RAMALLAH, July 27, 2017 (WAFA) – A day after residents of Kobar, a village northwest of Ramallah, reopened the only road that leads to their village closed for almost a week, the Israeli army returned early Thursday and re-blocked the road with large cement barricades, according to a village council official.

Naim Sabah, deputy head of Kobar village council, told WAFA that the army returned to the village early Thursday and placed large cement cubes on the main road and razed it causing severe damage to the infrastructure.

Resident have defied the army closure and cleared and reopened the road with their own hands the day before.

Sabah said this road is the only exit for the village and only contact with the outside world after the army had closed another rural road that linked Kobar to a nearby village.

Israel has been punishing Kobar and its Palestinian residents ever since 17-year-old village resident, Omar al-Abed, stabbed and killed three Israeli settlers on Friday in the illegal settlement of Halamish. Abed is in army custody after he was shot and injured following the attack.

The army has been raiding the village almost daily since the attack in a collective punishment step, harassing and assaulting its residents, raiding and ransacking homes of relatives to al-Abed and arresting family members, including his parents and brother.

The residents twice removed the Israeli road blocks, and the army always returns and re-seals the road preventing the residents from leaving or entering it with their cars.

M.K.