A horde of Jewish settlers escorted by police forces stormed on Tuesday morning the east Jerusalem district of Silwan and seized a private plot of land belonging to a Palestinian family.
According to local sources dozens of settlers and police officers stormed al-Ein area in Silwan and appropriated about five dunums of land known locally as “al-Hamra” land.
This piece of land belongs to the family of Samarin and is located in an important area which is threatened with Judaization.
Police forces reportedly assaulted a number of local residents including owners of the land as they were trying to prevent the settlers from fencing the land and arrested five of them.
One young man fainted and fell to the ground after police officers assaulted him during the events in the area.
With the help of police officers the same settlers also set up some structures on this piece of land after fencing it installed security cameras in the area and prevented local residents from approaching it.
Local sources told WAFA news agency that this plot of land is owned by the Greek Orthodox Church which signed a contract 70 years ago with the Samarin family to use the land.
Settlers have been trying for a while to take over this plot of land in the occupied holy city prompting the Samarin family to go to Israeli courts to stop the land grab.
The sources said the settlers came to the land and started to fence it even before a court ruling was issued.
In a separate incident Palestinian resistance fighters last night launched a shooting attack on Israeli forces in Nablus and exchanged fire with others in Jenin north of the occupied West Bank.
In a communiqué the Lions’ Den armed group said that its resistance fighters fired a hail of bullets at Israeli soldiers stationed at the military post and checkpoint of Huwara in Nablus.
In Jenin another group of resistance fighters also exchanged fire with Israeli forces in Jaba town and opened fire at other soldiers in Fahma town.
