Resident of Palestinian village forced to empty his home to accommodate over 20 soldiers for some 15 hours supposedly to carry out observation. Palestinian claims soldiers ‘just went to sleep’
A resident of the Palestinian village of Salem near Nablus was forced to accommodate 20 soldiers for 15 hours in his home, after they broke into his house in order to rest.
The soldiers claimed that he had to empty rooms for them in his house, for a security mission.
Mudayen Jbur, a resident of the village, told Ynet that “just before morning prayer, at around 5 a.m., I heard hard knocking on the door. The soldiers shouted, ‘it’s the army, open up, open up’.”
Jbur asked the soldiers to identify themselves, for fear of burglars. When he realized they were soldiers he opened the door and, according to him, “immediately after I opened the door 20 or more soldiers barged in. They said that they were here on a security mission, to observe the road around the Alon Moreh settlement, to make sure kids from the village don’t throw stones at the settlers’ cars.”
Once in a while, Israel Defense Force soldiers carry out an operation in which they evacuate residents from their homes or certain rooms in their homes, and take charge of the area for an unlimited period of time, for security purposes.
Mudayyen’s home is the most external house in the village and that is supposedly why it was chosen by the IDF to carry out the observation mission.
‘These acts deepen loathing, hatred’
However, according to Mudayyen, the soldiers did not carry out any observations whatsoever during their stay in his home.
“The soldiers put me and my wife into one of the rooms and posted a soldier outside to guard us. They even said that if we needed anything, we were allowed to ask. But they did not carry out any observations. They spread out in the rooms of the house and simply went to sleep. It seems they were looking for a place to rest. They didn’t even open one window, they didn’t move any curtains, so what observation are they talking about?”
Mudayyen told the soldiers that lately, for almost over a year now, not one stone has been thrown from that area towards vehicles on the road, “but apparently the stone throwing matter was just an excuse, because they didn’t do anything, they just slept in the house.”
In the afternoon Mudayyen’s parents, who live nearby, began to worry since they had not heard from him. They tried to search for him, but they too were stopped by the soldiers.
“First my parents sent my brother to check on us. The soldiers saw him near the house, stopped him and threw him in me and my wife’s room. My other brother came and they stopped him too. My parents also showed up to search, not only for me but also for my brother who had disappeared – and the soldiers threw them in the room. In a short time we found ourselves to be eight people in the room, for no reason and without the soldiers doing anything,” he said.
Operation’s Coordinator in the Palestinian Authority for the Rabbis for Human Rights Organization Zachariah Sida managed to contact the IDF’s Coordination and Liaison headquarters, and over 13 hours after the soldiers took over the house, he managed to convince the army to get the soldiers out of the house.
Sida told Ynet that this was ‘gang behavior’ and that “the activity had no security purpose, it was simply bullying, which only deepens the loathing and hatred between the two sides; IDF will not achieve security in this way.”
Military sources told Ynet that “In this case, the claims about the restriction of the house’s inhabitants from being able to move freely are untrue. The family was permitted to move freely about the house and eat, and after a few hours the forces left the space after evaluating the situation.”