Colonists Assault a farmer in Bani Naim town – Hebron governorate

• Violation: colonists assault .
• date: March 15^th 2021.
• Location: Umm al-Khanadeq – Bani Na’im town / Hebron Governorate.
• Perpetrators: Israeli illegal colonists.
• Victims: Palestinian farmer Ali Hamdan.

Description:

Monday, March 15, 2021, a group of colonists attacked farmers Ali Hamdan, 24 years old from the town of Bani Naim, east Hebron, and shot his dog and wounded a sheep head.

The Victim told Land Research Center’s researcher the following: “We own a herd of cattle that numbers about 200 sheep. We take our cattle to graze on our plot located in Umm al-Khanadeq area, southeast the town, which is about 1.5 km away from the colony of Bani Hefer and the new colonial outpost established 3 years ago near the site. On that day, I was herding, and suddenly, I saw four colonists coming from the nearby colonial outpost, = among them was a colonist named” Eitan (whom I know and who resides in the outpost). When they arrived, they attacked the herd with stones and started shouting at me in Hebrew.  As a result, the herd ran away and I tried to gather them back so that they don’t go so far, and the colonists headed back to their outpost. As soon as they have returned to the outpost, one of them spotted my dog, which was near the site, they fired at him. Then, they came back to me and started throwing stones in an attempt to prevent me from gathering the herd again, those who fired at the dog caught a sheep and tried to stab it with a knife . When I tried to rescue the sheep from his hands he pointed his gun at my face and shouted at me in Hebrew which forced me to run away to avoid being shot as well”.

After the attack, farmer Ali Hamdan called his father and told him about the assault, the father came to the plot with some relatives, they called the occupation police, which arrived at the site accompanied by the so-called Civil Administration officers.  Following the inspection, an officer from the civil administration told herders to never come back to the site, to avoid colonists assaults.

The new colonial outpost composes of Sheds and barns , that contain large herds (in numbers). Illegal colonists use postures in the area , and deny Palestinian herders’ access to postures  and farm lands.