300 Israeli settlers under military gurd invade Artas village in Bethlehem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- About 300 Israeli settlers escorted by IOF troops and border guards invaded Friday several areas in the Artas village, south of Bethlehem, and set up several tents on these areas which are threatened with annexation. This Israeli escalation came after Israeli bulldozers established 800-meter road linking the area of Khalat Al-Nahl in the village with the Efrat settlement built on the territory of several villages in the area including Artas and Khadr. Villagers from Artas told the PIC that the Israeli bulldozers are working in this area around the clock even at night in order to finish quickly this settlement scheme. In another context, Arab Knesset member Ibrahim Sarsour deplored the blasphemous assault on the Bahar mosque in the Tabaria city at dawn Saturday through spraying satanic graffiti on the mosque's wall in addition to red and black colors. In a statement received by the PIC, the Knesset member, noted that such malicious assaults on Islamic holy places had been committed by both the IOA and settlers for decades, asserting that the parties of the Arab united list and the Arab movement for change would not stay passive towards such acts, holding the Israeli police responsible for this serious violation. This is not the first assault on this mosque, where Israeli settlers destroyed part of the mosque's roof in 2000 and the IOA allowed an extremist settler to live inside the mosque in 1999, who in the same year set fire to the mosque.