IDF Forces Present During Alleged Sheep Theft in Hebron Hills
Footage from the southern Hebron hills shows masked individuals stealing sheep while IDF forces were present. The military stated the mission was to prevent violence, amid ongoing debates over handling nationalist crime.
IDF Response to Incident in South Hebron Hills
Footage published on Saturday in the southern Hebron hills allegedly shows masked individuals stealing sheep from residents of a Palestinian village near Masafer Yatta, while an IDF force was present at the scene. According to the IDF, the soldiers' mission was to stop friction and prevent violence, and the troops rushed to the point and acted to separate the parties. According to the documentation, the military force arrived early in the incident during the sheep theft. The video shows one of the soldiers passing a few meters away from the masked men while leading the sheep, without trying to stop them. Later, additional soldiers arrive with drawn weapons, and the suspects run away past them. According to the documentation, the soldiers did not try to catch any of them. At a later stage, Palestinian residents arrived at the location, and the soldiers fired in the air to distance them. According to the Palestinians, the shooting was intended to prevent the residents from acting against the theft.
Security Establishment Warnings on Nationalist Crime
The presence of the IDF at the event, and its non-prevention as seen in the footage, comes against the background of Palestinian claims that the IDF does not act enough against nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria. In the IDF, it was emphasized that the main difficulty in dealing with the phenomenon stems from the dramatic difference in the toolbox allocated to the forces. A security official explains: "It is important to understand - against Palestinian terrorists we work with all tools, from M-16 to F-16, and collect deep intelligence. In contrast, the IDF is forbidden to collect intelligence on the 'blue side', and the toolbox at our disposal is much more limited". Despite these limitations, the security establishment clarifies that they exhaust the tools at their disposal to the fullest, but in order to solve the phenomenon, they say it is necessary to act on several planes, such as education, punishment, and persuasion, alongside the economic and legal plane - the activation of regulations such as vehicle confiscation regulations, return regulations, and the imposition of financial fines.
"Against Palestinian terrorists we work with all tools, from M-16 to F-16, and collect deep intelligence. In contrast, the IDF is forbidden to collect intelligence on the 'blue side', and the toolbox at our disposal is much more limited".
Call for Expanded Enforcement and Dedicated Forces
In the IDF, they call for the allocation of additional dedicated forces to handle this complex mission, and at the same time explain that Shin Bet is currently using tools that did not exist before. Military sources state that the Shin Bet chief is acting very creatively and bringing very nice thwartings, things that were not here before that cannot be detailed, but at the same time raise a sharp question regarding the financing of the phenomenon, and appeal to the judicial system: "Those wild teenagers raise funds, why is this not defined as illegal fundraising?". In the IDF, they would also like to see more condemnations from the heads of the councils and senior settlement figures.
