On Sunday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers assaulted several Palestinian shepherds, injured two, and stole 40 sheep, in the “Al-Matwi” area, west of Salfit, in the occupied West Bank’s central part.
Resident Hamad Al-Azama said about ten paramilitary colonizers attacked his sons while herding their sheep in the Al-Matwi area, causing cuts and bruises.
He added that the colonizers ten stole 40 sheep owned by the family before fleeing the area and said that the Israeli assailants came from the Al-Ras illegal outpost, installed on stolen Palestinian lands.
The Al-Azama family has been living in the area for the last 35 years and depends on raising livestock as their main source of income.
The colonizers frequently attack the Palestinians in the area, especially the farmers and the shepherd, by assaulting them, opening fire at them and their livestock, and bulldozing and uprooting their farmlands and orchards.
Israel’s colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in and around the occupied capital, Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions.
UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions have condemned Israeli policies in all its forms, in the occupied Palestinian territories, whether it be the seizure of Palestinian land for various military purposes, the construction of illegal Israeli colonies, or the creation of bypass roads.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that the occupying power [Israel] is forbidden from transferring any part of its civilian population onto the land on which it occupies [Palestine].
