Palestinian Farmers Battle Settler Sabotage to Save Hebron Crops and Livestock

Theeba al-Sabaa spends much of her day guarding her home and farmland in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, where grapevines once provided a steady income for her family. From dusk until dawn, the 56-year-old farmer works on land known locally as Jabal Sabaa while settler outposts spread across the surrounding hills.

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By God, the land has taught me patience, and to cling to my right, for as long as I have a right, I must take it and never let it go.

Since settlers established new outposts nearby in mid-2024, Theeba says they have monitored her movements and released livestock into her cultivated fields. The sheep graze on and trample crops after farmers have plowed and repaired the land. She also says settlers attack whenever they detect movement or see someone entering the area.

“By God, the land has taught me patience, and to cling to my right, for as long as I have a right, I must take it and never let it go,” she told Al Jazeera. “I will never leave it because I worked hard on it, I toil and sweat on it, so I will not leave my toil and sweat, or the toil of my children and my husband, to go to someone else.”

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I will never leave it because I worked hard on it, I toil and sweat on it, so I will not leave my toil and sweat, or the toil of my children and my husband, to go to someone else.

Anwar Sabarneh, 59, supports a family of 14 and owns several dunams of vineyards about 300 metres from his home. Repeated settler violations have forced two of his brothers to abandon their land, while reaching his own vineyards has become dangerous. Sabarneh says the Israeli army has demanded that Palestinians obtain permits to work land they own and has barred them from building there.

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The army came with the settlers to ask me for a permit so I can work in my home, in front of my house’s door, and on my land where I am the rightful owner.

His sheep have remained confined in a barn for more than eight months because he fears settlers will chase, kidnap or steal them. He says Israeli soldiers arrested and beat his children when they tried to retrieve stolen sheep. The article describes these incidents as part of a broader campaign targeting agriculture across the southern West Bank. It reports that settlers and Israeli troops carried out 11,074 attacks in the West Bank during the first half of 2026, citing the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

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If they see me taking the sheep out, the settlers chase me, kidnap them, and steal them.