Israeli forces raided the village of Ni'lin, west of Ramallah, early May 29, storming houses and detaining four men. The mayor of Ni'lin, Aiman Nafe, said the incursion and detentions aimed to suppress activities scheduled for that day against construction of the separation wall through the southern lands of the village.
Nafe noted that the village will lose access to 2,500 dunums of land planted with olive trees when this latest wall construction phase is complete. Ni'lin farmers and their families had planned a protest occupation of their lands that are to be confiscated by the wall. Nafe also said the village lost 40,000 dunums of its lands in 1948.
Salah al-Khawaja, spokesperson of the Popular Campaign for Resisting the Wall, said 20 Israeli military vehicles carrying soldiers and officers stormed the village. Israeli forces imposed a curfew, preventing the residents from going to work or reaching the village center. Al-Khawaja affirmed that these efforts would not thwart Ni'lin's campaign of nonviolent resistance. Villagers have managed to prevent bulldozers from demolishing lands on various occasions through peaceful protests. (Ma'an News Agency [2], May 29)
Also May 29, the Israeli army arrested dozens of civilians in the al-Farta area, east of Beit Hanoun. Palestinian sources said that the soldiers ordered all men between the ages of 16 and 60 to move to the eastern side of the town so they could be transfered to the Israel. Ten military vehicles and two bulldozers razed agricultural areas east of the town of Beit Hanoun before withdrawing.
That same morning, a Palestinian man died due to injuries sustained in an Israeli incursion the previous day in al-Omour, east of Khan Yunis and Rafah. (Ma'an News Agency [3], May 29)
Local Palestinian farmers report that settlers from the Ariel bloc have released wild pigs in the Ein Al-Qabileh district south of Salfit, where they ravaged crops. Farmer Mohammad Faleh Omran said that the pigs destroyed his tomato seedlings, ruined the earth and trampled on his plants. Farmer Mahmoud Hassan said that the pigs smashed his apple shrubs and his field at night. (Ma'an News Agency [4], May 29)
Israeli soldiers used tear gas and sound grenades during a protest against the separation wall at Ni'lin May 20. That same day, Israeli aircraft launched several attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing at least three people, including a Hamas fighter and a 13-year-old boy. (AP [5], May 20)
See our last posts on Israel/Palestine [6], the West Bank [7] and Gaza [6].
