11-08-2025
Israeli army slaughters 262 crocodiles in West Bank 'killing valley'
The Israeli army has killed 262 crocodiles that were being kept in a farm in the occupied West Bank near the illegal settlement of Petzael.
According to the Civil Administration, the Israeli military unit responsible for controlling the West Bank, the Nile crocodiles posed a risk to the public due to negligence.
Nile crocodiles have been considered a protected species since 2013.
Farm owner Danny Bitan told Kan 11 that the military created "some kind of killing valley'. 'They just slaughtered them," he told the public broadcaster.
The farm in the Jordan Valley was established in the 1990s and closed to visitors during the 2000-05 Second Intifada.
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Other crocodiles were found dead at the scene when soldiers arrived to kill the reptiles last week.
"The decision was made on the basis of urgent opinions by veterinary experts that the Nile crocodiles on the farm are kept in the abandoned compound in poor conditions that constitute animal abuse, and without sufficient access to food, which has pushed them into cannibalistic behaviour," the Civil Administration said.
A security source told Israeli news site Ynet that the farm's owner refused to secure the compound and therefore the farm posed a "significant risk to the settlement".
According to Bitan, there were about 800 crocodiles on the farm.
Bitan told Haaretz that Civil Administration personnel arrived at the farm in Petzael, about 20km north of Jericho, drained the water of the lake they lived in, shot hundreds of crocodiles, and then loaded them onto trucks.
"The Civil Administration didn't help me find a solution," Bitan told Haaretz.
"I already had an agreement with a company in Morocco to transfer the crocodiles to a tourist park in the country, but it didn't come to fruition because of the war," Bitan added.
"Recently there was another country with which I was about to reach an agreement. But the Civil Administration decided to break into a private place and do what they wanted."
The farm was a tourist attraction and also used for the production and sale of crocodile skins abroad. According to Channel 12 News, until the early 2000s, about 3,000 crocodiles were imported to the farm.
A security source told Channel 12 that until the Nile crocodile became a protected animal, Bitan slaughtered the crocodiles. After the law was changed, hundreds of crocodiles remained in his possession.
"Until 2013, Bitan would slaughter the crocodiles for money. As soon as he realised he couldn't make any more money from them, he stopped taking care of the farm," the source said.
Dead crocodiles could be seen strewn around the farm alongside bullet cases (Mako)
In a report broadcast on Kan 11, crocodile carcasses and bullet cases can be seen scattered around the farm.
The farm's manager, Bassem Salah, told Kan 11 that the Civil Administration and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority broke into the farm in the morning and took his phone so that he could not alert Bitan.
Let the Animals Live, an Israeli animal protection organisation, attacked the military's decision to kill the crocodiles.
"This is a violent and cruel killing of animals that defies all moral standards," it said.
"This is an act that grossly violates Israel's international obligations to protect animals and the Animal Protection Law. An investigation must be carried out immediately to understand who gave the order and who approved it."
