Year: 2013

Photos: Released detainees celebrate new freedom with supporters in Gaza Strip

2nd November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Five former Palestinian detainees freed overnight Wednesday in the Gaza Strip have received a resounding welcome.

Ahmad Saed Mohammad al-Damouni greets a supporter. (Photo by Gal·la López)
Ahmad Saed Mohammad al-Damouni greets a supporter. (Photo by Gal·la López)

Their families have erected celebration tents outside each of their homes to receive supporters and delegations.

A celebration tent. (Photo by Gal·la López)
A celebration tent. (Photo by Gal·la López)

On Thursday afternoon, an overflowing bus carried several dozen well-wishers between them, from farmlands outside Khan Younis to the Shati (“Beach”) refugee camp on the coast of Gaza City.

Supporters of the freed detainees ride a bus between celebration tents. (Photo by Gal·la López)
Supporters of the freed detainees ride a bus between celebration tents. (Photo by Gal·la López)

Detainees’ families and other participants in a weekly protest, held on Mondays at Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross office to support Palestinian prisoners, joined the trip.

Omar Issa Rajab Massoud greets Um Ibrahim Baroud, a co-founder of Gaza's Monday protest for detainees, and other supporters. (Photo by Gal·la López)
Omar Issa Rajab Massoud greets Um Ibrahim Baroud, a co-founder of Gaza’s Monday protest for detainees, and other supporters. (Photo by Gal·la López)

Hilmi Hamad Obeid al-Amawi, one of the freed detainees, told supporters he hoped the release would “stress the need for the prisoners’ issue to be given greater priority at all levels, locally, regionally and internationally.”

A young man walks past posters celebrating the release of Hilmi Hamad Obeid al-Amawi. (Photo by Gal·la López)
A young man walks past posters celebrating the release of Hilmi Hamad Obeid al-Amawi. (Photo by Gal·la López)

In a statement, the Hussam Association, a Gaza-based society of current and former detainees which organized the tour, said “that the joy of the Palestinian people will be complete only with the freedom of all prisoners, led by patients, children, women and administrative detainees.”

Photos: Gaza march on eve of Balfour anniversary met with Israeli tear gas

2nd November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

Israeli forces fired tear gas to disperse a march in the “buffer zone” east of Gaza City, by the Nahal Oz checkpoint, on Friday afternoon.

The demonstration, which began at Shujaya square in the city after Friday prayers, was organized by the Intifada Youth Coalition to protest today’s anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

In the 2 November 1917 letter, Arthur James Balfour, foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, then occupying Palestine, told Walter Rothschild, a leader in the British Zionist movement, that the British government “view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

(Photo by Joe Catron)
(Photo by Joe Catron)

“We went to the buffer zone to tell the occupation that this date is unforgettable after 96 years,” said Majed Abusalama, a Coalition spokesman.

“Every generation that comes will remember it  again, and remember every Israeli crime against unarmed Palestinians. Yes, it is our land, the buffer zone is for Palestinians, and we should farm it.”

Demonstrators overcome by the effects of tear gas were treated by Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulances waiting outside the “buffer zone.”

(Photo by Joe Catron)
(Photo by Joe Catron)

“The Israeli response to our unarmed protest appeared from the start, when we were about 800 meters away from the fence,” Abusalama said. “They shot tear gas directly at us.”

Protesters kept trying to reach the checkpoint, which Israel closed at the beginning of 2010, retreating only after several hours of tear-gas fire.

The event followed a 27 September march organized by the Coalition to commemorate the thirteenth anniversary of the second Intifada and protest Israeli incursions into the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied east Jerusalem.

Three Palestinians injured by Israeli forces during weekly protest in Bil’in.

1st November 2013 | FFJ media center | Bil’in, Palestine

m5This Friday, October the 1st, Bil’in’s weekly peaceful demonstration has once again been a violent demonstration from the Israeli state, while live ammunition and huge quantities of tear gas have been shot.

