JERICHO, May 15, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli colonists ON Thursday 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 colonists barged their way into the outskirts of the community and attacked a child while the latter was grazing his family’s sheep.

Mlaihat added that the assailants fled the scene after Palestinians rushed to the rescue of the child shepherd and prevented the sheep from being stolen.

He considered that this assault was a part of the Israeli occupation's escalation against Bedouin communities to displace them and take over their land to make room for colonial expansion.

Earlier, colonists attacked Palestinian-registered vehicles near the entrance of the Taybeh village, east of Ramallah, hurling stones at them.

According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), the Arab al-Mlaihat come originally from the Naqab; people of this area were forcefully expelled to live in different places of the West Bank due to their nomadic nature.  In the 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.

Colonists’ violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Colonists’ violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, and attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

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

K.F.