Illustrative: Israeli settlers look for 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir, who was found murdered after he went missing in the area near the village of al-Mughayyer, in the West Bank, April 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS /Mohammed Torokman

JNS.org — A Jewish Israeli man sustained facial injuries on Monday in an assault near the town of Mevo’ot Yericho in the southern Jordan Valley.

Multiple men assaulted the man, a shepherd, in the Mu’arrajat area about 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem, lightly wounding him.

Israeli troops arrested at least two men in Mu’arrajat in connection with the incident, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said. Jewish men showed the troops where the assailants hid, leading to a search of the premises.

Palestinians resisted the search, leading to an altercation with the troops in which several Palestinians were wounded and some arrested, the IDF said. The report did not say whether those apprehended were the attackers who had assaulted the shepherd.

Elisha Yered, an activist promoting Jewish presence in the West Bank, wrote on X that the shepherd’s attackers were Arabs. Several of them assaulted the shepherd and another man in the early morning hours on Monday, Yered wrote. A photo of the victim that Yered posted on X shows blood streaming from a young man’s right ear.

The IDF said the victim sustained a head injury.

The JDNnews site reported that the assailants stole the shepherd’s phone and beat him with blunt objects. He used a distress buzzer that he was carrying to alert the owner of a nearby farm, who arrived at the scene with security personnel. Several suspects fled as they saw the security forces approach, the report said.

A Magen David Adom ambulance took the victim to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. His injuries were defined as minor.

Mevo’ot Yericho was established in 1999, north of the Palestinian Authority city of Jericho.