IOF troops destroy five shops in Al-Khalil, storm hospital in Bethlehem

[ 20/12/2010 – 07:51 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished five shops in the village of Baka’a east of Al-Khalil district on Monday at the pretext of being built without permit, local sources reported. Sa’eed Jaber, the owner of the shops, said that he tabled many requests for building permits but the Israeli occupation authorities always turned them down, saying that they were too close to the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. The sources said that IOF soldiers cordoned off the entire area and blocked citizens from approaching before tearing down the shops. The village is routinely targeted by Jewish settlers, who have occupied a number of its houses after expelling their inhabitants, locals said, recalling that the settlers had also uprooted tens of trees and damaged cultivated land lots other than installing a settlement outpost on part of the village land at the beginning of this year. In a separate incident, IOF soldiers led by a number of officers on Sunday stormed a rehabilitation hospital in Beit Jala town, Bethlehem, and ordered tens of citizens not to enter the building after confiscating the IDs of some of them. Local sources said that the soldiers broke into the emergency ward and asked the on-duty doctor to bring them records of all patients who received treatment in the ward since Friday night. The soldiers compared the names with a list they had. The Hebrew radio, meanwhile, said that the IOF soldiers rounded up seven Palestinian in various West Bank areas at dawn Monday after searching their homes.

IOF troops destroy five shops in Al-Khalil, storm hospital in Bethlehem.