Bilal Rizek, 25, a resident of Hendaza neighborhood in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, was taken prisoner by the Israeli Army during a pre-dawn invasion of the city, early Tuesday morning.
The man was taken to an unknown location after soldiers conducted a mass search campaign in his neighborhood, which included destroying and ransacking his family’s home, as well as the houses of many other families.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army has intensified its sudden checkpoints and invasions around the city. Recently, Wadil Nar Road, the main road that connects the city with the rest of the other West Bank cities, has been the location of intensive army checkpoints that are searching civilian vehicles, checking ID cards of residents, and at times delaying them for several hours.
The Wadil Nar Road is the only road that is used by local residents and the near by Hebron city residents to travel to other parts of the West Bank. It was closed by a military checkpoint called Al Container checkpoint in the beginning of this intifada, and was considered to be one of the toughest checkpoints in the West Bank.
Some students from the city who traveled through the checkpoint on a daily basis to attend school in Abu Dis, which is just 20 min away from Bethlehem, reported daily harassment at Wadil Nar road and Al Container checkpoint
