JERICHO, Thursday, June 06, 2024 (WAFA) – Armed Israeli colonists Thursday evening stormed the Arab al-Mlaihat Palestinian community, northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, according to a local activist.

Hasan Mlaihat, supervisor of the al-Baidar Organization in Defense of Bedouin Rights, said that colonist militias barged their way into the community and provocatively wandered around the dwellings, attempting to foment confrontations as a prelude to summon Israeli occupation forces to suppress the community members.

Colonists have frequently attacked Arab al-Mlaihat along with other communities, polluting their drinking water, chasing and preventing shepherds from using the nearby al-Mu‘arrajat Street to commute to the cities of Ramallah and Jericho.

He added that colonist raids into the community were part of the Israeli occupation's ongoing policy of detecting Bedouins’ sheep as a prelude for stealing and displace the community to make room for colonial expansion.

According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), the Arab al-Mlaihat come originally from Negev; people of this area were forcefully expelled to live in different places of the West Bank due to their nomadic nature.  In mid eighties, people of al-Mlaihat were sent out  from al-Irqa area to Maghair al-Dair, which is only 7km away from it, claiming the area  a military closed zone by Israel.

K.F.