Ramallah, 12 April 2011
At 2 a.m. this morning, 12 April 2011, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) broke into the house of Jibril Awad in the village of Awarta, destroying internal walls, breaking furniture and uprooting trees around the house to set up clear lines of view. The home invasion comes in the context of mass arrest campaigns in Awarta by the IOF following the murder of five members of a settler family in the nearby settlement of Itamar.
The IOF held 20 members of the Awad family, including 10 children and a pregnant woman, in one of the house’s rooms until 11:30 a.m. According to Nauf Awad, who was in the house throughout the ordeal, one of the women required medical assistance after fainting earlier, but the IOF prevented an ambulance from reaching the house from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The ambulance was finally able to access the house at around 11:30 a.m. and evacuated the sick woman, as well the pregnant woman. The IOF, however, continued to occupy the house until approximately 2 p.m., with the 18 remaining members of the family inside.
Addameer calls on the international community to immediately intervene to stop the targeting of Awarta village.