LONDON: A British citizen deported from Israel said Israeli settlers held him at gunpoint and locked him in a shed after he tried to prevent them from storming a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. Finn Joughin, 22, said he was detained on Saturday near Umm Al-Khair, one of about 12 Palestinian villages in the vicinity of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank’s Area C, which is under full Israeli control. Israeli authorities later arrested and deported him after settlers accused him of assaulting a child, an allegation his lawyer strongly denied. A video posted online appears to show Joughin standing near a fence and using his knee to block an Israeli boy from entering the village. A separate clip appears to show settlers armed with large guns dragging him away. “It all happened so quickly,” Joughin told The Independent newspaper. “I was definitely kind of in some form of shock as it was going on. It took me a while to properly realize that I was being dragged away, surrounded by men with huge rifles. It was a scary moment.” He said that at first he believed he would be able to explain he had done nothing wrong and be released but the situation changed as settlers became increasingly hostile. “Once they kind of started being pretty nasty with me, I realized I was in the hands of potentially dangerous people,” he added. Israeli police told the BBC that a foreign national had been detained by security personnel after residents accused him of “an indecent act against a minor.” He was transferred to their custody and the case was referred to Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority for review. Joughin’s lawyer, Inbar Shaked Vardi, said police questioned his client only on suspicion of common assault and never raised any allegation of an indecent act. The footage, she said, made it “very clear that Finn was merely standing in place while the settler children approached him and pushed up against him in order to trespass into the village.” The Israeli military told The Independent that troops arrived at the scene and arrested Joughin before handing him over to police. The military said the operation was carried out as part of “ongoing cooperation and efforts to prevent provocative activity involving confrontations and disturbances.” Joughin said the settlers twisted his arm behind his back, marched him away and locked him in a shed for about 30 minutes. An armed man stood guard at the door throughout much of his confinement, he added. The Independent said it had asked the Israeli military whether the men involved were soldiers or settlers wearing military-style clothing. Joughin said one of the leading members of the group who held him accused him of having “friends in Iran” and being involved in an attack on Israel. Vardi said she had received no formal update from Israeli police on the case but expected it to be dropped following his deportation. Joughin arrived in Hebron on Aug. 12 to teach English and joined a network of “protective presence” activists later in the month. The activists, including Israelis and volunteers from Britain and the US, say they seek to deter settler violence by documenting incursions and placing themselves between settlers and Palestinians. However, strict child-protection rules, Vardi said, can make it difficult for activists to publish videos that show children who accompany settlers, limiting their ability to document such encounters. Vardi, who has represented Israeli and international activists detained in the West Bank, said settlers have previously brought children with them during attempts to enter Palestinian villages. In similar cases, she added, Israeli activists have been questioned on allegations of assaulting children, though she could not recall another case involving an international activist. Belal, a Palestinian activist from Hebron who withheld his full name because of safety concerns, told The Independent it was “not uncommon” for children and teenagers to be involved in the defense of settlement outposts. “They come from broken homes or the care system, and are pretty much exploited by Israeli settlers,” he said. “If anything, you end up feeling pity for them.” The British Foreign Office said it was aware of Joughin’s case and was “engaging with the Israeli authorities and providing consular assistance.” Joughin, who studies in London and has returned to his parents’ home in Brighton, said his experience in the Umm Al-Khair area was minor compared with the treatment Palestinians face in the area. Umm Al-Khair has been the target of repeated settler attacks. Awdah Hathaleen, a father of three, activist and consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” was killed there in July last year. Settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in general has risen sharply this year, according to UN agencies and media reports. The growing trend includes assaults, shootings and arson, as well as attacks on farmland, homes, water systems and Palestinian access to land, which are contributing to increasing displacement of Palestinians. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported an average of six settler attacks a day in the first half of 2026 that resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. By late August, OCHA said more than 1,040 Palestinians had been injured in settler attacks since the start of the year.