Settlers Beat Palestinian Man with Clubs in Beitillu, Israeli Activist Group Documents Attack

Mahmoud Abu Radwan, 23, was hospitalized in Ramallah on Saturday evening after Israeli settlers beat him with clubs in the central West Bank village of Beitillu, according to reporting by Middle East Eye and documentation from the Israeli activist group Looking the Occupation in the Eye.

An image the group shared shows Abu Radwan bruised and bloodied inside an ambulance as he was transported to Al-Ishraqati Hospital in Ramallah. He suffered severe contusions and deep wounds to his head, chest and abdomen, according to the reporting.

A video circulated alongside the image shows a group of settlers armed with clubs walking away from the area shortly after the apparent attack. Middle East Eye did not independently verify the sequence of events beyond what the footage and image show.

Looking the Occupation in the Eye, which describes itself as working to end the occupation, posted the material with a caption in Hebrew calling the assault a "cruel lynching." Translated, the group's post reads in part:

"A young Palestinian man, a resident of the village of Beitillu in the Ramallah-al-Bireh district, Mahmoud Abu Radwan, was violently beaten with clubs by a group of settlers from the local terror nest. As a result of the attack he was taken to Al-Ishraqati Hospital in Ramallah, suffering from severe injuries and deep wounds in the head, chest and abdomen areas."

Beitillu sits in an area of the central West Bank that has seen repeated settler incursions in recent years. Middle East Eye's reporting characterized Saturday's incident as taking place during a "settler raid" on the village, though the exact circumstances that preceded the beating, including what if anything provoked it, are not established in the available record.

No Israeli military or police statement on the incident was included in the reporting, and it remains unclear whether any arrests have been made or an investigation opened. Settler violence in the West Bank has drawn repeated documentation from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, who say such attacks are rarely prosecuted.

Occupation Watch could not independently confirm the identities of the settlers shown in the video or corroborate the account beyond the photographic evidence, video, and hospital transport referenced in the reporting.