"The army stole our sheep and killed my son," said Ali Kaabneh, standing at the spot where his 16-year-old son Yousef was shot in the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, as settlers and Israeli soldiers raided the area last Wednesday.
Some 900 sheep were forcibly taken from local Palestinian residents during the raid.
While settlers frequently raid Palestinian communities and steal livestock, in this case the entire operation was carried out in coordination with – and under the protection of – the Israeli army, which secured the theft and assisted the settlers throughout.
"They chased our flock, stole it, looted and robbed us, and killed my son in cold blood," Kaabneh told Middle East Eye. "This is the policy of a terrorist government that kills and plunders."
The raid was launched after reports that, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, 120 sheep had been stolen from an enclosure belonging to the Tzur Levavi Farm – an illegal outpost run by the Maguri family – located in Jabal al-Batin in Area A, the part of the occupied West Bank under nominal Palestinian Authority control. The outpost itself sits on land belonging to the villages of Sinjil and al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya.
