by Amin Abu Wardeh, January 4th
Midnight raids carried out by Israeli patrols are the norm in the northern West Bank’s Nablus area. They hit the southwestern town of Sarra when residents are sleeping. Regardless of the frequency, the invasions still come as a shock and have turned lives into living nightmares.
Teacher Radwan Abdullah is a Sarra resident. He says that what is happening in the town is systematic, and what exacerbates the horror of it all is the absence of media attention.
Abdullah told PNN on Thursday that six houses have been overtaken by the Israeli military in recent days. “Ten masked soldiers stormed the houses and tore through different sections, searching and interrogating everyone and then forcing them to leave.”
He continued, “The same force came back the next day to a nearby house and did the same thing. They went through six houses like this. One of the owners, Mohammad, has been suffering for years because of this type of attack and the military post erected at the entrance to town, which restricts the movement of the population and the introduction of goods. There is no justification for these occupation incursions. The suffering of the population of Sarra is just increasing all the time.”
Israeli forces have erected several barriers on the road that links Nablus to Qalqilia and the rest of the West Bank, including checkpoints and military installations, which severely restrict freedom of movement.
Abdullah has issued an appeal to human rights organizations to expose the reality of life under occupation in a global forum.
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Local schoolchildren have recently been terrorized by IOF forces in Sarra.