The Palestinians reiterate steadfastness in the face of the occupation

The Palestinians continue their steadfastness in the face of the crimes of the Israeli occupation and their struggle in defense of the land and existence in the towns of Ya’abud in the city of Jenin and Nahhalin in the city of Bethlehem as in every inch of the land of Palestine in light of the silence of the international community. 

Raed Abu Bakr, a person from the town of Ya`bud, told SANA reporter: “For the sixth consecutive day, the occupation authorities continued to blockade the town and isolate it from its surroundings by closing all roads leading to it with concrete barriers and earth berms. Hundreds of soldiers of the occupation forces storm Palestinian homes repeatedly amid shooting and firing of poison gas bombs, in addition to arresting and injuring dozens, including children.

Abu Bakr stated that the occupation forces blew up the doors of houses, destroying their contents, and assaulted children, elderly and women. They also seize lands in an attempt to break the steadfastness of the Palestinians and displace them to expand settlement operations.

The director of the Prisoner Club in the city of Jenin, Montaser Samour, pointed out that the fierce attack launched by the occupation on the town of Ya`bud since last Tuesday resulted in the arrest of 34 Palestinians, including children, women, patients, and the elderly, who are subjected to physical and psychological torture in the occupation’s detention centers.

The situation in the town of Nahhalin in the city of Bethlehem does not differ from Ya`bud, where the occupation continues its attacks on people, trees, and land.

 A farmer from Nahhalin said that the occupation forces and settlers storm the town daily, attacking homes and properties, and bulldozing the lands, pointing out that they uprooted dozens of fruitful trees and destroyed 90 dunums cultivated with olives and grapes. The occupation has not only uprooted trees and destroyed crops, but has demolished dozens of houses in order to expand the settlements that surround the town from all directions. The farmer added that  whatever the occupation attacks, it will not succeed in breaking our steadfastness. We always replant what the occupation uprooted, and we will always thwart its schemes.

The director of the office of the Resistance of the Wall and Settlement Authority in Bethlehem, Hassan Brijieh, pointed out that the occupation seizes 19,000 dunums out of 22,000 dunums, which is the total land area of Nahhalin town, intensifies its attacks on the town and closes the rest of its lands to displace its people and expand the eight settlements established on its lands.

Brijieh pointed out that the occupation closed the roads leading to the remaining agricultural lands in the town and prevented the Palestinians from entering it, noting that access to those lands is a journey fraught with danger and death in light of the repeated attacks by the occupation forces and settlers against farmers.

Since the American administration announced the terms of the so-called “deal of the century” which aimed at eliminating the Palestinian issue and rights on January 28th, the Israeli occupation authorities have escalated their attacks on Palestinian cities and towns to implement their expansionist settlement plans and annex parts of the occupied West Bank in light of the international community’s disregard for Palestine’s demands to stop interference and the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinians and hold those responsible accountable.

Inas Abdulkareem