On Wednesday August the 13th 2008 a thirteen year old boy was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers and has reported that he was beaten. He was held for six hours before being released. Also, an epileptic shepherd from the West Bank village of Ni’lin told international activists that he was beaten up by Israeli soldiers when he attempted to take his sheep to his fields near his home at 9am.
The Israeli army has harassed the farmers of Ni’lin every morning for at least a week by sending soldiers to the road half way between the village and the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall. The soldiers says the land is declared a closed military zone, but have not shown any document proving that claim.
The soldiers continued the harassment by removing the security road blocks villagers of Ni’lin have build of stones on the sand roads leading into the village, in order to keep the soldiers away from their homes.
Villagers protested spontaneously against the removal of the stones and the military answered back by shooting rubber coated steel bullets, teargas and sound bombs at the demonstrators.
The Israeli army moved all the way into the village and shot at the protesters from the health care clinic.
The army chased the protesters forward and back in the fieds right outside the village from approximately 12.30 to 5 pm, continuously shooting huge amounts of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets.
5 villagers were seriously injured by rubber coated steel bullets. One were sent to the nearby hospital Al Shekh Zaid after being hit by 4 bullets, two of the bullets hit him on his left arm right next to his heart.
One 9 year old boy was kidnapped by the soldiers and beaten before they took him to the police station where the Israeli army held him for 6 hours before his family finally was allowed to come and take him home.
After a few hours of silence the military entered the village again at approximately 1am. 8 jeeps with heavily armed soldiers woke up the sleeping villagers by shooting sound bombs and tear-gas in the streets and into the houses. One man was taken to the police station without any charges or explanation and afterwards his house among others were tear-gassed.