Israeli forces have raided a protest camp in a village in the South Al-Khalil Hills of the occupied West Bank, wounding at least one local resident, detaining one person and attempting to destroy remaining tents erected by activists, organizers said.
The raid took place on Thursday morning in the village of Sarura, where activists and local landowners set up a protest camp last week to demand that families who were evicted in the 1990s be allowed to return.
“Without providing orders or documentation for why they were there, soldiers confiscated equipment used by activists and attempted to remove two shade structures,” Issa Amro, the director of the Al-Khalil-based Youth Against Settlements, told Al Jazeera by phone.
“This morning soldiers arrived to confiscate tents and tools. [Soldiers] tried to destroy the last tent in the camp, but kids and activists were able to stop them.”
Ashley Bohrer, an American-Jewish activist of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, told Al Jazeera that soldiers used a “disproportionate amount of force against activists, kicking and shoving us to take the shade structure”.
Video from Thursday’s incident shows Israeli soldiers shoving local families and activists as they attempted to remove the remaining tent.
Activists are heard yelling, “There are children in this tent” as soldiers started to remove stakes that were supporting the shade structure.
Bohrer added that a 55-year-old Palestinian man, who owned a cave in the village, was injured by Israeli forces and had to be treated by paramedics.
“Israeli forces had previously raided the camp on Saturday, confiscating tents, generators and tools used by the activists and local families,” Amro said.
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