By Aysar Alais
ISTANBUL (AA) - Illegal Israeli settlers killed 72 sheep by poisoning their drinking water in northwestern Jericho in the occupied West Bank, according to an activist on Saturday.
Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, told Anadolu that the settlers in the Arab al-Mleihat area intentionally contaminated the water supply used by sheep belonging to two local shepherds, Suleiman and Mohammed Ali Mleihat.
"This attack is part of a series of ongoing assaults by illegal settlers aimed at pressuring and displacing Palestinian farmers from their lands," Mleihat said.
He emphasized that Bedouin communities are increasingly threatened by settlers as part of broader Israeli government policies to displace these communities.
According to the Palestinian government’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, since Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli settlers have killed 19 Palestinians, injured more than 785 others, and displaced 28 Bedouin communities.
In another incident on the same day, Israeli settlers from the Atarot settlement, located near the village of Umm Safa, north of Ramallah, began leveling land and erecting tents on Palestinian territory.
Marwan Sabah, head of Umm Safa’s village council, said these actions are part of a broader effort to seize land that spans approximately 500 dunams (123 acres).
"The settlers are doing this under the protection of the Israeli army, which allows them to continue the land grab," Sabah added.
He noted that over the years, Israeli authorities have confiscated nearly 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) of land in the village under various pretexts.
Umm Safa is classified as Area C under the Oslo Accords, meaning it is under full Israeli control and highly vulnerable to land confiscation.
Sabah called for international intervention to stop the settlers from taking over the land. Local Palestinians held a protest in Umm Safa to condemn the attacks and the Israeli army’s support for these actions.
The Israeli settler population in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, now exceeds 720,000, according to Israeli estimates.
Tensions have been running high across the West Bank amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,200 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7.
At least 703 people, including 159 children, have been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.
The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
*Written by Ikram Kouachi