A new category of security threat has emerged at the separation wall around the West Bank.
Shepherds from the village of Jayous have been prevented since October from bringing their goats and sheep to their grazing lands which are now in Israeli-controlled territory because of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial security wall.
When the wall was built last year, lands were confiscated, olive trees were cut down and numerous agricultural installations were destroyed. It devastated the local economy which is 70 per cent agricultural.
The land is not officially confiscated, however, and travel permits have recently been issued to the shepherds. Sadly the animals appear to remain a threat and are not permitted to travel.
They are now starving to death, and the last remains of the agriculture industry - 3,500 goats and sheep - are dying in the corrals around Jayous, now too debilitated to even bleat. A local farmer described it as "a slow cruel starvation".
Commercial feed could be bought but at a dollar per day per animal, the cost is prohibitive. A dollar feeds a family for a week in Jayous.
Aoife Daly, a member of the Palestinian Solidarity who visited the West Ban earlier this year, says border guards operate with immunity. "Soldiers are never disciplined about the arbitrary way they operate the permit system - it would be unheard of," she said.