Palestinian man in the West Bank says he was sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers | CNN

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers stormed into Qusai Abu al-Kebash’s small village last weekend in the middle of the night. They grabbed Abu al-Kebash, bound him by his hands and legs and stripped him. He says they then zip-tied his genitals and paraded him through his community while beating him. Israeli settlers have increasingly used violence against Palestinians in a bid to drive them from their homes in the occupied West Bank. But sexual assault appears to be a new weapon in these settlers’ arsenal of intimidation, pointing to a troubling new level of violence. “They cut my belt off with a knife, as well as my boxers. They zip-tied my penis, tightened it and then dragged me all around the village,” Abu al-Kebash said, speaking to CNN in his first on-camera interview. “It was very, very painful. … I thought they were going to kill me.” The 29-year-old continued: “I felt humiliated and insulted. Why would they do that to us? Why do they tie someone up like that?” Several members of Abu al-Kebash’s family who were present at the time corroborated his account. So did two foreign activists — volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement — who told CN