Israel ends curfew on Palestinian town

By Mohammed Assadi

NILIN, West Bank (Reuters) - The Israeli army on Tuesday lifted a blockade and curfew in the Palestinian town of Nilin, where violent protests had erupted against Israel's West Bank barrier.

Trucks unloaded goods and residents surveyed homes with broken windows and bullet marks after confrontations on Monday between stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers in which at least 10 Palestinians were hurt.

"(The curfew) was lifted early this morning," a military spokeswoman said. "The villagers promised not to protest and to keep the village quiet."

Israeli forces cordoned off Nilin on Friday and clamped a curfew on the town of 5,000 on Sunday following violence that erupted at a barrier construction site. Nilin, in the occupied West Bank, is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Tel Aviv.

Nilin Mayor Ayman Nafi said residents discovered in the morning that soldiers had pulled out.

Estimating damages at around 300,000 shekels (45,639 pounds), he said an army bulldozer had dug up newly paved roads and wrecked part of the sewage system. An army spokesman said bulldozers had been in Nilin but denied they had damaged roads.

The military ended the curfew a day before the fourth anniversary of a ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that termed illegal Israel's construction of the 720-km (430-mile) barrier in the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations says Israel has ignored that non-binding ruling.