Author: ISM Media

Israeli army violently represses peaceful Friday demonstration

Israeli army attack protestors at Friday demo

On Friday, August 4, a peaceful demonstration was violently attacked by the Israeli army around the West Bank village of Deir Istyia, Salfit governorate.

About 30 Palestinians from Deir Istiya, including women, the elderly and children were on their way to the land north of the village, accompanied by a number of Israeli and international observers, to peacefully protest a new illegal Israeli outpost, when they were stopped in a gorge a few kilometers from the village by about 20 armed Israeli soldiers, who prevented the peaceful demonstration from continuing further.
The demonstrators then held Friday prayers within walking distance of the soldiers, after which they began chanting slogans in Arabic and English such as “Ihtilal Barra Barra” (“Out with the occupation”) and “Israel is a fascist state”.

 

After a few minutes, a Palestinian woman managed to get past the line of Israeli soldiers while waving a Palestinian flag. In response, Israeli soldiers, who were on the road and on the high ground surrounding the gorge, began firing stun grenades into the crowd, followed by tear gas fired at eye level and rubber-coated steel bullets. The mayor of Deir Istyia was wounded by a rubber bullet to the stomach fired at point-blank range, and received assistance from paramedics on the scene.

Citizens of Deir Istyia have been protesting every Friday for two months against a new illegal Israeli outpost that was built in May on Palestinian farmers’ land near the village.

Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, some 300 settlements and outposts have been built in the occupied Palestinian territories (source OHCHR). These settlements, where between 600,000 and 700,000 settlers live, are illegal under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from moving part of its civilian population into the territories it occupies. The illegality of the colonies has been confirmed by various Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions. Outposts are illegal even under Israeli domestic law (source OHCHR).

Palestinians perform prayers at Friday demo

Illegal settlements are often intentionally built on Palestinian agricultural land and pastures, or in close proximity to a Palestinian village. The illegal occupation of land for settlement construction involves multiple arbitrary violations of Palestinians’ human rights, including restrictions on freedom of movement, house demolitions, expropriation, and diversion of water resources from Palestinian-owned agricultural land to settlements.

Illegal Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinian civilians are also a daily reality. OCHA reported an increase in settler violence, with almost 600 incidents registered in the first six months of 2023, while 2022 was condemned for a “record year” of Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank.
“Armed and masked Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in their homes, attacking children on their way to school, destroying property and burning olive groves, and terrorising entire communities with complete impunity,” the experts reported.

Invasion of Jenin Camp – A Photo Journal.

By ISM volunteer D. N.

When I arrived in Jenin, on Tuesday July 4th, the city was a battlefield, the streets were destroyed and burnt, tear gas canisters and bullets lay on the ground, the air was filled with smoke, the sound of live bullets, the screams of young men. The residents were in a state of high alert. 

 

The day before, Monday the 3rd of July, residents were awakened by the sound of the explosion aerial bombardment by drones and  Energa anti-tank rifle grenades. More than 2,000 soldiers and about 450 military vehicles  invaded the city. 

 Ashraf Al-Saadi, a resident of the camp told me: “We are civilians. We did not go to the Israeli military sites. The occupation came to us.  What did we do!? How do we deserve this?”

Jenin Refugee Camp was destroyed once before in 2002.  In 2023 alone, there have been three massacres: In the first the occupation forces killed 12 martyrs, in the second the occupation forces killed 8 martyrs, and in the last most recent massacre the occupation forces killed another 12 martyrs, including 3 high school students.

As I watched the occupation forces turn the streets of Jenin upside down and transform them into a burning battlefield dominated by smoke and blackness, I asked myself: “Will Jenin be able to rebuild and light up again?”.

 Ashraf Al-Saadi, told me that since the first hours of the operation, while ambulance teams struggled to reach the besieged houses and the injured inside the camp’s lanes  Israeli snipers were deployed heavily on tall buildings on the outskirts of the camp, including in his own home. As we entered Ashraf’s house he explained: “The occupation forces broke into my house, which is part of a building consisting of four floors. We are four families, one living on each floor. The occupation forces detained us all, four families in one room, and seized the rest of the house and used it to monitor the movements inside the camp and to deploy snipers in the house. They damaged the house, broke and vandalized furniture, and stole some money.”

