Assailant also caught on video viciously beating Palestinian man. Incident comes day after a settler was filmed beating a dog to death in a Palestinian village
Times of Israel
The Israel Police began an investigation Sunday after a settler driving an ATV was filmed running over a flock of sheep owned by a Palestinian in the area of Khirbet al-Tawil, near Nablus, earlier in the day.
In the video, the ATV is seen with the skull of a bull mounted on its front bumper. The footage shows the settler stepping off the ATV while two sheep are trapped underneath it. He then begins beating a Palestinian man who is filming the altercation.
Multiple sheep were severly injured as a result of the incident.
Police said that ‘as part of the investigation, actions are being taken using all tools at the police’s disposal to clarify the circumstances of the incident.’
The shepherd of the flock said that the settler driving the ATV ‘terrorizes us every day.’
‘One day he came to my home, another day he followed me into a cave and pepper-sprayed me in the face,’ the shepherd added. ‘These settlers are criminals. Every day they terrorize us and cause trouble.’
The incident is the latest to occur amid a monthslong surge in mostly unchecked settler violence in the West Bank. Arrests and convictions of perpetrators are rare.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed that up to 80 percent of incidents that Israeli troops in the West Bank record are Jewish attacks on Palestinians. The statistic was shared with the premier by an officer in the IDF Central Command during a meeting on Jewish terrorism, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
The running over of the sheep was the second incident in as many days in which a settler was filmed hurting an animal belonging to a Palestinian.
On Saturday, footage circulated of a masked assailant beating a dog to death in a Palestinian village.