Qalqilia / PNN - At sunset yesterday Israeli forces vacated the Jayyous school where they had interrogated youth from the Qalqilia Governorate town since the early morning.

Youth Coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign Mohammad Othman told PNN Thursday that 17 young people were still in Huwara military camp.

Tens were rounded up for interrogation yesterday.

“They are targeting the youth and the future leaders, the Palestinian future,” Othman said this morning. “The occupation forces began increasing its actions against Jayyous in November when our actions increased against the Apartheid Wall. We hold peaceful demonstrations. We carry Palestinian flags and they fire bullets and gas.”

Yesterday’s attack on the northwestern West Bank town began just after midnight as soldiers shouted curfew and broke into homes. “People were really frightened. The soldiers also had their faces painted like they were in a war which scared everyone even more,” Othman says of the early hours of the invasion.

One of the young people who were rounded up in the school for interrogation was hospitalized after suffering a psychological breakdown from the stress of it all.

Othman said that the nonviolent resistance will continue in the face of Israeli repression with another demonstration scheduled for tomorrow. He says that the latest Jayyous demonstrations are staged in protest against the re-routing of the Wall on their lands.

In a statement Othman reports: “The current uprooting lies on the 277 dunums of land that will be razed for the new path of the Wall, in addition to the 5,585 dunums that will be permanently confiscated when it is completed.

“The new route of the Wall north of Jayyous replaces a 2.4 km stretch with a 4.9 km stretch that is two km closer to the Green Line. The new path still encroaches four km inside the West Bank. In addition to the 6,000 that have already been uprooted, hundreds of other trees are slated for uprooting. The new path does not allow for access gates, meaning farmers will be completely cut off from their lands.

“The settlement of Zufim is slated to swallow much of the annexed land. The construction of infrastructure for the new part of the settlement called ‘North Zufim’ has already begun. Construction of an electricity network has started and the creation of housing units is imminent.

“As a result of this land grab, the 85% of the people of Jayyous who made their living as farmers have largely been made unemployed, and most of those who were still able to maintain their livelihoods will now join the jobless ranks.”

Jayyous was the first village to mount regular large-scale protests against the construction of the Wall.