Illegal Israeli settlers attack a Beit Sahour neighborhood, detain five Palestinians

Thursday October 16, 2008 16:41 by IMEMC Staff - IMEMC

Dozens of armed Israeli colonists stormed on Thursday the Osh Al-Ghorab neighborhood of Beit Sahour city in the West Bank, their police detained six people including four international visitors and two Palestinian.

Israelin settlers

The IMEMC correspondent in the city confirmed that the settlers stormed the area, which is a previously Israeli military base but is land that belongs to the city and began attacking those present including internationals.

For the past few months, the settlers have attempted to take over the evacuated base on a number of occasions. In response, Palestinian residents, with the help of internationals, have used non-violent civil disobedience to defend the Palestinian piece of land. The residents also actively use the area in recreation since there is a playground and nature area. The municipality plans to build a hospital on the site and has authorization and support from the Palestinian authority as well as financial support from International donors.

The illegal settlers' actions today in the area included erection of mobile "settlement units" in the guise of Sukkot structures. Some settlers insulted locals and Internationals and attempted to assault them. The army and police treated these incidents with kids gloves (sometimes pleading with the sttlers) but instead attacked the peaceful native Palestinians and Internationals. Settler police (aided by border police) kidnapped 6 people (2 Palestinians and 4 Internationals). After much negotiations where the kidnappers attempted to blackmail the peaceful resident, five of those arrested were released. The sixth was transferred to illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion.

The IMEMC correspondent stated that Israeli soldiers occupied a private Palestinian house confining its residents to one room and took positions in it including on the rooftop.

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