- Palestine
- May 1, 2010
- 3 minutes read
IOF troops kidnap Palestinian elderly woman in Al-Khalil
Al-KHALIL, — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped at dawn Thursday an elderly woman called Halima Shawamra, 58, after storming her house in Dura town, south of Al-Khalil city.
A human rights source told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that the IOF troops kidnapped Shawamra to pressure her son to turn himself in.
The source noted that Shawamra is the second woman from Al-Khalil kidnapped within more than 48 hours, where the IOF troops detained earlier a woman called Maysun Suweiti from Beit Awa town.
In separate incidents, the IOF troops claimed they kidnapped nine Palestinians Wednesday evening in the governorates of Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Different Palestinian local sources said, for their part, on Thursday morning that the Israeli troops raided and ransacked many homes in Jenin and Bethlehem before kidnapping four young men.
Other local sources reported that savage Israeli settlers from Karmi Tsur settlement, built on Palestinian usurped lands in the towns of Beit Ommar and Halhul in Al-Khalil, destroyed at night a large number of almond trees owned by farmers, pointing that those settlers have been waging continuous attacks on Palestinian property for three days.
Eyewitnesses said that a bunch of Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian truck full of goods at Za’tara checkpoint on Wednesday evening belonging to a citizen from Qabatiya town, south of Jenin.
They added that settlers threw an incendiary substance on the truck as it was waiting at the checkpoint before the eyes of Israeli soldiers which led to the burning of all goods it was carrying.
Other groups of settlers physically assaulted a Palestinian young man called Yasser Rabai’a in occupied Jerusalem upon his return from his workplace.
Eyewitness said that the settlers intercepted his way as he was en route to home before beating him severely and stealing his wallet, adding that the young man sustained bruises all over his body.
At noon Thursday, armed settlers from Yitzhar settlement escorted by IOF troops attacked the village of Hawara, south of Nablus and burned a number of its agricultural fields in addition to the garden of the municipal council in the village.
Meanwhile, the Israel troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas grenades at the villagers who tried to protect their property.
Eyewitnesses said at the time of reporting that the same settlers were still throwing stones at Palestinian cars traveling on the main road between Ramallah and Nablus which is located inside the village, while the Israeli troops were deployed all over the streets.