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Occupation soldiers threaten Jayyous village with collective punishment
Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, January 23rd, 2008

Over the last week, Occupation forces have begun conducting daily incursions into the village of Jayyous, shooting at villagers with live ammunition. The village has also been directly threatened with collective punishment, with the stated intention being to ‘teach Jayyous a lesson’.

Over the past month, a number of people have been injured as a result of the use of live fire. Jihad, age 12, was shot in the leg on the 12th of January, 2008. The bullet passed through his calf muscle, and he received treatment at the UNRWA hospital in Qalqilya. Mahmoud, age 20, was also injured in the same incident. Villagers report that other youth under the age of 16 have been injured, although detailed information is not currently available.

More recently, soldiers have informed mayor Taher Mohammed Jabar that a major incursion has been planned for last 21st or 22nd of the month, with the intention of inflicting structural damage on the village and injuring the village youth. In fact, the villagers have suffered incursions during those nights but the major threat still hangs over Jayyous. Occupation forces accuse villagers of damaging a section of the Wall near the north gate and have explicitly threatened to cut electricity, shoot holes in village water tanks and take all men in the village into the school for questioning. Furthermore, the soldiers threatened to cause grievous bodily harm to the young men of the village in order to handicap them. This threat was given to the mayor and also repeated on a number of separate occasions to other villagers.

Bahajat Musa, a villager living close to the wall, receives daily threats and harassment from soldiers. He lives 40m from the north gate with his wife and five of his children, three under 16 and two between the ages of 18 and 22. Over the last week his house has been occupied and searched on a nightly basis. Occupation forces have told him that it is his responsibility to prevent youths from throwing stones at soldiers and have threatened to demolish his house if he does not comply. "I don’t want the soldiers to come into my house and point guns at my children, I don’t want them to search my home,” Bahajat said. He added: “The problem is not the people. The problem is that the Wall has been built right next to our houses."

Jayyous, a village of 3,800 people, is located in the north of the Qalqilya district. The village has been hard hit by the construction of Wall, which has cut off the population from 75% of their lands. These threats and attacks are the latest in a long series of cruel abuses and threats.