JERICHO / PNN /
Israeli settlers set fire to homes belonging to the Arab al-Mleihat Bedouin community in the Ein al-Mu’arajat area northwest of Jericho early Friday morning, forcing dozens of residents to flee the area for the second time in a month.
According to local sources, settlers torched six residential structures that housed 20 families, just one day after they had returned to the area following nearly a month of displacement caused by repeated attacks by settlers and Israeli forces.
Hassan Mleihat, coordinator of the Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said in a statement that extremist settlers burned residential shelters owned by local residents Ibrahim Ka’abneh, Jamal Mleihat, Atallah Mleihat, Jibreel Ka’abneh, and Mohammed Suleiman.
“The arson attacks and the assault on the residents forced them to flee once again,” Mleihat said, adding that the attack began around 1 a.m. when dozens of settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, stormed the area and set fire to the shelters, which were used to house both families and their livestock. The fires destroyed the structures completely and posed a serious threat to the lives of the inhabitants.
Mleihat described the incident as part of an ongoing campaign of organized violence aimed at uprooting Palestinian Bedouins from the Jordan Valley. He accused Israeli authorities of granting settlers full impunity to carry out what he called “a campaign of ethnic cleansing,” amid “shameful international silence and a systematic failure to protect civilians.”
He called for an urgent and transparent international investigation into the attack and demanded that those responsible, including the Israeli military personnel who provided protection to the settlers, be held accountable.
He also urged the United Nations, the European Union, and international human rights organizations to immediately intervene, dispatch monitoring missions to the area, and provide urgent international protection for threatened Bedouin communities across the West Bank.
Moayyad Shaaban, head of the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, said that the forced displacement of the Arab al-Mleihat families — the second in a month — is part of a broader Israeli plan to Judaize the Ein al-Mu’arajat area, which holds strategic importance as a central route linking Jericho with other West Bank governorates.
“These families were terrorized by armed settlers under the full protection of the Israeli army,” Shaaban said, warning of a sharp increase in attacks against the community. He praised the residents for their steadfastness and determination to remain on their land, despite the repeated assaults.
“Even amid displacement, we will not abandon these families. The Commission will continue to stand by them and ensure their basic needs are met in the coming days,” he said.
Shaaban reiterated his earlier warnings and called on all political factions, civil society organizations, and Palestinian families to act urgently to protect Bedouin communities that are under increasing threat, particularly due to settler gunfire and organized assaults.
Since the beginning of the year, settlers have carried out 2,153 attacks, killing four Palestinians. These assaults have ranged from village raids and home burnings to shootings, land confiscation, road blockages, and the establishment of illegal outposts.
The most affected areas include the governorates of Ramallah (491 attacks), Hebron (409), and Nablus (396), with notable incidents in the villages of Kafr Malik, Al-Mughayir, Beita, and Sinjil.
