- Unidentified assailants attacked two American Christian
volunteers who were escorting Palestinian schoolchildren on Wednesday morning
near the settlement of Maon in the southern Hebron Hills area of the West
Bank.
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- The assailants beat the volunteers and robbed them. The
two were evacuated by Israeli ambulance to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er
Sheva.
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- The attackers, numbering four or five, were dressed in
black and wore masks. They spoke English and were carrying chains and clubs.
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- They did not attack the schoolchildren, who quickly fled
the scene, but stole a bag belonging to female volunteer Kim Lamberty,
44, and broke her arm. The bag contained her passport, money and cellular
phone.
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- The assailants beat the second volunteer, Chris Brown,
39, with chains. He suffered a punctured lung and external bleeding.
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- Both volunteers are affiliated with the Christian Peacemakers
Teams, which escorts Palestinian schoolchildren living with their families
in caves in the village of Tuba to their primary school in the village
of Al-Tuwani, an approximately half-hour walk.
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- The road along which the volunteers and schoolchildren
pass is used by settlers and is forbidden to Palestinian vehicular traffic.
Palestinian pedestrians, however, are permitted to use the road.
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- However, the schoolchildren are afraid to pass unescorted
through the area because of what they describe as harrassment by area Jewish
settlers.
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- Asked about Wednesday's attack on the U.S. activists,
Josh Hasten, a spokesman for the settlers' Yesha Council, said: "We
know nothing of this specific incident but are opposed to any violation
of the law."
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