Police officers are investigating a fire at a sheep pen that caused the death of dozens of sheep in the Samua area, south of Hebron, the Israel Police said on Tuesday.
IDF sources told The Jerusalem Post that 52 sheep died at the site.
According to the police statement and Fire and Rescue investigators, an electrical failure was responsible for the ignition and the fire, which led to the death of the sheep.
"The fire was caused by an electrical failure that led to the ignition of tarpaulin sheets that covered the sheep pen and resulted in the animals burning," the police said.
The police noted that the incident didn't appear to have a criminal or nationalist background."At this stage, there is no certainty that this was a criminal act, and the possibility of a fire that broke out as a result of an electrical short circuit is being examined," the police said.
Police noted that, right after receiving a report about the case, officers from Hebron police station and IDF troops were dispatched to the scene.
Investigation ongoing in incident location
Initially, there were suspicions that the fire was lit by settlers. Before being ruled out by forensic investigators and by a team of fire investigators from the Fire and Rescue services.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.