village of Sinjil and stealing four sheep. A month earlier, on 27 February 2022, settlers attacked family members who were visiting Khalil’s home, hurt two of them and smashed their car window.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 28 March 2022, Bilal Khalil (33), a father of three, said:
I have 30 heads of sheep and goats, including four two-month-old lambs. There have been lots of settler attacks in the past year. The last one took place on 27 February 2022, when they hurt my sister and her daughter. I installed security cameras because of these attacks. On 25 March 2022, I wasn’t home, but I saw on the security cameras that something was going on and that the sheep pen gate was open. I came home immediately, and when I got there, I saw the four lambs were gone. I checked the security cameras and saw three settlers going into the pen and stealing them. I called some local residents, and we went looking for them. We came across a military jeep, because the army patrols the area all the time, and told the soldiers what happened. They asked us if there were any security cameras, and I said yes. They told us they’d look into it and left. In the meantime, about 50 village residents had joined, and we kept looking for the lambs. The military jeep came back, and we thought they’d found the thieves, but instead, they told us to go home. We refused and said we’d go back only after our sheep were brought back, but the soldiers started yelling at us and swearing at us until a police car came. The officer promised to take care of it and said he was in charge of the area and that he would return in the morning to investigate. We went home, hoping the officer would take care of it.
No one came the next day. I called the number he gave me the day before many times, but no one answered. In the afternoon, some Civil Administration personnel came with soldiers, and they filmed the security camera footage on their phones. They didn’t check anything else or take any statements from us.
I’m constantly stressed, worrying about my kids and my family. I don’t let them play outside on their own too much. I hardly leave the house. I ask my brother to help me with shopping for the house. I worry that if I go to work, they’ll come and attack the family or steal the flock.