On the 8th of November 2005, at around 5pm. We received a phone call telling us that there were some reports of military movements up the northern mountains of Nablus. We were told there was two injured men, and one missing. We all came to the ISM apartment to get torches and necessary things like cameras, and from there we took taxis to the mountainous areas where the movements had been happening. Once there, we learned that the two injured men had been taken to hospital and that the missing man could be injured.
We left in the taxis and found the place in quietness, no movement, no vehicles, no one seemed to be around. We continued up through a short cut, always up, up, and we kept calling the man’s name, “Mohammed!” and “Internationals!” or “International medics!” We decide it is not a good idea to use lights that could attract soldiers’ attention, as we are not sure if they are still around or not. The moon light illuminated our path.
When we got to the end of the road we decided to split into two groups; one would continue on the way up following the path and the other was to go down the hill, where there was some vegetation and he could have been hiding in. I go with the group that goes up and after a few minutes, a man joins us from the dark. He is the missing man’s uncle – it turns out that the man is in fact a boy of 14. The uncle joins us in the search and after a bend in the path and another 100 metres or so, one of the group sees someone else. A few men, including the uncle, identify the boy and start shouting and crying. Someone says, “check his pulse” but some one else replies, “he is dead”. As they lift him, his head is hanging and still heavily bleeding. One takes him down and another phones the other group; the ambulances are already waiting there at the point where they can not advance any more because of a road block made of rocks.
Some of us then go back to the mountain because we have learnt that there could be another man hiding in the area, maybe also injured. After about fifteen minutes we learn that he is injured and already in hospital.
The name of the fourteen years old boy was Mohammed Abusalah. The funeral was in Nablus at 10am to morning after.