JERUSALEM — A truck driving calves from Eilat to the Golan Heights was hijacked into the West Bank.

The 70 calves, which were being taken to be fattened before slaughter, were stolen near the Dead Sea after the driver was held up at gun point and detained for several hours while the hijacker drove the truck to Ramallah, Haaretz reported Thursday.

The calves were slaughtered in Ramallah and Nablus, according to the newspaper, though 17 were recovered alive and returned to their owner.

In 2011, 2,480 sheep and cattle were stolen from ranches in Israel, worth $1.3 million, Chaim Dayan, the head of Israel’s Association of Beef Cattle Breeders, told Haaretz.