On Friday, 14 April 2023, at around 1:30 P.M., ‘Amer Abu ‘Aliya (32), from Khirbet Jab’it, was grazing his sheep in pastureland located east of the village that his family rents from residents of Turmusaya. About 10 to 15 masked settlers armed with clubs and pipes came to the area and chased Abu ‘Aliya, who fled with the flock west towards the village. The settlers captured seven sheep that were lagging behind the flock, two of them pregnant, and stopped chasing ‘Amer. ‘Amer watched the settlers kill two of the sheep and lead the remaining five to a caravan located nearby.
‘Amer called his relatives, who called the police, but no officers came. After about three hours, the family called the Palestinian DCO, and about an hour after that, soldiers arrived. The soldiers took pictures of the sheep the settlers had killed and called a senior officer who came in the evening with more soldiers. They also took pictures of the sheep the settlers killed and then left.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad, ‘Amer Abu ‘Aliya said:
We live in Khirbet Jab’it, east of our village, al-Mughayir. We have a flock of 250 sheep, and that’s how we make our living. We rent 100 dunams (1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters) of agricultural land east of the village from residents of Turmusaya to graze the sheep.
On Friday, 14 April 2023, I grazed the sheep on the land we rent. At around 1:30 P.M., I saw about 10 to 15 masked settlers armed with clubs and pipes running towards me. I got scared and ran away with the flock to the west, towards Turmusaya.
While I was running away, seven sheep lagged behind the flock and got left behind. The settlers caught them and stopped chasing me. I watched them from a distance of about 200 meters and saw them killing two sheep and then dragging them to a caravan the settlers set up there in 2020 on land belonging to residents of Turmusaya. They led the other sheep to the caravan. I called my family and asked for help, and then about ten of my family members came.
We called the police and waited for officers to come for more than three hours. When they did not come, we called the Palestinian DCO, and they called the Israeli DCO. After about an hour, a military jeep arrived, and I complained to the soldiers about what had happened. I pointed to the caravan where the settlers had taken the sheep. We went there and found the corpses of the sheep they had killed. The soldiers took pictures of them and then reported to someone, maybe an officer. Meanwhile, another group of settlers arrived. Their faces weren’t covered. They stopped a few meters away from the soldiers, watched what was happening for a few minutes and then left.
In the evening, a senior officer arrived with a group of officers and soldiers, and one of our guys who knows Hebrew acted as an interpreter. They asked about the damage, took our footage of the settlers, took photos of the dead sheep and left.