Israeli Settlers Accused Of Killing 117 Sheep Belonging To West Bank Bedouins

In the latest ghastly tactic used to displace non-Jews from their West Bank villages and farms, Israeli settlers are accused of carrying out a bloody livestock massacre on Friday, using knives, sticks and guns to kill 117 sheep belonging to Bedouins. Settlers stole hundreds more, but Israel Defense Forces soldiers focused their intervention on restraining Bedouins who attempted to protect their property, witnesses say.

„These sheep and animals were slaughtered and shot at,” Palestinian Minister Moayad Shaaban told Reuters. „They are using these tools to terrify these people to leave these areas, which have been inhabited for dozens of years.”

The horror unfolded in the pre-dawn darkness on Friday at the Arab al-Kaabaneh village in the Jordan Valley. Mahmoud Kaabneh told Middle East Eye that settlers first attacked his brother’s home, attempting to steal his donkeys. As the family emerged to thwart the assault, more settlers swarmed in, attacking homes and families. Next, they opened a sheep pen and stole some 350 animals.

One of more than 100 sheep slaughtered by settlers seeking to intimidate Bedouins into leaving their land (screen shot from X video)

„The Israeli army was present with the settlers and did nothing,” Kaabneh said. „But when the residents tried to rescue the livestock, the soldiers attacked the Palestinians instead and chased us down. They arrested 20 men and beat them severely for four hours.”

When villagers later ventured out to search the surrounding area, they found 117 sheep had been killed by the settlers. „Some [were] slaughtered with knives, others beaten to death, and many left with deep wounds,” Kaabneh said. Video of a hillside strewn with sheep carcasses is circulating on social media. A handful of wounded, surviving sheep were treated by veterinarians, with some of them visibly in shock — shaking uncontrollably.

The settlers’ brutality achieved its desired effect on some residents of the village, including Tareq Kaabaneh, who told Reuters he’s moving on:

„They were armed, they steal donkeys and sheep. In the night they come here and start shooting toward us. I am moving now from here, I want to protect my kids and my sheep, my livelihood … yesterday I was safe, but I don’t know what will happen to me tomorrow.”

Veterinarians treated a handful of sheep whose stab wounds had not yet proven fatal (Ali Sawafta via Reuters)

Mahmoud Kaabneh fled his home after the attack, and said it’s the fifth time he and his family been displaced by aggressive settlers since their violence against natives skyrocketed in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of Israel.

„Each time we’re attacked, our children and women are beaten, our sheep stolen. Once, they took everything we owned – our homes, belongings – and we were left with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”

Friday’s assault was only the latest time the Arab al-Kaabaneh village was victimized by settlers. In an incident captured on video last September, swaggering stick-wielding settlers attacked the village’s primary school, chasing women and men alike. In an all-too-familiar story line, the IDF arrested the school’s headmaster, who needed hospital treatment.

Video captured the moment Israeli settlers attacked students and teachers at the Arab al-Kaabneh Primary School in a village northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/Erg5SZSfPD

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 16, 2024

Settlers have long used a variety of violent tactics to intimidate non-Jews into fleeing their properties, including:

• Burning the cherished olive trees that are central to Palestinian life, both economically and culturally
• Preventing Palestinians from accessing their agricultural land
• Vandalizing wells and other equipment
• Stealing livestock and personal possessions
• Bringing their own livestock to graze on Palestinian property
• Arson attacks on homes and vehicles
• Physical assaults

Settlers have recently unveiled a new tactic called „flag-based settlement,” where settlers will plant a flag of the State of Israel near the home of a Palestinian. „If the flag is disturbed or even blown over by the wind, settlers use it as a pretext to attack Palestinians,” reports Middle East Eye. An anti-settlement activist says settlers have also used tractors to smash homes and animal pens.

In another development amid the sustained wave of settler violence, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday visited the town of Taybeh — the last 100% Christian village in the West Bank. The ancient community — said by the Bible to be the place where Jesus went before his passion — has been besieged by violent settler attacks, including multiple arson attacks in recent weeks. In the latest incident, settlers set a fire next to the 1,500-year-old Byzantine church of St. George al Khader, and a cemetery.

Ambassador Huckabee visits the site of a recent settler arson attack that endangered a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church (via Huckabee on X)

Huckabee condemned the endangerment of the church. „To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship, it is an act of terror, and it is a crime,” he said, adding that his visit was meant to „express solidarity with the people who just want to live their lives in peace, to be able to go to their own land, to be able to go to their place of worship.”

It was the second time in just a few days that the zealously pro-Israel Huckabee put a spotlight on settler violence. On Tuesday, he condemned the „terrorist” murder of a Florida-born-and-raised American citizen by settlers wielding sticks and clubs. Huckabee has long spoken approvingly of Israel’s occupation and settlement of the West Bank. For example, in one of his many trips to Israel over the years, Huckabee in 2017 said:

„There is no such thing as a ‘West Bank,’ it’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Now that his ambassador post is giving him a front-row seat to the settlement project — which victimizes Muslims, Christians and Americans alike — is there any chance Huckabee will start thinking differently?