A Palestinian youth was injured on Saturday night when Israeli forces invaded the village, known for its decade-long weekly non-violent protests against the Israeli takeover of their land.
The soldiers were met by stone throwing youth who tried to get the soldiers to leave their village.
According to local sources, the Israeli soldiers involved in the invasion began firing rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas toward the village youth, as well as stun grenades.
A young Palestinian man, who has not yet been identified, was hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet, and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
These bullets are supposedly ‘less than lethal’, but they have caused numerous deaths among Palestinians when they are fired by Israeli soldiers shooting at close range.
Tear gas also seeped into homes in the village, causing villagers to be awakened and to suffer from tear gas inhalation.
Sharif Omar, one of the local farmers cut off from their lands due to the Israeli Annexation Wall, wrote for the Electronic Intifada about his village, “Before the Wall, Jayyous had six agricultural roads. Now five are blocked. The only way to go to our farms is through the remaining road that leads to the gate in the Wall.
“We used to go to our farms whenever we wanted, preferring to work in the early morning and evening when the sun is not so hot. Now we are only “permitted” to go to and from the farms according to the Israeli military. The gate is supposed to be open at 7:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 5:30 PM, but most of the time this schedule is disregarded. We end up waiting for hours for the soldiers to let us through.
“Before the Wall, merchants used to come to our farms and purchase our produce. This was very important for our economic survival because Israeli checkpoints were already stopping our trucks traveling from Palestinian farmland to Palestinian cities. Now the merchants cannot come to our farms. The only place we can sell our produce is in small villages, where we get a much lower price.
“Before the Wall, we could pay Palestinian workers to help work our land. Now non-land owners cannot pass through the gate, so we cannot get the help we need and many farm workers have lost their jobs. A lot of good land is now left uncultivated and many farmers have had to abandon their land altogether.
“Without regular irrigation, thousands of citrus trees have died and there are now less than half the greenhouses that there were before the Wall. Often, farmers who still try to make a living off their land are held up by soldiers for so long at the gate that their harvested fruit rots before they can market it.
“Now, many people in Jayyous rely on humanitarian assistance to survive because their land lies inaccessible, just on the other side of the Wall.”
The Israeli military provided no explanation for their late-night invasion of the small farming village on Saturday night.
