In solidarity with the Gaza, over 350 residents of Ni’lin and 8 international solidarity activists marched towards the checkpoint at the entrance of the village at 6:15pm. After the prayer, hundreds gathered in the center of the village. They marched together to protest the brutal murder of over 210 Gazans and injury of over 340 as a result of Israeli Air Force raids earlier this morning. The group was dispersed when Israeli soldiers began to shoot tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets. Residents remained on the street until 8pm expressing their desire for an end to killings.
This demonstration is a continuation of an earlier one at the checkpoint. At around 1pm, about 40 residents along with 8 international solidarity activists protested the violent attacks on Gaza. The soldiers responded by shooting tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets directly towards demonstrators.
Two Palestinians were hit by tear gas canisters and three Palestinians were shot with rubber coated steel bullets, along with one Spanish solidarity activist. Most of the demonstrators suffered from the pepper laced tear gas. The first demonstration of the day ended at 5:30pm.
Ni’lin is severely affected by the Israeli Occupation. The construction of the Apartheid Wall will annex much of Ni’lin’s land. Their resistance is manifested through the many demonstrations against the wall and checkpoint that take place every week.
(Larnaca, Cyprus) The Free Gaza movement will hold a press conference at 16:30 Monday, December 29 at the port in Larnaca. We are sending in the DIGNITY on an emergency mission of mercy to Gaza loaded with three to four tons of urgently needed medical supplies.
On board are four physicians, including Dr. Elena Theoharous, a surgeon and Member of Parliament in Cyprus. Also going are The Hon. Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, and Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera reporter and former detainee at Guantanamo.
Dr Khaled from Shifa hospital ICU in Gaza City told us on Saturday that the majority of cases are critical shrapnel wounds from Israeli gunboats and helicopters, with an approximate 80% who will not survive.
Eliza Ernshire, one of the Free Gaza organizers says, “We have calls for surgeons willing to go into Gaza and work there throughout this crisis. The doctors inside are exhausted and unable to cope with the number of wounded. We will do our best to send in the DIGNITY as often as we can over the next few weeks, bringing in physicians and medical supplies.
The media is welcome to come to the port at 16:30 to interview the passengers.
The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, physicians, and other dignitaries to witness the effects of Israel’s draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza.
Israeli forces have killed one Palestinian man from Ni’lin, while another is in critical condition, as they opened fire on a demonstration against the Israeli massacre of the people of Gaza.
Arafat Rateb Khawaje, 22 years old, was shot in the back with live ammunition, he died at 2:45pm in Ramallah Hospital.
Mohammed Kasim Khawaje, 20 years old, was shot in the forehead with live ammunition from close range. He remains in critical condition in Ramallah hospital.
Mohammed Sror was shot in the leg with live ammunition, but his injuries are not critical.
Sara Weinberg, a resident of Chicago, said, “The internationals that live in the village went out in solidarity with Ni’lin residents to demonstrate against the massacre on Gaza. I was standing about 15 meters from the boys, when we heard the sound of live ammunition. I heard screams and saw that 3 had been shot. One man was shot in the leg, another in the head right above the eyebrow and a third was shot in the back. Men carried all three, the one shot in the head was bleeding profusely. The one that was shot in the back was unconscious. We ran down to the street from the olive fields and the soldiers would not stop shooting tear gas at us. It took the soldiers at least 5 minutes to let the ambulance through the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.”
Israeli activist Jonathan Polack said that;
“Fifteen Palestinian youths were protesting when five soldiers, who were 15 metres away opened fire with live ammunition straight at the group of protesters. They shot one protester in the back, one in the forehead and one in the leg”
Ibrahim Amira, member of the Popular Committee in Ni’lin said;
“The Occupation is going to turn Ni’lin into a ghetto as it has turned Gaza into a ghetto. And the same way that a massacre is taking place in Gaza against those resisting the siege, a massacre is now taking place in Ni’lin against those resisting the Aparthied Wall”
Arafat Khawaje is now the third resident of Ni’lin to be killed by Israeli soldiers during demonstrations against the construction of the Apartheid Wall on Nil’in’s land.
On the 29th July 2008, ten year old Ahmed Mousa was shot through the forehead with live ammunition, killing him instantly. The following day Yousef Amira was shot twice from close range with rubber-coated steel bullets leaving him brain-dead. He died a week later on 4th August 2008.
