Home of CAFOD worker occupied by Israeli troops

CAFOD has issued a statement condemning the violence in the Middle East after Israeli forces occupied a house of a director of one of the agencies they work with. During the Israeli incursion into Beit-Jala on Friday, Israeli forces soldiers entered and took over the house of Edmund Shehadeh, Executive Director of the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR). According to BASR, Israeli forces locked up the inhabitants of the houses around the Orthodox Club including Edmund's, harassing and humiliating their inhabitants, locking them up in one room without communication to the outside world, and using them as human shields against attacks by Palestinians. A spokesman said: "BASR works primarily with those injured in the violence, regardless of race. The curfew that has been imposed has severely damaged BASR's ability to look after its patients, including 45 patients with physical disabilities. Medical and food supplies cannot get through. "Edmund Shehadeh has been a long standing CAFOD partner, whose work for the sick in the Occupied Territories is of great value."