Settlers in army uniforms block Friday prayers near Nablus
Worshippers walking out to al-Wali and al-Hajj Hussein at Khirbet Tana were turned back by men in Israeli military dress, on a day of settler raids elsewhere in the West Bank.
Settlers wearing Israeli military uniforms stopped Palestinians from reaching two mosques at Khirbet Tana, a hamlet east of Beit Furik near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on Friday, keeping them from the weekly prayers, local sources said.
The men came in at the eastern edge of Beit Furik and turned back those walking out towards al-Wali and al-Hajj Hussein, the two mosques that serve the hamlet, the same sources said.
Khirbet Tana stands on its own in the countryside east of Nablus, and the people there have lived for years under a steady pressure from settlers and from Israeli forces: attacks, tracks and roads closed to them, demolition orders against their houses, and restrictions that reach their farmland, their livestock and the basic services they depend on.
Other incidents were reported across the occupied West Bank the same day. Hundreds of settlers, escorted by Israeli soldiers, went into a town near Nablus before dawn and turned one house into a military post, according to local reports, and about 50 settlers attacked Palestinians east of Bethlehem, while Israeli forces raided a town near Tubas and entered Qalandia refugee camp, where at least one young man was detained.