By Mussa Qawasma
MASAFER YATTA, West Bank, May 26 (Reuters) - Palestinian shepherd Sameeha Rasheed was planning for the sacred ritual of sacrificing her family's sheep for the Eid al-Adha holiday, one of the holiest occasions in Islam, but West Bank Jewish settlers stole them in a pre-dawn raid, she said.
Instead of celebrating, Rasheed has been left with nothing and has also been deprived of the income she would have received from selling the sheep not used by her family.
The settlers stole around 45 sheep from her home in Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets near Hebron, she said. Before the theft, they stole the family's guard dogs, so no one was alerted when the men broke in before dawn on May 21 and herded the animals away.
"This is our livelihood, my husband and I live from the income from these sheep. I don't have anything to get treatment for my husband or spend on myself," Rasheed, whose husband has cancer, told Reuters.
Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's two main festivals, marks the climax of the annual Haj pilgrimage, when Muslims slaughter animals to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God’s command, often distributing meat to the poor.
PEPPER GAS SPRAYED AT HOMES AND CHILDREN
Rasheed said settlers had been carrying out near-daily attacks on shepherds in the area, spraying pepper gas toward homes and children.
CCTV footage obtained and verified by Reuters showed masked men moving sheep out of the farm at night. Reuters verified the location as near Masafer Yatta by matching buildings, structures and terrain to archive and satellite imagery.
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Settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began in October 2023. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called it "Jewish terror" and a national disgrace.
Asked for comment on the sheep theft, the Israeli military said it had deployed troops to the area but did not see any settlers and it had handed the case to the Israeli police.
A spokesperson for the Yesha Council, which represents municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About 4,000 head of livestock have been stolen by settlers since the start of 2026, according to Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture spokesperson Mahmoud Fatafta. He added that Palestinian farmers had lost more than $5 million due to settler attacks.
Israel's far-right governing coalition has enabled a rapid expansion of settlements, with some ministers openly advocating for the annexation of the West Bank. Most countries deem the settlements, built on land captured in the 1967 war, illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
Palestinians have long sought an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured and occupied in 1967.
More than 700,000 settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, among more than three million Palestinians, according to a European Union report in 2024.
"When we have sheep during the time to sacrifice (during Eid Al-Adha), we sell them. But now there are no sheep, not for us to sacrifice nor even to sell," Rasheed said.
(Reporting by Mussa Qawasma, Additional reporting by Roleen Tafakji, Writing by Ahmed Elimam; Editing by Michael Georgy and Sharon Singleton)
