Hebron: Settlers attack shepherds, destroy crops in Masafer Yatta

Armed settlers attacked a number of shepherds on Friday, preventing them from accessing pastures and destroying large areas of crops in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

Armed settlers attacked the shepherds, physically assaulted them and prevented them from reaching grazing lands and fields in the Ain Al-Bayda area in Masafer Yatta, which resulted in a 14-year-old boy sustaining contusions.

Settlers also destroyed large areas of wheat and barley crops belonging to citizens, bringing their herds into the citizens’ fields and destroying them.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates announced in a statement: “The frequency of settlers’ attacks on our people, their land, their property, and their sanctities escalates whenever a country imposes sanctions on them, even partial ones. The settlers are challenging international and American sanctions and are escalating their crimes to ignite the situation in the West Bank.”

The minister demanded that settler organisations be placed on terrorist lists and that sanctions be imposed on them and on those who protect and support them, beginning with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. It also praised the US administration’s decision to impose additional sanctions on two outposts and three settlers.

Dune 2: a tale of Palestinian resistance against Israel’s occupation

The ministry condemned the escalating settler attacks in many locations of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, opening fire on Palestinians and their livestock and cutting down hundreds of old trees.

It also denounced their intention to block roads and prevent worshippers from reaching the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron for prayer under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.

It considered this an assignment of roles aiming to intensify the crimes of annexing the West Bank and seizing more Palestinian land, which prevents the establishment and embodiment of a Palestinian state as well as dragging the conflict into a cycle of endless violence and chaos that is difficult to control.