JERICHO: Israeli colonists today forced a Palestinian family in the village of al-Jiftlik, north of Jericho, in the east of the occupied West Bank, to pay a heavy fine in exchange for the release of their sheep.
Local activist Ayman Ghareeb told WAFA that armed colonists from the so-called colonial Council in the Jordan Valley stormed pastures containing about 800 sheep belonging to the Idais family in Al-Jiftlik and seized them at gunpoint in preparation for transporting them via trucks.
He added that colonists forced the owners to pay a fine estimated at 150,000 Shekels after collecting it from the villagers, in exchange for releasing the sheep and pledging not to graze them in the Jordan Valley areas again.
The percentage of lands classified as ‘Israeli areas’ in the Jordan Valley is estimated at 80 percent.
For his part, the head of the village council in al-Jiftlik, Ahmed Ghanem, told WAFA that this is not the first such attack carried out against Palestinian residents’ sheep in the Jordan Valley, ex
plaining that dozens of residents have been previously subjected to colonists’ attacks, including the looting of their property and seizure of their lands.
Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA
