Israeli forces fire at Bethlehem home, destroy room

[azurnoir]

5. More about Aida located next to Gilo settlement

This surrealistic scene was played out during another day of serious unrest in the refugee camp. Between last Thursday night and Friday morning, youths had smashed a hole in the separation barrier which chokes this small camp and segregates it from the Gilo neighborhood and the rest of Jerusalem. The breach in the wall was dubbed the “Gate of Freedom” in the camp.

Since then, the guardians of Israel have neither slumbered nor slept: A large force of soldiers and policemen entered the camp, while repairs were being made in the breach in the wall by Israeli workers with the use of heavy machinery.

This site, adjacent to Rachel’s Tomb and behind the luxury Intercontinental Hotel, is a veteran battlefield. The fortified watchtowers are black from the smoke of Molotov cocktails, the walls are covered with bellicose graffiti and the streets are littered with spent ammunition. A year ago, I wrote about a boy, Salah Amarin, who was shot here from a tower.

On Saturday morning, troops fired large amounts of gas through the hole, creating a pall of smoke over the camp.

The army evacuated the three-story house of the extended Abu Aqar family on Sunday. Before that, all 45 of the occupants, including children, were shut into their apartments. The order to leave the building, which was declared a closed military zone, came at midday.

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.582447