JERICHO, July 9, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation police on Wednesday detained several international activists in al-Auja Spring village, north of the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, according to a human rights group.

The al-Baidar Organization in Defense of Bedouin Rights said that Israeli colonists, protected by armed police, barged their way into the community and released their cattle between the dwellings and cultivated land, sabotaging the community's source of livelihood.

It added that local Palestinians and international solidarity activists attempted to drive the sheep out and fend off the attack.

The occupation police arrived at the scene and detained some activists.

Israeli colonists have been releasing their livestock in the community as part of what the group describes as a systematic policy to stifle the community and force the residents, members of the Arab al-Mlaihat clan, to leave.

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.