JERICHO, April 8, 2025 (WAFA) - Israeli colonists Tuesday evening stormed the Arab al-Mlaihat 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 masked colonists riding horses barged their way into the community and ransacked several livestock barns.

He added that earlier today, a colonist attempted to deliberately ram his vehicle into a female teacher, who teaches at the primary school in the community, on the al-Mu‘arrajat (the Snake) Road.

Colonists have frequently attacked Arab al-Mlaihat along with other communities, polluting their drinking water, and 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 displacing 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 mid-eighties, people of al-Mlaihat were sent out from the al-Irqa area to Maghair al-Dair, which is only 7km away from it, claiming the area a military closed zone by Israel.

Approximately 1 million Israeli colonists are living in colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.

K.F.