SEAToday.com, Jericho - Israeli illegal settlers killed 72 Palestinian sheep by poisoning their drinking water northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, an activist said on Saturday (9/14).

Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, told Anadolu that settlers in the Arab al-Mleihat area deliberately contaminated the water supply used by two local herders, Suleiman and Mohammed Ali Mleihat, for their livestock.

“This attack is part of an ongoing series of attacks by illegal settlers aimed at pressuring and forcing Palestinian farmers to leave their land,” Mleihat said.

He emphasized that Bedouin communities are increasingly threatened by settlers as part of a broader Israeli government policy to displace these communities.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers have killed 19 Palestinians, injured more than 785 others, and displaced 28 Bedouin communities, according to the Palestinian government's Commission for Resistance to Colonization and the Wall.

In another incident on the same day, Israeli settlers from Atarot settlement, located near the village of Umm Safa, north of Ramallah, began leveling land and setting up tents in Palestinian territory.

Marwan Sabah, head of the Umm Safa village council, said that the action was part of a larger effort to seize the land, which covers about 500 dunams (123 hectares).

“The settlers are doing this under the protection of the Israeli army, which allows them to continue seizing land,” Sabah added.

He noted that over the years, Israeli authorities have confiscated nearly 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) of land in the village for various reasons.

Umm Safa is classified as Area C under the Oslo Accords, which means it is under full Israeli control and highly vulnerable to land confiscation.

In a statement, Sabah called for international intervention to stop the settlers from taking over the land. Local Palestinians organized a protest in Umm Safa to denounce the attack and the Israeli army's support for the settlers' actions.

The Israeli settler population in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, now exceeds 720,000, according to Israeli estimates.