NABLUS (PIC)– The Israeli occupation army on Sunday invaded the northern West Bank town of Nablus placing thousands of citizens under curfew rounding up civilians and vandalizing private and public property.
Eyewitnesses said as many as 80 military vehicles including armored personnel carriers stormed the town early in the morning amid sounds of gunfire.
The invading forces were concentrated mainly in the Old Town which sustained widespread destruction during earlier Israeli army invasions especially in 2002 and 2003.
The occupation forces were reportedly rampaging in the vicinity of the Rafidia hospital and the Al-Watani hospital in the Old Town with huge army bulldozers demolishing buildings.
Moreover soldiers also were stationed on rooftops of strategic buildings and key intersections in the center of the town.
All routes to and from Nablus had been closed with roadblocks and concrete slabs and rocks.
Universities and public institutions closed their doors as a result of the invasion and so did most shops and businesses in the city.
“We are once again in a state of invasion. They are treating us the same way the Gestapo treated them. The Jews are the Nazis of our time” said Ayham Anabtawi a resident of the Rafidia neighborhood.
“The Zionists think that our cities our streets our homes even our lives have no sanctity. Isn’t this the way the Gestapo viewed Jewish homes and Jewish lives?”
In mid morning the invading forces reportedly came under fire and an explosive device was detonated next to an Israeli military jeep. There were no reports of casualties.
Earlier the Israeli occupation army claimed it had discovered an explosives-manufacturing factory in the old town suggesting that the purpose of the Sunday morning invasion was to demolish the building.
In 2002 and 2003 the Israeli army carried out several violent raids in Nablus during which hundreds of innocent civilians were murdered and hundreds of homes destroyed.
The historical Old Town sustained substantial damage during recurrent Israeli raids and in some cases civilians especially elderly couples were killed when their homes were demolished while they were inside.
Nablus was declared a disaster zone in 2003 as Palestinians began to rebuild their homes and infrastructure.
The city and surrounding areas never the less remained nearly isolated from the rest of the West Bank as the Israeli occupation army continued to maintain roadblocks on all roads leading to and from the city.
The Hiwwara roadblock normally manned by young ill-behaving trigger-happy Israeli occupation soldiers is considered one of the most sinister of all Israeli roadblocks. At this roadblock a number of Palestinians were shot dead while others arrested. Occasionally Palestinians are stranded for several hours at the site for no logical reason.
Palestinians and human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories including Israel’s own B’tselem say deliberate harassment and humiliation of Palestinians are a daily occurrence at the Hiwwara roadblock.
