The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed on Sunday morning Sebastia town’s archaeological area in Nablus and prevented Palestinian citizens from entering or leaving it.
Sebastia mayor Mohamed Azem said that Israeli troops cordoned off the ancient site in the town and the area around it and barred citizens from going in or out before hundreds of Jewish settlers flocked into the area and embarked on pitching tents.
Mayor Azem explained that Israeli soldiers raided in the morning several Palestinian homes in the area forcing some families to refrain from sending their children to schools.
He added that the IOF closed all the roads leading to the ancient site deployed soldiers inside some homes and on their rooftops prevented local residents from leaving or entering their homes and destroyed doors of some stores.
Last May the Israeli government approved a budget of 32 million shekels to Judaize the archeological site of Sebastia and establish a Jewish tourist center in the place.
Since the six-day war in 1967 Sebastia has been held under Israeli military occupation while the Palestinian Authority is the civil authority of the area.
Sebastia is a mixture of structural remains and modern buildings and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the occupied West Bank.
It was once a major city home to successive civilizations from its Arab Canaanite founders to the Romans and then its modern-day Palestinian inhabitants.
Both the major archaeological site above the village and the historic center of the town itself are still fascinating tourist attractions.
However this unique ancient town is exposed to systematic attempts by the Israeli occupation state and its ministry of tourism to obliterate and Judaize its Arab history and identity.
The occupation state also prevents the Palestinian local authorities from carrying out any restoration or cleaning works at the historical site in the town.
