30th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Khuzaa, Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine
Almost a year and a half after the Zionist massacre of Gaza ended, most families in Khuzaa are still waiting for international aid and materials for reconstruction.
A typical caravan in Khuzaa, built from precarious materials. Photo credit ISM
Many of these families are living with their relatives or renting another home. However, many others don’t have a place to go and don’t have the financial resources to pay rent, being left with no choice but to continue surviving in the caravans that were donated, when the aggression was over, as an interim measure.
Last winter several persons died in those caravans due to the cold weather and all of the families suffered from floods during the rainstorms.
After the strong rains of that week ISM Gaza visited some of the families. Tired of giving interviews that don’t bring any improvement to their situation, they explain how the last rains destroyed even more of their caravans.
Zuraya Mohamed Abu Reeda, refugee from Jaffa, finds herself surviving alone in one of them. Her sons live with their families in new wooden caravans that were donated by Qatar, but she prefers to stay here, as she says that her son’s caravans are already too overcrowded.
The last rains opened a hole in the roof of her caravan and flooded the entire kitchen.
The roof of Zuraya Mohammed Abu Reeda’s kitchen torn by the pressure of the rain. Photo credit ISM
In another caravan lives Fatima Abdel Aziz Qudaih, 70 years old, with her daughter.
The last rains completely destroyed the bathroom of her caravan, and as a result all the sewage waters flooded the caravan and its surroundings. The smell is very strong outside and inside the caravan.
The bathroom in Fatima Abdel Aziz Qudaih’s home with the floor broken from the pressure of the floods. Photo credit ISM
All the families that still survive in the caravans have lost all hope. They lost their homes, spent their savings, and more than a year after the aggression was over no one has offered them a solution.
A kitchen as seen inside one of the caravans were the people of Khuzaa continue to struggle. Photo credit ISM
30th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Palestinians gather in the street to be registered in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood in occupied Hebron. It is being reported that the area will be closed off completely for people who are not residents of the area and who are not registered within the next few days.
“For the people living in the area, it will become like a prison. For people living in Hebron, the closure of Tel Rumeida will mean that the city will be split in two”, says local resident to international activists.
The names and ID-numbers of the people living in the area are being written down by soldiers on long lists, and there are dozens of Palestinians standing around Gilbert checkpoint waiting to hand over their information or be forced out. Even for the residents who will be allowed in the area, this will mean severe restriction of their movement. Every time Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida & the area around Ibrahimi mosque (between checkpoints 209 and 29) cross a check point to get to their home, the soldiers will have to search the long list for the name.
It is not the first time the Israel has imposed such restrictions on the residents of the area. In 1994 after the Illegal settler extremist Baruch Goldstein committed a massacre in the Ibrahimi Mosque, similar measures were taken. At that time, Palestinian residents refused registration and were punished with a six month 24-hour-curfew and only allowed a few hours a week during which the residents could buy food.
Due to the increase in violence by army and settlers against Palestinians they do not dare to refuse registration this time.
28th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Wednesday 28th October at 3.25pm, Islam Rafiq Obeido, 23, was shot in cold blood in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. Human rights observers from International Solidarity Movement witnessed the young man being murdered while walking in the street near the Gilbert Checkpoint.
The eyewitness from ISM, identified as Orion, states: “I am 100% sure he was unarmed. I saw the two soldiers creeping slowly along the road outside our apartment window with their guns cocked, so I looked down the street to see why. I saw an unarmed man walking normally towards the soldiers and suddenly they shot.”
The young man was shot at a distance of around two meters and at least 12 shots were fired. He died immediately after being shot.
No shouting or running was heard on the site prior to the murder. Minutes before the incident, a policewoman was overheard at the Shuhada Street checkpoint 56 saying on her radio “he looks like a good one, shoot him.”
Another activist from the ISM states: “It was just like last night, when they shot Hoummam Said. Everything was quiet and suddenly we heard many shots outside our apartment. I am sure he was unarmed and they murdered him for no reason, just like Hoummam”
28th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
At 10.30pm last night, Tuesday 27th October 2015, a Palestinian man who has been identified as 23 year old Hoummam Said was shot in al-Kahlil (Hebron) at the Gilbert checkpoint, directly outside the ISM apartment. The man was in the H2 neighborhood of Tel Rumeida which was otherwise quiet at the time.
