http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/999096.html

Last update - 02:02 07/07/2008
IDF curfew forces West Bank village
residents to stay indoors around the clock
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Tags: Na'alin, Israel, West Bank

Shots sounded from the West Bank village
of Na'alin on Sunday as locals marched in
defiance of a daylight curfew imposed by
the Israel Defense Forces troops who
sealed off the area on Saturday.

One resident said up to 50 people were
hurt by tear gas and rubber bullets.

The IDF said a soldier was wounded
and declined to comment on any casualties
among civilians on a third day of clashes
and a clampdown that has kept journalists out.

Troops again stopped reporters trying to
enter the town of 5,000, 20 km (12 miles)
east of Tel Aviv,

which has been a focus for protests
against separation fence Israel is
building through the West Bank in
what it says is a necessary security
measure.

A Reuters correspondent on a hill
overlooking Na'alin saw at least a
dozen people walking and shouting
through the village.

He also heard several shots.

Local people said by telephone
they had been prevented from
leaving the town since Friday.

An IDF spokesman said the indefinite
daylight curfew was imposed on townspeople
on Sunday,

forcing them to stay indoors around the clock,

"in light of recent violent incidents".

He said 8 Israeli security personnel
and 2 workers building the separation
barrier were hurt in protests over the past month.

The West Bank barrier,
a network of razor-wire fences
and concrete barricades,

is intended to keep out
Palestinian suicide bombers,
Israel says.

But it also loops around Jewish settlement blocs,
cutting off West Bank villages from swathes of farmland.

Four years ago this week, the World Court
in the Hague ruled building the 720 km.
(430 mile) barrier on occupied land was illegal.

The United Nations says Israel
has ignored that ruling.

On Saturday,
the IDF blockaded the Palestinian
village in what the army called an
open-ended effort to curb protests
against the separation fence.

Troops encircled Na'alin,
near the Palestinian hub city of Ramallah,
under orders to vet those entering or
leaving the village and turn back
would-be demonstrators.

"These protests have been getting
increasingly violent, and they must
be stopped," an IDF spokeswoman said.

On Friday, she said,
hundreds of demonstrators
threw rocks and rolled burning
tires toward Israeli border
policemen guarding the fence,
wounding one person and damaging a jeep.

Na'alin residents said the closure
was imposed on Friday, which also
saw a march against the barrier
during which around 20 protesters
were hurt by rubber bullets fired
by Israeli security forces.

Four protesters from an Israeli
solidarity group were arrested,
an organizer of the demonstration said.

Casualties and other patients were
prevented from leaving the village
for treatment,

said Salah al-Khawaja,
spokesman for the Ni'lin
Committee for Resisting the Wall.

The military spokeswoman said security
forces were attacked by hundreds of
Palestinians who pelted them with
rocks and rolled burning tyres at them,
injuring a border policeman.

She denied that the closure was
affecting the movement of patients.

The IDF also relayed that over
the last month there have been
many other incidents of stone-throwing
and tire-burning in a bid to sabotage
work on the fence near the village.

After the blockade was declared,
some 200 demonstrators travelled
to Na'alin.

The army said in response to this
that the protestors were forcing
it to violate the Sabbath in order
to maintain order.

For their part,
the protestors argued that their
rallies are legitimate protests,
which are held after the
expropriation of Na'alin residents'
land to benefit the nearby settlement
of Hashmonaim and work on the fence.

Israel says the network of
fences and concrete barricades
is intended to keep out Palestinian
suicide bombers,

but the barrier also loops around
settlement blocs, cutting off some
West Bank villages from swathes of
farmland.

Construction sites are flashpoints
for confrontations between Israeli
security forces and local Palestinians,
who are often supported by left-wing
protestors from Israel and abroad.

The army spokeswoman said the
blockade was for an indefinite
period.

Israel Radio said it would be in
place until Monday and would then
be reviewed by the military top brass.