Israeli soldiers fired teargas and stun grenades today to stifle protests against a West Bank barrier, declared illegal by the World Court four years ago this week.
The army kept a curfew on the Palestinian town of Nilin for the fourth day, using force to keep a small group of protesters and journalists from approaching the cordoned-off town of 5,000 from an overlooking hilltop.
Ayman Nafi, the town's mayor, said vegetables, dairy products and some medicines were in short supply and the local pharmacy had not been allowed to open.
"They want to send a message: resisting the construction of the wall will inflect suffering and damage upon you," Mr Nafi said by telephone. "Their policy will increase our determination to prevent them from erecting this racist wall."
The army imposed a curfew on Nilin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Friday after violence erupted during protests at a barrier construction site. An army spokesman said eight security personnel and two workers were hurt in protests in the area over the past month.
Israel says the network of razor-wire fences and concrete barricades helps to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.
Palestinians say the barrier, which loops around Jewish settlement blocs, cutting off Palestinian villages from swathes of agricultural fields, is a land grab that could deny them a contiguous and viable state.
Mohammad Khawaja, a bank worker, said by telephone from Nilin that soldiers had arrested people who ventured outside.
"When soldiers came to search my house early this morning, I asked one of them, 'What are you doing to Nilin,'" Khawaja said. "The soldier replied, 'No matter what, the wall will be erected at the end of the day'. I asked him, 'Why do you take our land? Take land from the settlements.'"