Israeli settlers today attacked and injured a Palestinian shepherd in Masafer Yatta, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.

Coordinator of the Protection and Steadfastness Committee, Fouad al-Amour, said that a group of armed settlers broke into Khirbet Laseifer in Masafer Yatta and brutally beat Othman Abu Qabeitah as he was grazing his sheep in the village pastures, inflicting cuts in his head and bruises across his body. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

The assailants came from Ya'akov Talya colonial settlement, notorious for its hardcore fanatic settlers.

Settlers from the same settlement, built on Masafer Yatta land, yesterday also attacked shepherds while herding their sheep in the pastures, cursed them and then forced them to leave the area.

Masafer Yatta is a collection of almost 19 hamlets which rely heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood.

Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living - livestock.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

It includes property arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.