The entrance to ‘Azzun is closed
10:30 The entrance to ‘Azzun is closed, the yellow gate locked. Soldiers guarding it with a spiked barrier laid across the road, preventing cars from passing. Two jeeps. All arriving cars make U-turns and try to enter somewhere else.
S. reports on the past week: since Wednesday the entrance has been closed from around 5 or 6 in the afternoon. Since Friday it’s been shut completely. All the time.
How do you know? I have a Facebook page publishing local news. A group of residents participate. It describes all that’s happening. Soldiers enter the village on jeeps. Last night they threw tear gas grenades for no reason. You can hear and smell them everywhere. Especially in the northern neighborhood. The soldiers stand at the entrance inciting the children to throw stones. The stones don’t reach the soldiers. Last night, at 02:00, ten jeeps drove around the village, soldiers entered homes, upended their contents, detained people and left. Photos show what happened.
When I left after two or three hours the gate was open and there were no soldiers. Apparently, they went home to seek forgiveness.
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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