News - Middle East: An Israeli settler has rammed an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) into a Palestinian man, while he was kneeling in prayer on the side of a road in the occupied West Bank, in the latest incident highlighting the surge in settler violence against Palestinians.

Footage circulated by Palestinian media outlets on Thursday showed the settler, carrying a rifle, driving directly into the praying man near the village of Deir Jarir, north of the city of Ramallah.

The Palestinian was knocked to the ground and left lying injured as the settler dismounted, shouted at him, and ordered him to leave the area before driving away.

Settler identified as Israeli military reservist

The Israeli military later confirmed that the settler seen in the video was an Israeli reserve trooper.

An initial military probe also found that the same reservist had earlier opened fire inside the village, while dressed in civilian clothes.

No arrests have been made in connection with the ATV attack.

Majdi Abu Mokho, the father of the injured Palestinian, said his son suffered pain in both legs after being struck. He identified the assailant as a settler, who had set up an outpost near the village and regularly provoked residents by blocking roads and grazing livestock nearby.

The ATV incident came amid a series of other settler attacks reported in the occupied territory on the same day.

Palestinian media published videos showing at least five settlers throwing stones and firing a gun inside Deir Jarir earlier in the day, wounding a young Palestinian man. Reports of additional injuries were still being examined.

In a separate incident, five Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the town of Sa’ir, north of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron). The assault injured an eight-month-old baby girl, who suffered injuries to her face and head after stones shattered windows in the family’s home.

Elsewhere in southern West Bank, settlers set fire to a bulldozer in the village of Beit Fajjar and sprayed graffiti reading “revenge.” No arrests were reported in that case.

The incidents followed a warning from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last week denounced escalating violence by illegal Israeli settlers against unarmed Palestinian civilians and their property across the West Bank.

Speaking in New York, Guterres stressed the obligation to uphold the international humanitarian and human rights law throughout the occupied territory, including East al-Quds.

Source: Press TV