On Friday 10th of October, residents of Nilin started harvesting their olives trees that are located on confiscated lands and had to face the usual violence of the Occupation.
In the early hours of the morning, international activists arrived to the center of the village to help families pick their olives. However, many of them as well as medical teams were not allowed to enter the village as dozens of Occupation forces blocked the entrance to the village and declared Nillin a closed military zone. The activists and first aid workers did still succeed in entering the village taking another, longer way to reach the village.
At 9 am, hundreds of Nilin’s residents and activists were ready to begin their march towards the confiscated land. Once the people came closer to the path of the wall the Israeli military jeeps launched sound bombs and tear gas grenades causing several cases of tear gas suffocation.
The abuse and violence by the Occupation forces against the villagers forced the people of Nilin to disperse and to leave the lands where their olive groves still waited to be harvested while still under attack from Occupation Forces. Only few people managed to reach their land after hours of waiting and clashes, during which many kids and women got hurt by the gas.
In a separate area, along the Wall, the bulldozers of the apartheid regime were working for the first time on Fridays, uprooting olive trees and erasing the landmarks of the area. As it has been the case for many months Friday’s prayer was held- near the confiscated land. Once the prayer had finished the Occupation forces launched tear gas to force the people to withdraw in order to allow the bulldozers to continue their work of destruction without incidents.
Clashes started between the Occupation forces and the residents, who were attacked with rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas grenades.
The Occupationâs border police attacked the ambulances of the Red Crescent and Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and used them as shields to force people to leave the area. First aid teams had to undergo around an hour of interrogation and inspection and then were asked to leave the area.