The mass theft of Palestinian livestock is often carried out in coordination with occupation soldiers and illegal settlers (photo via QNN)
On the morning of May 13, 2026, Israeli settlers and occupation soldiers carried out coordinated attacks on the Palestinian villages of Sinjil and Jaljulia, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. According to local sources, dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israeli military personnel, entered the western area of Sinjil, where they chased Palestinian shepherds, assaulted them, and seized 400 hundreds of sheep and two donkeys according to IMEMC News. Residents intervened to stop the theft, but the settlers continued their raids.
Palestinian teen killed in West Bank village during settler attack Video credit: cnn.com
In Jaljulia, another group of settlers attacked homes on the outskirts, stealing additional sheep and agricultural equipment from local farmers and shot dead a 15 y.o. Witnesses reported that the settlers moved freely under the protection of the occupation army, which prevented Palestinians from approaching their own land during the assaults according IMEMC News.
The Israeli Death Forces accused the Palestinian of stealing the goats from the illegal settlers, even though video evidence shows illegal Jewish settlers of killing 117 sheep in an overnight attack and stealing hundreds of others 9 month ago from Palestinian Bedouins in an apparent effort to chase farmers off their land in the occupied West Bank.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18sMwwaNbi/
Israeli settlers stole 400 goats from the Palestinian village Singil in the West Bank. A Palestinian farmer repeatedly yelled in Arabic " Those coats are all ours." Those are a bunch of thieves. Video credit: Sinjil News
This latest attack is part of a broader pattern of Israeli state-backed settler violence in the West Bank, where armed colonizers and occupation forces have intensified assaults on Palestinian communities, agricultural lands, and herding areas for the last two years. Human rights groups and local sources warn that such coordinated raids are encouraged by Israeli officials and often go unchallenged by the military, leaving Palestinian residents vulnerable to repeated theft, violence, and displacement. Source: IMEMC News.
CCTV footage published on January 27, 2026, by activists showed soldiers accompanying settlers as they walked off with the animals. The Israeli military later said it was investigating whether soldiers stood by during the theft.
Related Incidents (for context)
Several other livestock theft incidents occurred in 2026, but they differ slightly from your description:
Sinjil and Jaljulia (near Ramallah) — Settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, assaulted shepherds and stole sheep.
Kafr Malik (east of Ramallah) — Settlers stole 80 sheep during an armed incursion.
These also involved military presence, but the CCTV-documented escorting of settlers during the theft is specific to Khirbet al-Halawa.
The Israeli military is complicit in the theft
The theft of livestock by Israeli settlers under military protection in the Palestinian hamlet of Khirbet al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta has been recorded by CCTV footage showed IDF soldiers accompanying settlers as they stole livestock. The incident I am referring to matches a widely reported event in which Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, stole livestock from Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Multiple credible sources document such incidents, but one case in particular aligns closely with description of settlers stealing livestock under police or military protection.
Below are a fully sourced, structured, and comprehensive timeline, map‑context, and comparison of all documented livestock‑theft incidents by Israeli settlers in the West Bank during 2025–2026, based strictly on the search results conducted by peace activists.
Israel's message to Palestinian in the West Bank now: Leave or die! It is now a daily practice that Israeli settlers steal livestock in the West Bank with police assistance to compel the native inhabitance to leave their land or face death or starvation.
Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers.
The violent settlers also blocked the tour participants and did not allow them to leave the site for an extended period. Israel Police were notified but no forces arrived at the scene; later, military forces arrived (the Border Guard unit, which was apparently summoned by the violent settlers) who dispersed the gathering at the site without taking action against the violent individuals. The incident has not ended, and now the army is detaining the Peace Now tour on suspicion of assault.
https://x.com/PeaceNowIL/status/2054836285303308549?s=20
Turning a blind eye by Western nations about Israel violations and acting like an ostrich who sticks its head in the sand, doesn’t help move forward on the path to peace.
Mahmoud El‑Yousseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com
