A VICAR from Dorchester has described being tear-gassed and held at gunpoint in the West Bank during a humanitarian mission.

The Rev Jonathan Herbert, the former leader of West Dorset’s Pilsdon Community, lived in the Palestinian village of Jayyous for three-months as a human rights observer.

While there, Mr Herbert saw boys as young as 10 being arrested by the Israeli army and survived clashes between Palestinian citizens and Israeli troops.

He said he had now returned to Dorset with a fresh determination to spread the word about the atrocities he had seen and spread a message of hope for the future.

Mr Herbert said: “I saw a lot of incursions into the village where I was staying by the Israeli military who came in and arrested young men.

“Around 25 young men from the village are in Israeli prisons and seven of them were taken away while I was there.

“I think that was one of the most distressing things for me – to have got to know these families, the parents and the young men, who were later arrested.

“They are more than statistics – they are people you know.

“Some of the young men that were taken away were about the age of my son and I was asked by their parents: ‘How would you feel if this was your child?’ ”

Mr Herbert said many of the men were arrested on charges of stone-throwing but others just happened to be related to people already in custody and were deemed a ‘security threat’.

He added: “The presence of human rights monitors does not stop people being arrested but it might make the arrests less violent.

“I had guns pointed at me by Israeli troops after they came into the village in the middle of the night to make arrests and I got up to observe.”

He also said there were violent clashes between Israeli settlers attempting to reclaim land by force and burning villagers’ crops.

Mr Herbert was also in the city of Hebron when a riot broke out between Palestinians and the Israeli army.

He said: “Some of the young people in the crowd threw stones, which I don’t condone but the Israelis replied with tear gas.

“It’s extremely unpleasant and make your eyes stream and chokes you. I think I was caught by tear gas about three times while I was there.

“I also remember seeing a ten-year-old boy being arrested in Hebron – he just looked so small and vulnerable.

“When he realised he was going to be taken away he burst into tears.”

Despite the awful things Mr Herbert has witnessed, he believes there is hope for a lasting peace in the region. He said: “Most Palestinians and Israelis want to live in peace.