Border Guard troops who were patrolling the West Bank Palestinian town of Bilin Thursday night, seized a 14-year-old local who cast stones at them, took him in for questioning and later dumped him in a field located some three kilometers (about 1.9 miles) from the town, local residents said.
According to Bilin residents, Border Guard troops who entered the town Thursday night provoked the local children by chanting from their Jeep’s loudspeakers “All of Bilin’s children are cowards. Let’s see you throw stones.”
A number of children began to cast stones at the Border Guard jeep, and at 9 p.m. (2 p.m. EST) the troops managed to apprehend a 14-year-old boy; he was interrogated for almost two hours, and was then deserted in a field located some 3 kilometers (about 1.9 miles) from the town, they said.
Recently the town’s residents have held several stormy demonstrations in protest of the West Bank security fence ,parts of which are being constructed on lands owned by Bilin residents.
'Millions of dollars in damages'
Residents said additional Border Guard forces raided three local homes early Friday and rounded up all the adult men who owned identification cards.
Witnesses said the troops severely beat one of the men and destroyed property.
Bilin residents and members of the People’s Committee against the West Bank Security Fence said such activities and threats would not deter them from continuing to fight for their land and protest the fence.
A Border Guard spokesmansaid in a statement that Palestinians from Bilin have been damaging the West Bank security fence for some time now, and Border Guard troops act on a daily basis to contain the “violent demonstrations that are held regarding the fence.”
Earlier in the week residents of the nearby Palestinian town of Budrus said that during an IDF raid soldiers removed women and children from their homes in the middle of the night and photographed them.
The troops raided Budrus Sunday following a series of demonstrations against the West Bank security fence that resulted in millions of dollars in damages, IDF sources said.
-Efrat Weiss contributed to this article.