Settlers poison sheep and uproot trees as raids sweep West Bank

Israeli forces and settlers carried out raids, assaults, and land attacks across several areas of the occupied West Bank on Saturday amid continued escalation in settler violence.

The incidents spanned Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem, and the northern Jordan Valley, with reports of property destruction, beatings, confiscation orders, and multiple arrests.

In the village of al-Mughayir, east of Ramallah, deputy village council head Marzouq Abu Na’im told The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that settlers "poisoned a flock of sheep belonging to citizen Rizq Abu Na’im" in the al-Khalayel area, killing three animals.

He said Israeli forces had also set up a military checkpoint at the village's western entrance, stopping and searching vehicles and causing a traffic jam.

In the Nablus area, local sources reported that Israeli forces and settlers "razed dozens of dunams" of land in the village of Iraq Burin, "uprooted more than 200 trees", and destroyed retaining walls and water networks.

Settlers also cut down and uprooted olive trees in the town of Beita, while a guard from the Yitzhar settlement prevented construction work in land belonging to Asira al-Qibliya, "threatened the workers and expelled them from the site".

South of Hebron, settlers attacked Palestinian Nasser al-Nawaj’a in the Shakara area near Susya while he was ploughing his land, puncturing the tyres of his tractor. Activist Youssef Abu Maria said Israeli forces on Friday issued a decision to confiscate 89 dunams and uproot trees around the Karmi Tsur settlement as part of "a retaliatory policy and settlement expansion plans".

Abu Maria said Israeli forces stormed the town of Beit Ummar at dawn on Saturday, detained dozens of young men, conducted field interrogations, "assaulted some of them with beatings", and damaged parts of the town’s martyrs' monument before withdrawing. Israeli forces also detained several Palestinians in Hebron city after storming neighbourhoods there, beating them before releasing them.

Anti-settlement activist Aref Jaber said Israeli forces imposed a curfew on four neighbourhoods in Hebron’s Old City - Jaber, al-Salaymeh, Wadi al-Hussain, and Gaith - in a weekly measure "ongoing since 7 October 2023".

In Bethlehem governorate, brothers Baha and Issa Mohammad al-Wahsh suffered bruises after being assaulted in the town of Za'atara, while resident Marwa Moussa Jibran suffered gas inhalation, according to local accounts. Palestinians also reported suffocation during an Israeli raid on the town of Tuqu on Friday night.

Israeli forces carried out multiple arrests, detaining nine Palestinians from Nablus city and Balata refugee camp at dawn on Saturday, including former legislator Jamal al-Tirawi and his two sons. Forces also arrested a young man from Tulkarm and Sheikh Ahmad Makhol, the imam of the al-Saffarini Mosque. On Friday evening, another young man was arrested from Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa in the northern Jordan Valley.

The Palestinian presidency warned of what it called an intensifying settler campaign. Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Saturday that the "terrorist and brutal attacks" by settlers, including "burning homes and Palestinian property", were taking place with "the support and protection of the occupation army".

He warned of the impact of this "war" on efforts by US President Donald Trump to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, and said the Israeli government bore "full responsibility" for stopping the attacks.

Abu Rudeineh said Israel’s seizure of Palestinian land, including "the land of the historic city of Sebastia", represented "a blatant challenge to international efforts, especially Trump’s efforts". He called on the US administration to "intervene immediately and decisively to stop this recklessness".

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said settler attacks "come within a systematic policy to terrorise its citizens and forcibly displace them", describing recent attacks in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron as "a serious and ongoing escalation".

It held the Israeli government "fully and directly responsible" and said "the extremist policies of the Israeli government encourage settlers to commit more crimes".

The ministry called on the UN Security Council to form “an international protection and peacekeeping force” and urged the international community to take "immediate and binding measures" to stop the attacks, protect Palestinians, and hold perpetrators accountable, according to the rules of international law.