A group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked, on Monday, Palestinian shepherds grazing their sheep in Kiysan village, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Local sources reported that the colonial settlers from the illegal Abi Hanahal colony hurled stones and released attack dogs at Palestinian shepherds who were attending to their sheep near the village, injuring one shepherd.
The sources added that the injured man, identified as, Khalaf Ebyiat, sustained light wounds and some of his sheep where also injured after being hit with stones hurled by the settlers.
The head of the village council, Ahmad Ghazal told local news sources that settler attacks targeting Palestinian shepherds in the area have escalated recently, adding that settlers instal caravans on Palestinian lands in an attempt to build a new settlement on the expropriated land.
In related news, illegal settlers uprooted, on Monday, dozens of Palestinian-owned olive trees in the Al Baq’a area, east of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank.
Aref Jaber, the owner of the olive trees, told the Palestinian WAFA News Agency, that illegal settlers from Kiryat Arba, an illegal Israeli colony, built on Palestinian lands, invaded his privately-owned land and uprooted dozens of olive trees under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
