Police have arrested two Israeli settlers on suspicion of assaulting Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank, after the incident was captured on video by a human rights group.

Footage of the attack, which was first aired publicly last week, shows four men beating an elderly shepherd and his wife with long wooden batons. The attackers had donned headscarves to cover their faces.

"Two suspects were arrested in the early hours of this morning,” Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

The camera that shot the incident had been handed to a relative of the farmer as part of a project named "Shooting Back" that was launched by B'tselem, an Israeli human rights group. The project, which has already distributed more than 100 small video cameras, aims to provide ordinary Palestinians with video ammunition against those who abuse their rights.

B’tselem claims it investigated 47 cases of assault, gunfire, beating, kicking, or stone-throwing by settlers against Palestinians last year and reported them all to police.

“The settlers gave us a 10-minute warning to clear off from the land,” said Thamam al-Nawaja, 58, after spending three days in hospital following the attack.

Mrs al-Nawaja said she and her 70-year-old husband refused to leave and, as a result, her arm was broken and her left cheek was fractured in the ensuing attack.

Times Recommends

• Settlers burn Koran in mosque attack
• Gorillas threatened by charcoal trade
• Israeli anger at new Palestine food labels