On 28th of June the Israeli army entered a Summer camp for children in Qaffin and detained one boy of 13 years old for five hours. To get him released the mayor was forced to agree to shutting down the camp. The army claimed that boys had been throwing stones at the nearby wall. They also claimed that the camp was in a military closed zone. Furthermore, the army has given the mayor a list of fifteen wanted boys who they claim are making trouble.
Qaffin, a village if 10 000 people, lies north of Tulkarem very close to the Green Line. The village has a lot of problems because of the wall, which stop them from reaching their land.
The summer camp has been running for four weeks and the Israeli army has been around almost every day. In the camp, the children do sports and art training among other things. The summer camp is part of the bigger struggle against the apartheid wall and another purpose is to give children something to do during the summer holidays.
On the day of this occasion, 150 children were in the camp. They got scared as the military entered the camp, and most of them ran away. Now they are scared to come back, and it is still unclear if the camp can be reopened.
One month ago the Israeli army detained five children, who they claimed had been throwing stones close to the wall. In order to get them released each family had to pay a fine of 7000 NIS. With this fresh in mind, the mayor is now concerned about the consequences of reopening the camp, since it might cause a lot of problem for parents and children of the village. However, he doesn’t like the idea of completely closing the camp.