West Bank villagers vigilant but vulnerable after settler attacks

Duma residents, like many West Bank villagers, say they are protected neither by Palestinian security, which is only allowed to operate in 40% of the territory, nor by Israel, which controls the rest

Sitting around a fire in the hills of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Ibrahim Abu Alyah and some friends stood watch over his herd in the aftermath of a settler attack on their village.

“We are here so that we can put away the sheep and tell people to protect their homes in case settlers come,” Mr. Abu Alyah said.

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After 14-year-old Israeli herder Benjamin Achimeir went missing on April 12 in the nearby illegal settler outpost of Malachi Hashalom, dozens of Jewish settlers raided his village of Al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah.

Armed with rifles and Molotov cocktails, they set houses ablaze, killed sheep, wounded 23 people and displaced 86, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.

One Palestinian was also killed in the violence.

Mr. Abu Alyah, a shepherd, lost “20 or 30 sheep” and the cash he made from selling milk products when his house was set alight.