were all torn and when we got on top of the hill, they pushed me and let me roll down the hill toward the valley.”

When Osama tried to get back to his village 200 yards away, the settlers threw stun grenades at him. He fell and hit his head on a rock and remembers nothing more before waking up in hospital.

Osama’s father Jamil Daghlas said a shepherd found the boy unconscious and raised the alarm. He said his son probably only survived because the settlers thought he was dead.  

Burqa has come under attack several times from settlers, who have thrown stones at houses and burnt cars.

In July 2015 settler extremists firebombed a house in nearby Duma, killing 18-month old toddler Ali Dawabsheh and fatally burning his parents, leaving his brother Ahmad to recover as an orphan.