RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – It was nearly 2 a.m. when Amjad Sallaj heard a loud explosion outside his home. In a matter of seconds, Israeli troops burst into the building, ransacking apartments in a door-to-door search for wanted Palestinian militants.
When the raid was over, the apartments had been trashed, furniture destroyed and Sallaj’s 30-year-old son, Ahmad, had been taken into custody.
Palestinian officials say that such raids, carried out in Palestinian-controlled territory, have become a daily occurrence since a wave of violence erupted five months ago – undermining the public’s trust in their own security forces and jeopardizing one of the last areas of official contact between Israel and the Palestinians.
“The Israeli forces enter our territory every night, since the beginning of the current uprising, and this has a significant impact on the morale of our forces and on the image of these forces in the eyes of the public,” said Adnan Dameri, the spokesman for the Palestinian security forces.
“In every joint meeting, we tell the Israeli side that the daily incursions embarrass the Palestinian forces,” he added.