The Israeli occupation army continued to confine hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Hebron region to their homes for the sixteenth consecutive day, depriving them of essential needs and services, including food and medicine.

Occupation army keeps hundreds of thousands of civilians under strict curfew for 16th day

Dura (West Bank): 24, 2002 (IAP News)

The Israeli occupation army continued to confine hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Hebron region to their homes for the sixteenth consecutive day, depriving them of essential needs and services, including food and medicine.

"The situation in our town is catastrophic, people are running out of food and the Israeli army sabotaged the water network. We appeal to the international community to force Israel to end this Nazi treatment of our people," said Muhammed Abu Atwan, mayor of the town of Dura.

Dura, like many surrounding towns and villages, has been under military curfew since 8 April which some Palestinians describe as the harshest since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

"They (the Israeli army) are persecuting and tormenting the civilian population, this is a crime against humanity, it is unlawful and inhuman to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of people for that long without any justification," said the mayor.

The Israeli army refused to say why the curfew on the area continued for so long.

An Israeli occupation army spokesman said the army was still conducting an operation in the western hills of Hebron.

However, Palestinians and Christian Peace-making teams who visited the region disputed the Israeli army claims to that effect, insisting that the real aim of the army was to "intimidate, terrorize and punish the Palestinian population."

"There is obviously no military justification for imprisoning thousands of innocent men, women and children in their small rooms for close to three weeks now. This terrorism in its ugliest forms," said a CPT member,preferring that his name not be mentioned for fear of possible Israeli reprisal.

"The Israeli army is launching conventional war on civilians, and that is unacceptable."

Like elsewhere in the West Bank, the Israeli army has inflicted death and destruction on Dura and surrounding areas.

At least six Palestinians, four of them innocent civilians, were killed by the Israeli army on the first day of its rampage in the town, pop. 28000.

Moreover, several building were reduced to rubble when Israeli tanks deliberately bombarded the Sharafa neighborhood with artillery, injuring many civilians and burning down additional residential homes.

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