Settlers of Hafat Ma’oun settlement, in the Hebron Mountain area continued their attacks against the Palestinian residents and their farmlands.
Resident of villages in the Hebron Mountain area said that Hafat Ma’oun settlers poisoned their lands after spraying poisoning materials on the barley used for feeding the live stock the residents own.
Over the past two weeks, settlers repeatedly sprayed poison over the barley, dozens of sheep and other live stock died.
On Wednesday morning, scores of residents found poisoning materials sprayed in their fields, the poison is apparently composed of the same material sprayed in fields used for grazing, 22 sheep dies after eating the poisoned barley and grass.
A local source in Al-Tawani village said that the settlers sprayed the poisoning material over 30 Dumans of grazing fields, and that the residents repeatedly complained to the Israeli police, no progress was made in the case.
The source stated that one of the Police investigators is a settler at Ma’oun settlement.
Recently, Ma’oun settlers significantly increased their attacks against the residents and their belongings in addition to attacking dozens of children and school students in Hebron.
The Israeli peace Bloc, Gush Shalom, reported that settlers in the Hebron Mountain are extremely violent against the Palestinian residents and even Israeli peace activists.
On Tuesday, governor of Hebron, Arif Al-Ja’abari stated that the he settlers are spraying poisonous material on agricultural land owned by Palestinian villagers.
‘The settlers sprayed poison on the fields of wheat and on green areas where the cattle eat from, at least 20 sheep were poisoned because of that’ he said, and expressed worries that toxic material might reach the underground water especially after the rain.
A test done by Birzeit University laboratory proved that this material is made only in Israel and is internationally banned. It usage is limited to killing rats in the sewage only, the governor said.
Some International peace groups are helping the locals to clean the area in the past two weeks.
Also, volunteers from the Christian Peacemakers Teams and the International Solidarity Movement started on March 26 to clean the area with the local villagers who fear that more of their cattle will die if the poison remains in the area.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health warned the residents of the area against eating meat or drink milk of cattle in that area for at least two weeks to ensure that it has not been contaminated.
