International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
Nablus, Occupied West Bank
Forty hours after capture, eleven children remain captives of the Israeli army. They have been confined and isolated for nearly two days now. Since 5am yesterday morning they have been held in an 8th floor room in an apartment the army has turned into a sniper nest.
The families have been forbidden to speak, but four year-old Bashar has risked running to the door to whisper to international volunteers. He has been saying since this morning that the families are hungry and scared. Other children can be heard crying. The soldiers are not responding to calls from the volunteers, but can be heard laughing.
The army forced Amjad Aodah’s family from their apartment on a lower floor of the building yesterday morning and are holding them and the family of Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd together. The fourteen people, aged between three and seventy, are being held in a single room. Internationals and medics have attempted to gain access, but have repeatedly been denied.
Please call or fax the following officials to demand the captives release:
Shlomo Dror
Coordinator of Activities in the Territories
Phone 50 623 4053
Fax 03 697 5177
DCO Nablus
Phone 02 548 6214 or 02 548 6217
Fax 02-5486218
Ehud Olmert
Prime Minister
Fax 02 670 5475 or 02 566 4838
Telex 25279 MPRES IL
Below is an example fax:
To: Shlomo Dror
Coordinator of Activities in the Territories
Fax 03 697 5177
RE: Israeli Army Captives in Nablus
I am writing to urge you to secure the release of the fourteen people being held captive by the Israeli Army in the Sharif Building in Nablus. Amjad Aodah, Abu Amare Al Hajd Hamd, and their families have been held in one room on the 8th floor since 5am on April 7.
For over forty hours, the families, eleven children and three adults, have been held in isolation, and international medics have been prevented from seeing them. A four year-old boy has communicated to volunteers through the closed door of the apartment that they are hungry and not being told when they will be allowed to leave.
It is urgent that these families be released and that the military be required to leave. I also urge you to require the Israeli Army to cease this general practice of arbitrarily detaining civilians incommunicado.
It is incredibly troubling that Israel is allowing children as young as four to be held captive. It is increasingly disturbing that Israel is allowing the army to isolate eleven children for this period of time.
I strongly urge you to take action for the families’ release immediately.
Sincerely,
