Armed Israeli settlers stole hundreds of sheep from a Bedouin community in the Jordan Valley, say local residents, in one of the largest recent incidents in which Bedouins in the area reported being attacked and harassed, says a Reuters report.
The attacks in the area have increased since the Gaza genocide began in October 2023, but witnesses said that the scale of Friday’s incident near Ein Al-Auja, north of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, went far beyond anything witnessed previously.
“This was the biggest one there has been,” said Hani Zayed, a resident of the community, who said that he had 70 sheep stolen in the settlers’ attack. After years of experience in dealing with local law enforcement, the idea of appealing to the police to help elicited nothing more than a shrug.
“The police don’t do anything, they have never helped us in anything. If you tell them the settler is taking your sheep, they’ll ask ‘Are you sure it’s yours?’,” he explained.
Local residents said about 1,500 sheep and goats were taken by settlers, who drove the animals from the village under the eyes of police and soldiers or loaded them onto pickup trucks.
The Jordan Valley, a relatively sparsely populated area close to the River Jordan, is now under increasing pressure from settlers, say local Palestinian residents and human rights groups.
For many Bedouin herders, the loss of a flock means the loss of any way of earning a livelihood.