Israeli security forces on Thursday arrested two Palestinians who were part of a group of rioters that attacked and wounded a Jewish shepherd in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria on Wednesday.

“Yesterday afternoon, a report was received at the police emergency call center of an attack by masked Palestinians on several Jews near Ramat Migron in Binyamin,” the Israel Police’s Judea and Samaria District said.

The Arab rioters are suspected of assaulting Israelis with stones and clubs. During the attempted lynching, a Jewish shepherd from the Migron area sustained a head wound and had to be evacuated to the hospital.

Following “intensive intelligence activity,” Israel Police forces identified the two suspects, arresting them at their home in the nearby village of Burqa several hours after the attack, Thursday’s statement said.

The suspects, both 25, were being questioned, and the police will seek an extension of their detention in an Israeli military court, it added.

In August 2023, a Palestinian from Burqa was shot dead by an Israeli resident of the area during clashes that reportedly started when rioters attacked a Jewish shepherd on the outskirts of the Arab village.

According to data collected by authorities, Arab aggression and terrorism against Jewish shepherds in Judea and Samaria have been on the rise.

“Jewish farmers are grazing their sheep in open areas; Arabs don’t like that, even if it happens in Area C [of Judea and Samaria, where Israeli communities are located]. They’re trying to stop them by using violence,” a Judea and Samaria local official told JNS in 2023.

With reporting by JNS.