Palestinian farmers battle settler sabotage to save Hebron crops, livestock

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.“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.”Weaponising livestockSince mid-2024, when settlers established new outposts on the nearby hills, every one of Theeba’s moves has been monitored.Settlers frequently approach the perimeter of her home and deliberately release livestock into the cultivated fields.“They enter with their sheep into our land after we plow and fix it, grazing in it, t...