‘They stole our sheep, killed my son’: Israeli settlers, soldiers attack and loot West Bank villages
“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.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on
Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Later that morning, dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, raided the villages of Sinjil, Jiljilya and Abwein, entering sheep pens and emptying them.
Israel National News (Arutz 7), a settler-aligned outlet, reported that the seizure of the sheep “was made possible through joint activity by security forces and civilian volunteers operating in full coordination with the search forces”.
Palestinian Ali Kaabneh showing spent brass following an Israeli raid on his village, Jiljilya, occupied West Bank (Oren Ziv/MEE)
As the raid unfolded, the Israeli army set up roadblocks throughout the area to allow settlers free movement.
Members of the Kaabneh family, who live in a small community in the wadi between Sinjil and Jiljilya, saw settlers beginning to surround them and hurried to flee with their sheep towards the built-up area of Jiljilya.
The army encircled them using drones, confiscated the sheep, and arrested four family members, including the father of the boy who was killed. The detainees were released later the same day.
‘They shot him in the chest’
“We were at home working with the sheep. The settlers came under army protection,” Ali Kaabneh said. “We did not attack them, we did nothing. We moved the sheep about two kilometres away, and the army located them using drones.”
Around the spot where his son Yousef was shot, a circle of stones had been placed, and bloodstains could still be seen on the ground.
“The army killed my son deliberately. They shot him in the chest and he died on the spot,” he said. “He was 16 years old – what was his crime? He wanted his sheep back, and they responded by shooting him. What danger did he pose to them? He had nothing in his hands, he was unarmed. They could have arrested him, but instead they shot him.
“Like any child, he wanted to build a home in the future and get married. But here, during the day we worked, and at night we stood guard in shifts, without sleeping.”
Palestinian boy at an emptied village following an Israeli raid that stole sheep and killed one teen, in Jiljilya, occupied West Bank, May 2026 (Oren Ziv/MEE)
The spot where Yousef was shot lies only a few dozen metres from the main road along which the stolen sheep were being driven.
In a video filmed by his father, several soldiers can be seen standing opposite the alleyway where family members stood shouting in protest against the theft as the flock passed by. Several gunshots can be heard in the footage, one of which apparently struck Yousef.
The father was arrested shortly afterwards, and only upon his release four hours later did he learn that his son had been killed.
“The whole world saw on social media how the Israeli army was in front of the flock and behind it,” he said.
‘The army killed my son deliberately. They shot him in the chest and he died on the spot’
– Ali Kaabneh, Palestinian
The Israeli army’s response on the day of the incident also raises questions. A military spokesperson acknowledged that the outpost was located in Area A, but claimed that soldiers “entered in order to remove the civilians”, not to accompany them, “following a report regarding a number of Israeli civilians who entered the village area after livestock had been stolen from an illegal outpost located in Area A”.
“Upon arriving at the scene, [Israeli army] and Border Police forces acted to remove all Israeli civilians from the village, prevent friction in the area, and recover the livestock,” the spokesperson added. “Several suspects in the livestock theft were arrested by the forces.”
In light of this response, it remains unclear how the army and the settlers left the area with 900 sheep.
Fawaz Kaabneh, another resident from whom around 200 sheep were stolen, and who was also arrested, said: “We were afraid they would reach the houses, so we went out. We were shocked by the number of settlers. They seized me and handed me over to the army, and from there I was transferred to the police. They took me to Sha’ar Binyamin. I told them the sheep were mine.”
Like the other detainees, he was questioned and released that night – an indication that even the police understood there was little substance to the allegations against those arrested. The following day, he returned to file a complaint at the same police station, and later that day several dozen sheep were returned after the army released them towards the village.
Iyad Ghafar, an activist from the village of Sinjil, documented the livestock theft. At 11:06am, he filmed a settler accompanying the stolen flock running towards him with a pistol drawn. Six minutes later, Yousef Kaabneh was shot, apparently by soldiers. In other footage, masked settlers can be seen throwing stones.
