Amid the grapevines that once provided a steady income for her family, 56-year-old Palestinian farmer Theeba al-Sabaa spends much of her day guarding her home and farmland in the occupied West Bank from settlers. From dusk till dawn, she works on her land in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, known by locals as “Jabal Sabaa”. Theeba is engaged in a daily battle against the encroaching settler outposts that have emerged among the rolling hills that surround her, and which block access to sections of her land.
Settlers frequently approach the perimeter of her home and deliberately release livestock into the cultivated fields. Due to the repeated settler violations, two of his brothers have been forced to abandon their land. Sabarneh, who supports a family of 14, owns several dunams of vineyards located just 300 metres (980 feet) from his home.
With aggressive settlers around, reaching them has become a dangerous ordeal. Sabarneh said that the Israeli army even demands permits from Palestinians to work on their own land. Farmers are also barred from building anything on their land.
Sabarneh’s sheep have also been locked in a barn for over eight months due to the dangers posed by settlers. When Sabarneh’s children have tried to retrieve their stolen sheep, Israeli soldiers have arrested and beaten them. Repeated pogroms by settlers against Palestinian farmers reflect a broader strategy targeting agriculture across the southern West Bank.
Settlers and the Israeli troops carried out 11,074 attacks in the West Bank during the first half of 2026, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission. This includes 3,488 carried out by settlers. Hasan Breijieh, a settlement affairs expert and director at the commission, told Al Jazeera that continuous settlement expansionism, alongside restrictions on Palestinian movement, are the primary reasons that so many Palestinians have been forced to flee their farms.
Bypass roads, built by Israel, have also hindered “connectivity between Palestinian communities”, Breijieh said. Under such restrictions, Palestinian farmers have faced a fourth consecutive season without being able to harvest olives, grapes, or guava. Their lands have been “neither plowed nor pruned”, and have been forcibly abandoned.
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