Assira Ash-Shamaliya reconnected to outside world

After 19 days of tight siege, the village of Assira Ash-Shamaliya near Nablus was reconnected to the outside world.

Israeli troops clamped the closure on the village after four Palestinians from the village were named as suspects in two separate suicide bombings in West Jerusalem on July 30 and September 4. During the siege, some 8,500 people, who form the population of the village, were locked in their homes. At least 2,000 students were not allowed to leave the village to either their Najah University in Nablus or to the village secondary school, site of which is beyond the village boundaries.

Some villagers complained that Israeli soldiers besieging the village had caused damage to their property as they uprooted olive trees, destroyed walls and fences around cultivated lands and ruined pieces of furniture in their shops outside the village.