On the second day of the incursion, the Israeli occupation forces closed the entrances to the city, especially the main road of the camp, with jeeps and armored vehicles.  This left the camp residents without water or electricity for more than 30 hours. Many families were forced to leave the camp. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN 3,500 people were internally displaced during the operation. 

A mother cat tries to protect her kittens in the ruins of Jenin camp. Photos by D.N.

I went to Jenin government hospital. In my mind I can still hear the heavy sound of bullets fired by the Israeli occupation forces at unarmed civilians in the vicinity of the hospital, which is only 70 meters away from the camp. Everyone was a target, including the medical teams who were trying to reach the injured and the press teams that were documenting the events the occupation forces were targeting everyone, they did not differentiate.

The destruction caused by the occupation to the houses and infrastructure in the camp includes: 4 buildings completely destroyed, 25 residential buildings partially damaged, and roughly 250 damaged residential units. The number of commercial and service buildings damaged reached around 150 and a mosque was partially destroyed. The Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed the infrastructure, roads, and streets: electricity and water were cut off, and sewage pipes were destroyed.

Women walking by the damaged mousqe in Jenin camp. Photo by D.N,

 

Turkmen, another camp resident, lives with his family on the ground floor of a building, his brother’s family live on the second floor. In the early hours of the military aggression on Jenin camp his home and his brother’s home were bombed from the air. Both homes were completely burnt. In the burning house, new furniture bought by Turkmen’s eldest son, who was preparing for his wedding next Friday, was charred. ”I was preparing to take my son’s  furniture  to his new home, but the invasion surprised us and we couldn’t move anything, even our clothes were completely burned.”

UNRWA, The International Relief Agency for Palestine refugees,  provided food parcels and medicines to help the camp’s residents.

The camp residents told me that despite being afraid, hungry, thirsty and unsafe they will not surrender to the aggression of the occupation.

But we are left asking: who will condemn the Israeli occupation for its crimes against the Palestinian people in general, and against the Jenin camp in particular? 

Israeli Occupation forces Shoot Children in the Head and Then Arrests Them in Nabi Salah

6/9/2023 Nabi Salah, Occupied Palestine,

In the Aftermath of the Killing of infant Mohammad Tamimi the occupying forces invaded the sleeping village of Nabi Saleh again early Friday morning and aressted Wissam Tamimi, who had just turned seventeen, and twenty-two-year-old Mohammed Fadel Tamimi, from their homes. Both suffer from severe head injuries. The Israeli military blew up the doors of the family homes of two youths who are suffering from head injuries after being shot in the head by the occupying forces.  Wissam who is still a highschool student and Mohammed who is now twenty two but still suffers from the sever injuries he sustained when he was shot in the head as a child, were both arrested from their homes by the military this morning.

Mohammed Fadel Tamimi surrounded by occupiying soldiers as he is taken from his home. Friday 6/9/23

Wissam Tamimi was shot last week on June 1, 2023, the same day infant Mohammed Tamimi was also shot in the head and fatally wounded. Wissam, who was still sixteen at the time, was standing behind his uncle Bilal Tamimi, who was filming the military’s attack on their village. Bilal was wearing a vest and a helmet marked “PRESS.” Wissam was shot with a projectile that had a condensed hardened foam tip, which fractured his skull and caused a concussion. Bilal filmed the entire incident and aired it live on Facebook. In the footage, Wissam’s injury can be seen starting at minute 22. Bilal continued to film and broadcast until he himself was wounded, with his hand fractured by the same kind of projectile that wounded Wissam.

Wissam Tamimi being treated in the Ramallah hospital for a fractured skull and concussion

Wissam was released from the hospital on June 5, a day before his 17th birthday. However, he still needs to return to the hospital for further evaluation. Due to his injuries, he was unable to complete his final exams, which took place this week. This morning, the occupying forces blew up the door of his house and arrested him from his home.

