Description

HEBRON, July 27, 2013 (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers arrested Saturday three farmers who stood up to them and to settlers who intruded on their land in Yatta, south of Hebron, according to an area farmer.

Khaled Awad told WAFA that soldiers arrested his brother, Said, and two other relatives after they refused to allow them to reach their land and started, along with settlers from nearby Mizpe Yair, built illegally on Yatta land, to beat them.

He said the landowners and other activists, including internationals, tried to reach the land the army has declared a closed military area and which amounts to 266 dunums, attacking them as they reached their land.

An Israeli court had previously ordered the military government to return the land in question to its Palestinian landowners.

However, the military authority refused to enforce the ruling and has refused to allow the landowners to reach their land for over a year under the pretext it was a closed military zone.

M.S.