Ahmaed Bornat  (21 years old) was injured today by .22 bullet in his right leg, Iyad Bornat (40 years old) was injured by rubber bullet in his left leg , Farhan Bornat (36 years old) was shot by three rubber bullet in his leg, back and hand, in addition to dozens of suffocation

Dozens of Palestinians, Israelis and international peace activists attended the March today, continuing the 8 years tradition and also today as a reminder of the Balfour declarations anniversary.

Demonstrators marched, after Friday prayers, from the center of the village towards the Israeli Apartheid wall , raising Palestinian flags and chanting slogans calling for national unity and release of all political prisoners. Upon their arrival to the Abu lemon area, near the Wall, the Israeli soldiers, stationed behind the apartheid wall, immediately fired massive amount of stun grenades, rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters and .22 bullets towards the participants to prevent them from getting closer to the wall. Military jeeps then chased the activists in order to arrest them. Clashes broke out and lasted for more than three hours. Ahmed Bornat was taken by an ambulance to the Ramallah hospital (Palestinian Medical Complex), the other injured are accordin to later reports safe now. The massive firing of gas canisters, led to the burning of a large area planted with olive trees.

photo credits by Rani Bornat , Hamza Bornat& Mohamed Yaseen

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Israeli Forces use excessive force killing Palestinian civilian in Qabatya village near Jenin

31st October 2013 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights | Qabataya, Occupied Palestine

In an excessive use of force, on Thursday morning, 31 October 2013, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in Qabatya village, southeast of the northern West Bank town of Jenin. 

According to investigation conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 01:00 on Thursday, 31 October 2013, Israeli force moved into Qabatya village, southeast of Jenin.  They stationed in the eastern part of the village.  They raided a house belonging to the family of Emad Shawkat Kmail, 30, and arrested him.  They then moved towards the western part of the village.   There, they raided a number of houses and arrested 3 Palestinian civilians: Rassem Tawfiq Khzaimiya, 60; Mo’men Saba’na, 23; and Ayman Abdul Rahman Abu al-Rub, 28.  At approximately 05:00, while Israeli forces were withdrawing from the village taking the detainees, a number of young men gathered at the western entrance of the village.  They blocked it with iron barriers and set fire to tires.  When Israeli forces passed by the area, the young men threw stones and empty bottles at them.  Immediately, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the young men.  They then fired live ammunition directly at the young men.  As a result, Ahmed Emad Youseg Tazaz’a, 22, was seriously wounded by a bullet to the heart.  He was immediately evacuated to al-Razi Hospital in Jernn, but medical efforts to save his life failed.  He was pronounced dead at approximately 06:00. 

PCHR is deeply concerned over this crime, which further proves the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against the Palestinian civilians in disregard for the civilians’ lives. Therefore, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective actions to put an end to such crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to fulfill their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.  These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions.

 

VIDEO: Mornings in Khalil: child and adult detention

30th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

This morning, Wednesday 30th October, as children made their way to school Israeli soldiers burst from an alleyway firing stun grenades and detained two 10-year-old boys. In a separate incident nearby, a Palestinian was detained and taken to a military base for unknown reasons.

This morning international activists were monitoring checkpoint 29 where many children pass through on their way to school, when approximately 6 Israeli soldiers ran from an alley, firing stun grenades directly at a group of children. The soldiers immediately grabbed one child (10-year-old) Nor and another (10-year-old) Mohammed, before firing another stun grenade towards the rest of the school children causing them to flee in panic.

Israeli soldiers marched the two young children to a nearby police station, refusing to answer why they were being taken when questioned by international activists. When a relative attempted to communicate with the boys, Israeli soldiers forcibly pushed him away and refused to answer his questions.

The children were detained inside the police station for approximately 45 minutes before being transferred to the Palestinian District Coordination Office (DCO) at 9:30.

Shortly after the young children were released, a Palestinian was questioned at a checkpoint on his way to work when he was aggressively pushed, handcuffed and taken to Tel Rumeida military base. No reason was given for this detention and the Palestinian was released shortly after.

Children in Khalil are routinely harassed on their way to school in this way; arrests and stun grenades are commonly used against them. Palestinians living under occupation experience regular detentions and arrests which are executed without just cause or reason.