At the same time, Israeli forces stormed the house of Muhammad Fadel Tamimi, 22, and arrested him after blowing up the door. Muhammad has been repeatedly arrested since the age of 13, enduring months of imprisonment. He has survived being shot in the head twice, once in 20017 at the age of fifteen and then again last year. Like Wissam, he has been targeted, arrested, and intimidated while suffering from a fractured skull. Muhammad suffered severe damage and lost almost a third of his skull. He has undergone a series of complex reconstructive surgeries and had customized skull implants inserted. He still relies on medication to prevent seizures.

 

Mohammed Fadel Tamimi before reconstructive therapy in South Africa
Mohaamed Fadel Tamimi Before his skull reconstruction surgery

In a media statement, South African MP Nkosi ZMD Mandela demanded the immediate release of Muhammad Fadel Tamimi and his cousin Wissam. This follows a statment in which, MP Mandela called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Bibi Netanyahu.

Manal Tamimi, a human rights defender from Nabi Salah, expressed the following: “On Tuesday, Wissam was supposed to celebrate his seventeenth birthday, a milestone that marks the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. However, instead of celebrating, he spent the day recovering from his injury and participating in the funeral of his relative Mohammad. And now, he has to endure imprisonment while still in pain. The village is going through difficult days with the arrest of Muhammad and Wissam, the death of Muhammad, and the injury of six members of our family. We call upon the international community to ensure the protection of this small village, which has a population of fewer than 650 people and has already lost six members of our family and community to occupation-related incidents in the last decade.”

Mohammed Fadel Tamimi after recieving skull implants in South Africa

Silwan Bustan Neighbourhood Under Increased Threat

Silwan’s Bustan neighbourhood situation has worsened of late and is now even more urgent.

Report By Jahalin Solidarity

Silwan, Bustan neighborhood, Occupied East Jerusalem JUNE 6, 2023

1. The most recent meeting with the Mayor, and Adv. Ziad Qawar’s letter to him (1.6.23), have produced no further information as to City Hall demolition plans or the Elad (City of David) King’s Garden plan, which the 1550 residents are being asked to approve, STILL without being shown it.

2. City Hall is practicing a daily regime of gross pressure and harassment. e.g., Fakhri abu Diab just received a bill for estimated outstanding income tax of NIS1.5 million! The police served him personally with a new demolition order two days ago (4.6.23) and, working with City Hall, on Sunday 4.6.23 also served Fakhri yet another summons to an interrogation at City Hall, saying that if he refuses, they’ll issue an immediate demolition order. (Last month he attended an interrogation, but was told to wait outside. After three hours of waiting, he understood there was no interrogation, so he and his lawyer
left.) On legal advice, Fakhri won’t attend an illegal process, so there’s a possibility of imminent demolition of his home.

3. When the authorities arrive with such orders, they do so with high presence – at least 12 police officers: police, Border Police, riot police (Yassams) in full battle gear, helmets, guns.

4. The police have, as of late May, run a campaign of daily incitement against Fakhri – phoning residents’ committee members, warning them to have no dealings with Fakhri, as “he is preaching violence” (a total lie). The recent YNet live TV interview in Hebrew at Al Aqsa, when a policeman interrupted Fakhri’s TV interview (in Hebrew) knocking the phone out of his hand while on air, is another example of targeted harassment (the police spokesman accused him of incitement in Arabic!).

4. The mayor’s Jewish Israeli press spokesman, who also works in Arabic, recently asked Fakhri to please make his work easier by not speaking in classical “Fussha” Arabic, but in conversational Arabic. i.e. Fakhri’s media work is being watched by him. This echoes Adv Qawar’s report some months ago: City Hall sent him a list of links to Fakhri’s media work (as elected community spokesman for Silwan),reporting on demolitions, Al Aqsa updates, lack of services despite payments by East Jerusalemites of NIS 570 million per annum arnona [city rates] – with NIS 78 million p.a. being paid by Silwan residents
alone, heavy fines for “illegal building” but no available zoning for legal construction, or reportage as to 1000+ classrooms lacking in Palestinian E. J”m, especially in Silwan (meaning Hamas fills the vacuum for some 20,000+ children’s education). This was City Hall’s way of showing they are following his (totally unpaid) advocacy via Arabic TV, radio or print, and meetings with the diplomatic community – such as hosting US Sp. Rep. Hady Amr in his home last November or when asked to do a briefing at Al Aqsa for CEO of the European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer, a guest of EU Rep. Sven von Burgsdorff.