No commotion, shouting or running was heard prior to the six gun shots echoing suddenly through the streets and no other security risk could otherwise be perceived.
Immediately following the incident, Israeli forces, who are permanently posted at the checkpoint for 24 hours a day, surrounded the body of the fallen man. Within minutes settlers from the nearby illegal settlement arrived and were allowed to approach and photograph the scene. Further forces then arrived, including soldiers and several police vehicles. An Israeli ambulance arrived but no medical aid was delivered to Said, instead paramedics stood close to the bleeding man and watched passively as he died.
Said was then stripped of his clothes, revealing that the gunshot wounds were all on the back of his body. He was then placed in a bodybag and the street was cleaned. By midnight the scene was totally cleared of all evidence of the incident.
A short video shows Hammam after he was stripped of his clothes by Israeli forces:
Eyewitnesses reported that no knife was originally witnessed on the scene, though one appeared after the soldiers surrounded the body. “I cannot say for sure they put the knife there, but I know even 5 seconds after the shooting I looked, I really looked, and I could see nothing. I am 99% sure of it. But afterwards, it was there.” She added “if an attack was planned at this location it wouldn’t even make sense. He was still 20 meters from the soldiers or checkpoint, in the middle of the night. Why would he wave the knife around?”
The body of Hammam Said after Israeli forces stripped him of his clothes
Extrajudicial executions of this kind are illegal in international law and there is no evidence that warning or deescalating force was applied before the lethal shooting of Said. The checkpoint has a camera positioned above the street and the International Solidarity Movement is demanding that Israeli forces release the raw footage to prove an association between the man and the knife allegedly found at the scene.
An hour and a half after the incident, an eyewitness reported that “it is like nothing happened, there is no bloodstain, nothing but a dog sniffing the ground. The street is eerily quiet and there are just the normal number of soldiers at the checkpoint.” They added that “they cannot really feel like there is a security threat here right now.” An hour after that an illegal settler vehicle was parked by the location of the shooting, playing loud festive music.
Listen to audio of settlers playing party songs after Hammam Said’s blood was washed off the ground:
Said’s death marks four Palestinian deaths in Hebron within two days, and brings the total death toll within the Occupied Territories of Palestine to 64 since the start of October. Hebron has been a centre of the rising tension in the West Bank, and today witnessed extreme suppression of peaceful protests in Bab Al-Zawwiya, when innumerable rounds of teargas were shot directly at dense crowd of demonstrators who were demanding the release of Palestinian corpses killed by Israeli forces.
It is anticipated that with allegations that Said had a knife that no investigation will be launched, yet another Palestinian will be branded as a terrorist, and as a final injustice another family will be denied their rightful mourning rites.
27th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Tuesday afternoon, 27th October, a mass peaceful demonstration took place in the streets of occupied Hebron (al-Khalil) with about two thousand people, including men, women and children demanding the release of the 11 bodies of martyred Palestinians kept by Israeli forces this month.
Palestinian women with image of Dania Ersheid, 17, killed by Israeli Forces 25th October
Answering the call made by different Palestinian factions, the people of al-Khalil took to the streets to join the “rally of anger,” beginning at the Al-Haras mosque and moving towards Bab Al-Zawwiya following speeches.
Demonstrators peacefully sang, clapped and waved flags in Bab Al-zawwiya before the rounds of teargas were shot at the crowdIsraeli Forces at the Shuhada street checkpoint 56
At the Shuhada street Checkpoint 56, hundreds of people were gathered, standing with flags and clapping and chanting when suddenly, without other apparent provocation than their presence, Israeli forces began to shoot round after round of teargas, stun grenades and live ammunition against the peaceful protesters. At least 10 Palestinians were injured with live rounds and gunshot wounds, according to Dr. Walid Zalloum, the director of Hebron’s governmental hospital.
“It was a peaceful demonstration, really just clapping and with flags, and suddenly everything was on fire’’ said human rights activist group International Solidarity Movement who were present at the march.
Rounds of teargas fired directly at the crowd filled the entire area, trapping many
One more time, Palestinian peaceful resistance has been repressed by the occupying power in an unjustifiably harsh and criminal way. The occupation authorities also detained eight Palestinians, including lawyer Farid Al-Atrash.
