Israeli settlers reportedly steal livestock in the Jordan Valley

A group of Israeli settlers have reportedly stolen livestock from a Palestinian farming family in the Jordan Valley as attacks from settlers continue to rise.

According to Middle East Eye citing Palestinian news agency Wafa on May 1st, the attack occurred near the Hamra military checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley late in the night.

A local report was published in the wake of the attack that claimed that the settlers also damaged solar panels, destroyed tents, and slashed the tires of water tankers before leaving the scene with the family’s livestock.

Local Palestinians claim that attacks and intimidation from Israeli settlers has increased in recent weeks with repeated livestock thefts being only a small part of a far wider problem.

Israeli settlers have been growing in ambition and confidence in recent months and in Jerusalem it is reported that 13,064 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque – the third holiest sight for Muslims – in the first quarter of 2025.

Despite breaking international law, the Israeli army have offered security for those settlers aiming to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque despite the fact that access for the city’s Muslim community is restricted, even during the month of Ramadan.

Similar restrictions are being placed on Palestinians living in the northern Jordan Valley, with local sources reporting that Israeli soldiers have tightened security at the Tayasir and Hamra military checkpoints making it harder for Palestinians to cross in either direction.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have been a severe contravening of international law and in March 2025 UN High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement that, “The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime”.

Israel has already disengaged from the UN Human Rights Council citing “chronic anti-Israel bias” as their reason for doing so.

Middle East Eye, Maghrebi