5. Fakhri calls on the international community to assert adequate pressure to preserve his homeand those of Bustan community, while upholding 3rd State responsibility for IHRL/IHL, not least to prevent the high likelihood such current policies will lead to major violence. Genuine concerns exist among East Jerusalemites that Israeli authorities, led by such as Minister for Public Security, Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir, Deputy Mayor, Kahanist Aryeh King et al., are deliberately stoking the fires, to achieve a conflagration. Such flames will be interpreted abroad in many places as deliberate attacks on Palestinians; responses in capitals may well ignite “anti-semitic” attacks, of an anti-Occupation nature, to then be exploited by far-Rightwingers in power. Such flames locally may be exploited by those in
power to shove through major displacement via demolitions, or more direct forms of transfer and expulsion. Kahane was a Jewish supremacist who espoused violence, Nakba and wanted to establish a theocratic Jewish state.

For further essential reading on the core ideals of Kach:
https://dawnmena.org/what-israels-new-kahanist-government-really-wants/ and
https://imeu.org/article/fact-sheet-meir-kahane-the-extremist-kahanist-movement

The Occupation forces that shot infant Mohammad Tamimi in the head invade and injure mourners at his funeral.

6/6/2023, Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

Today, the people of the village of Nabi Saleh bid farewell to the slain infant Muhammad Tamimi, who tragically died after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.

Slain infant Mohammad Tamimi’s funeral
Photo by Diana Khwaelid

The villagers of Nabi Saleh welcomed the child with flowers as they paid their respects. His mother, brother, sister, and father shared a final farewell look with baby Muhammad, and his mother embraced him, kissing him for the last time. “I want justice for my son, and for every person who shot at my husband and son to be held accountable,” she said.

The mother of salin infant Mohammed Tamimi Kisses her son for the last time Photo by Diana Khwaelid

According to the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, two-and-a-half-year-old Mohammed is the 150th Palestinian killed by Israel since the beginning of 2023. Documentation collected by Defense for Children International Palestine shows that 27 Palestinian children have been killed this year.

The brother of Maohhamed Tamimi Kissing his brother for the last time, Picture by Diana Khwaelid

During the funeral, confrontations broke out between the village youth and the occupying military that surrounded the village. Later that afternoon, while mourners were gathered at the grandparents’ home, the occupation forces invaded the village for the third time since Mohammad was shot, beating and shooting villagers, injuring six people.

The video below was taken by Neriman tamimi before she was beaten and injured by Israeli soldiers invading her village after leathaly wounding toddler Mohammad tamimi

Among the injured is Maher Tamimi, whose brother Qusai was tragically shot dead by the occupation forces last September. Maher sustained a gunshot wound in the pelvis, with the bullet entering his intestines. Renowned human rights defender Neriman Tamimi was targeted by a soldier, who struck her in the face with a rifle, and another mourner was hit in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Reknown human rights defender Neriman Tamimi hospitilized after being hit in the face with a rifle by an Israeli soilder

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP, stated: “Unlawful killings of Palestinian children have become the norm as Israeli forces become increasingly empowered to use intentional lethal force in situations that are not justified. This is a war crime with no consequences.”

In response to Mohammed Tamimi’s killing, South African MO Nkosi ZMD Mandela, the grandson of the late Nelson Mandela, released a statement demanding accountability. He stated, “We are appalled by this level of inhumanity and the ongoing crimes against humanity, and we call for immediate charges to be brought by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu.”

The video below was taken by  AlQuds TV