Sheep are a new weapon to displace Palestinians. Settlers besiege villages

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The American CBS News network revealed that Israeli settlers are using sheep farms and their flocks as a means of controlling Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, in practices that local residents say are aimed at narrowing their living conditions and forcing them to leave their homes and lands.

The report explained that Israeli sheep farms extended to areas estimated at about 20% of the West Bank, with nearly 200 farms appearing in recent years, indicating that these practices were accompanied by an escalation of attacks on Palestinians and their property.

The report quoted Mordechai Minster, one of the founders of a sheep farm in the West Bank, as saying that herds allow settlers to impose actual limits on land use, by preventing Palestinians from grazing, farming, and building in areas that settlers seek to control.

Wahid Marzouk, a Palestinian teacher in the town of Al-Mughayir, said that settlers sometimes push their sheep into Palestinian homes, where the herds enter to eat the surrounding trees. The report indicated that more than 100 Palestinian communities were displaced or disappeared as a result of settler violence and the continued expansion of grazing areas.

More than 1,600 violent incidents

The report highlighted a group of young settlers known as the “Hill Youth,” who embrace extreme religious and nationalist ideas, and are accused of storming Palestinian villages and fields, cutting down olive trees, burning cars, destroying property, and assaulting farmers.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of incidents related to settler violence exceeded 1,600 incidents from the beginning of 2026 until the time of preparing the report.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, described settler violence as terrorism, while Minster rejected this classification, but acknowledged that violent violations had occurred, and acknowledged that Palestinians had been killed as a result of settler attacks.

Shooting and deprivation of homes

The report recounted the suffering of the Faraj family in the village of Janata, which says it possesses ownership documents for its lands that have been passed down through generations. Hassan Faraj explained that a group of between 20 and 25 settlers arrived on the family’s land on March 26, and established a settlement outpost that cut off access to one of the family’s homes.

Family members accused the settlers of seizing water and electricity, and of attacking them whenever they tried to approach their home. Hassan said that settlers attacked the family members with sticks and stones and used tear gas, and one of the gunmen shot his cousin Muhammad, hitting him in the head, before the attacks on the family members continued. In another incident, Hassan was beaten and his nose was broken while trying to reach the house, despite being accompanied by Jewish activists. The situation ended with his expulsion from his family's land, while the settlers remained on the site.

Accusations of the Israeli government

The report indicated that the Israeli government did not take sufficient deterrent measures to stop settler violence, despite calls by the administration of US President Donald Trump on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the issue.

He added that the Israeli government has allocated tens of millions of dollars to expand sheep farms, arm those in charge of them, and provide them with American-made vehicles, according to the report.

He also pointed out that the escalation of attacks may affect relations between Washington and Tel Aviv, in light of American Democrats threatening to impose restrictions on military aid to Israel due to violations in the West Bank.

The report highlights the role of sheep farms in the conflict over lands, amid fears of the continued displacement of Palestinians and the undermining of their ability to remain in their homes and residential communities.