Lina Escobar, a Spanish citizen who witnessed the attack, stated;
“By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel the European Union is rewarding Israel for it’s policies of mass murder in Lebanon and Palestine. It makes it complicit in the murder of the youth of Ni’lin for protesting their village being turned into a prison by the Apartheid Wall”
For more information and for photos of those killed and injured please contact:
Adam Taylor – ISM Media Office – +972 598 503948 or email palreports@gmail.com
27th December 2008 – Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Nablus today in a series of demonstrations against the massacre of besieged Palestinians in Gaza – the greatest number of Palestinians to be killed in a single day since the beginning of the Israeli occupation.
Upon hearing of the more than 30 Israeli airstrikes that, starting at 11am on Saturday 27th December, killed more than 195 Gazans and injured at least 200 more, spontaneous demonstrations erupted in the centre of Nablus – at Martyr’s square – calling for Palestinians to unite to resist against these attacks.
“In this martyr’s square, in front of the blood of all of our martyrs, we call on all [political] parties to return to the negotiating table to discuss unity”, called one speaker from the Palestinian People’s Party.
Attended by representatives from many political parties and civil society associations, the protestors marched through the streets of Nablus, chanting “Gaza and the West Bank are one!”.
Another speaker cried “Wayn il Arab? Wayn? Wayn?” (Where is the Arab? Where? Where?), drawing attention to the failure of Arab countries to support Palestine in its struggle under Israeli occupation.
Many speakers, from political parties and civil society organisations called in the Palestinian Authority to immediately freeze all relations with Israel.
Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets once more at 3pm, bearing placards calling for Nablus and Gaza to unite and fight together. Up to 500 demonstrators marched through the city centre and the old city, to express their anger and despair at the massacre, while calling for Palestinians to unite to fight the Israeli occupation.
Similar demonstrations have taken place in cities throughout the West Bank, Jordan and countries around the world. A general strike has been announced for the entire West Bank for Sunday 28th in protest against the strike.
In the basement, the family begins the night at their allotted sleeping spaces, but as the hours pass, draw closer together until women and children are huddled together in a pile of blankets. The women have slept little, and look exhausted. There are 5 or 6 children under the age of 5, tousled hair and solemn faces. The oldest boy’s face is pinched and distorted with anxiety.
Explosions are sporadic; sometimes far off, sometimes close. The drone of Israeli aircraft is constant. Fragments of news come by the phone. Attack beside Al Shifa hospital; windows break onto patients. Security and Protection Forces attacked. Al Aqsa TV channel attacked. Plastic factory attacked. Al Asaraya building. The number of dead increases in small leaps.
Multiple reports that Israel is phoning people at home, telling them “any house with weapons in it is a target and should be evacuated.” And the usual calls about “return Gilad Shalit and everything will be just fine”; as if any of these civilians know the first thing about his detention. If they answer “we don’t have any weapons in our house and we don’t have Gilad Shalit either,” will Israel just bomb the next door neighbours instead?
At 4.30am – deafening bang, flare of fire, some of the windows break, the children shriek and each mother grabs her child. One of the young women was on the basement stairs, and she is carried in, sallow with shock and fear, to be cradled by one of the older women. I give her honey sweets, since the more desirable sugary tea appears beyond anyone’s capacity to produce right now, perhaps there is nothing even to heat water with. We cautiously venture up the stairs; an unfeasibly large crater has appeared beside us, courtesy of an F16. Olive trees are the only casualties, but this is a little field in amongst residential houses. There is nothing here that even Israel, whose definition has always been broad, could begin to describe as a legitimate target.
“Where is grandma?”, asks one of the little girls. Grandma represents sweets and other good things, which would be pretty welcome right now. “Grandma is in paradise,” is the weary answer. This past morning no-one could find any bread in the nearby shops. Sara Eid Al Hawajri set off determined to track some down to feed the grandchildren. The first sweep of attacks at 11am caught her in the street, and left her covered in dust, dead from shrapnel. Eva (Canadian ISM volunteer) knew her, she was a friend of her son (who himself has lost both his legs) and of her daughter-in-law, who now feeds her small boy under the blankets beside me.
We came to pay our respects, but fearing an Israeli army incursion as happened to them before, the family asked us to stay. Sara’s teenage daughter is helping care for the children, but when things are quiet her face drifts into blankness.
In that first sweep of attacks, in approximately 10 minutes, we understand that 205 people were killed and more than 700 injured. Most government buildings and other social infrastructure were destroyed. 80 Israeli planes and helicopters were involved in the attack and over 100 bombs were dropped. So before tonight began, the hospitals and mortuaries were full, the staff overwhelmed, the medical supplies exhausted. It will be dawn soon and it is hard to imagine what we will find with the daylight.
