JERICHO, (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Jewish settlers poisoned several sheep in Jericho, east of the occupied West Bank, on Monday, while others released their livestock to graze on Palestinian agricultural land in al-Khalil, in the south of the West Bank.
Local sources reported that settlers poisoned sheep in the Al-Auja Waterfall area, north of Jericho, leading to their death. The sheep belonged to the Palestinian citizen, Mohammad Hassan Harizat.
Settler attacks in rural Palestinian areas have increased since the start of the Israeli genocide war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
In a related development, other groups of settlers released their livestock to graze on lands cultivated with seedlings and fruit-bearing trees in Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil.
Anti-settlement activist Osama Makhamra said that settlers, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, unleashed their livestock in lands planted with seedlings and fruit trees in the villages of Al-Qawawees and Shaab Al-Butum to deliberately damage them, in an attempt to seize these lands for the expansion of settlements built on citizens’ property in southern al-Khalil.
He added that a settler-operated excavator was carrying out digging work in the village of Umm Al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, while the occupation army stormed the town of Al-Karmil east of Yatta, set up a military checkpoint in the center of the town, searched citizens’ vehicles, tampered with their contents, inspected ID cards, and obstructed their movement.
Makhamra appealed to international institutions and human rights organizations to intervene to curb the practices of the occupation soldiers and settlers, and to stop these daily attacks carried out by armed settlers against unarmed citizens in Masafer Yatta.
