NABLUS, Wednesday, December 09, 2020 (WAFA) – A number of Palestinians Wednesday morning suffered from suffocation during an Israeli raid to Sebastia town, north of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local official.
Sebastia mayor Mohammad Azzem told WAFA that Israeli soldiers forced their way into the town, backed by a military bulldozer, while opening intense fire to secure the site for settlers, who are expected to storm the archaeological site of the town.
As a result, a number of the town residents suffocated from tear gas inhalation.
The archaeological site has become a scene for daily settler targeting and encroachments, particularly following the opening of a Palestinian tourist project, known as Bydar Project, and hoisting a large Palestinian flag.
Located 11 kilometers to the northwest of Nablus, Sebastia is a small historical town located on a hill with panoramic views across the West Bank and has a population of some 3,000 Palestinians.
A prominent settlement during the Iron Age as well as the Hellenistic and Roman eras, the town embraces a Roman amphitheater, temples, a Byzantine and a crusader churches, dedicated to Saint John the Forerunner, who baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, besides to a mosque built in honor of the saint. Christians and Muslims believe the town to be the burial place of the saint.
Israel has been attempting to take over the town, which has become a site of heated cultural conflict, preventing the Palestinian Authority from conducting restoration works at the site, prohibiting providing tourist services to visitors from around the world, and stealing antiquities from it.
Palestinians complain that Israeli settlers have repeatedly attacked the town and fenced parts of its antiquities, where they hold religious rituals.
Owners of restaurants and hotels complain about the Israeli acts in the town which have caused them severe damages and losses.
Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy.
There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
K.T./ K.F.
