Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
Press release Friday, 22 July 2011

Soldiers Carry out Violent Arrests at Gunpoint in Nabi Saleh

Five Palestinians were arrested in Nabi Saleh today, as soldiers stormed village houses without warrants.

Israeli soldiers and Border Police officers implemented extremely violent measures in the dispersal of the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh. In an attempt to prevent the army from taking over the village, residents set up a barricade at the entrance to the village before the beginning  of the demonstration, to which the army quickly responded with a massive volley of tear-gas projectiles.

After the midday prayers, as residents and their supporters attempted once again to march down to their lands, Border Police officers fired immense amounts of tear-gas into the village. Shortly after, and for no apparent reason, soldiers launched a full-scale raid on the village, conducting a  house-to-house search without presenting any warrants. Soldiers also took over one house without a seizure warrant. One of the soldiers was seen patrolling the village with a MAG machinegun.

During the house raids, five arrests took place inside houses, including that of a Palestinian paramedic, released a few hours later. In another incident fifteen soldiers stormed a house with their weapons drawn. One of the soldiers, holding a handgun, pointed it at the people in the room - including an Israeli paramedic - threatening to shoot them. The soldiers then left the house taking with them one of the young man present at gun point.

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