Sunday September 13, 2009 01:13 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News
Just after 2 am on Saturday morning, Israeli forces invaded the village of Bil'in, west of Ramallah in the central West Bank. The late-night raid is one of a series of similar raids carried out over the last month by Israeli troops against the village of Bil'in, which is a center of non-violent organizing against the Israeli Annexation Wall and Occupation of the West Bank.
Soldier confronts young woman during night raid of Bil'in (photo from Bil'in-FFJ video)
Organizers with the Popular committee Against the Wall in Bil'in say that they believe the escalation over the last month is an attempt by the Israeli military to crush the non-violent resistance in Palestine, as Israeli forces have abducted more than twenty young people who are known as organizers and participants in the weekly non-violent demonstrations in Bil'in.
In Saturday morning's raid, Israeli troops raided two houses in an attempt to arrest Mohammed Ahmed Yasseen (age 21), and Yasseen Mohammed Yasseen (age 21). In the first house soldiers were quite aggressive during their operation. Neither of the two young men were home at the time.
At the second house, the soldiers, disguised with face masks, as they have been during the last few raids, met a lot of resistance from Palestinian and international activists who were standing in their way and filming the event.
The troops eventually retreated to the four waiting Jeeps, arresting one international activist from Great Britain on their way. Palestinian villagers who heard the soldiers conversing with each other in Hebrew say that the soldiers told each other that they planned to release the international peace activist a little further along on their way toward the Apartheid Wall. He was indeed released a few minutes later before the soldiers exited through the Wall.
Organizers with the Popular Committee Against the Wall say that they believe the Israeli forces are stepping up their night raids again in Bil'in, as the Saturday morning invasion was the second such invasion this week.
ramallah israeli attacks news report saed at imemc dot org
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