BETHLEHEM, July 7, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli colonists on Monday evening assaulted Palestinian shepherds on the outskirts of al-Maniya village, southeast of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to a local source.

Zayed Kawazbeh, head of al-Maniya Village Council, said that armed colonists, disguised as Israeli soldiers, attacked several shepherds in the Khalayel al-Qasr area, east of the village, beating them up and threatening them should they attempt to reach their pastures.

Kawazbeh added that the assailants came from two nearby pastoral colonial outposts, recently established on land belonging to the villagers.

He noted that Khalayel al-Qasr is classified under the Oslo Accords as Area B, where the Palestinian Authority has complete control over civil matters and Israel continues to have overriding responsibility for security, with the Israeli occupation taking advantage of the current situation in the West Bank to impose new realities on the ground.

Kawazbeh also noted that the occupying forces continue to work in tandem with colonists in stifling the village into an isolated enclave, denying the villagers access to their livelihoods and pastures and taking over their crops as a means to seize their land and displace them for colonial expansion.

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.