Ghafar said the sheep were driven towards the Maguri outpost, located inside Palestinian agricultural structures in Area A – the same area where soldiers and settlers killed two young men in July as they tried to defend their land. According to the Palestinian health ministry, one of those killed, Saif al-Din Musallat, a 20-year-old US citizen, died from the beatings he sustained.
Ghafar reconstructed the events during a tour of the area: “When we heard about the incident, I took my camera and went out. It began on the edge of Sinjil, and afterwards they started attacking Jiljilya. We managed to get there in time, and I filmed the settlers and the army, and where they came from.
“The settlers chased us. One of them drew a weapon and came straight towards us. We got into the car and drove away. The military patrol stopped and started shooting at us – we almost died. It was a joint operation by the army and the settlers, acting together at the same time. Together they entered homes, together they chased the shepherds, together they took the flock.”
‘Nowhere is safe’
In the area between Jiljilya and Sinjil, around 20 Palestinian families – some 200 people in total, all refugees originally from east of Ramallah – had been living. Following the theft and shooting, all of the residents have left.
The sheep pens now stand empty, while the tents remain filled with mattresses, clothes and baby cots – evidence of the lives that existed there until only a few days ago. This week, residents returned briefly to collect some of their belongings and to gather dogs that had been left behind.
The story of the Kaabneh family encapsulates the current reality in the occupied West Bank: repeated displacement; settler attacks extending into Areas B and A, which are supposed to be under at least partial Palestinian control; a focus on seizing livestock; and the establishment of settler outposts at strategic points in order to grab large areas of land and connect settlement blocs – all under Israeli army protection. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.
Exclusive: ICC prosecutor’s office seeks arrest warrant for Israel’s Smotrich
Read More »
The family originally lived in the area between the Negev and Masafer Yatta, from which they were expelled in 1948. From then until October 2023, they lived in Mu’arrajat Centre, near the Taybeh junction. At the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, settlers and soldiers expelled them; some moved to the outskirts of the village of Lubban ash-Sharqiya, while others relocated to the al-Batin area. The last residents left that area about a year ago after an outpost was established there and soldiers killed two young men, Musallat and Mohammad Razek Hussein al-Shalabi.
Ali Kaabneh and others then settled on the outskirts of Lubban ash-Sharqiya, near Route 60. On 6 April, settlers attacked them and set fire to two cars and a tent in which some family members had been sleeping. One relative was injured by a blow from a club. The settlers also sprayed the slogans “Price Tag” and “Zionist Revenge” on the tents.
That attack came after the evacuation of the Ora Yisrael outpost, established in Wadi Salfit deep inside Area B. The outpost was nowhere near the Kaabneh family, but they say they were targeted as settlers travelled along the dirt road leading to it – a road previously used by Palestinian residents, connecting to Route 80 near the community.
Following the attack, they moved to the family compound in Jiljilya, from which the sheep were stolen last week. They had hoped it would be safer there.
“We moved from Mu’arrajat to Lubban ash-Sharqiya. We were attacked there on 6 April, so we moved here. This is under Palestinian Authority control, so we thought it would be safer, but there is no safe place,” Ali Kaabneh said.
This is not the first time displaced Bedouin families have been attacked again after relocating. In April 2025, settlers who had established another outpost in the Sinjil area attacked displaced residents from Wadi as-Siq and burned vehicles and residential tents.
Responding to the arrest of the Palestinians and the theft of the sheep, the Israeli police said: “The suspects who were transferred to the police station were questioned and released with conditions at the conclusion of their interrogation. At the same time, a counter-complaint was received by the police and is being examined with the aim of establishing the truth.”
The Israeli army said: “Following an investigation into the incident on 13 May 2026 in the village of Jiljilya, it emerged that some of the Israelis who entered the village took animals belonging to local residents. Israeli army forces returned approximately 40 animals belonging to residents of the village. The entire incident remains under review and is still being investigated.”
