22nd September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
A Witness Recounts the Final Moments of 18-year-old Hadil Salah Hashlamoun’s Life.
This morning in the Tel Rumeida section of al-Khalil (Hebron) the sound of multiple rounds of live ammunition screamed out from the Shuhada Street checkpoint 56.
Standing at the checkpoint around 7:40 this morning, 34 year old Fawaz abu Aisheh ushered a few children from the scene where Israeli forces screamed in Hebrew at the terrified Hadil who was on her way to school. “They were screaming at her, ´Move back! Move Back!´ I knew she couldn´t understand so I intervened in Arabic and she listened to me immediately and I took her from the entrance to the exit of the checkpoint.”
In the photo, Hadil, in burqa, stands with Fawaz just off the foreground. “I tried to talk with her, she was terrified. She knew nothing.” Fawaz pleaded with the soldiers, who were multiplying quickly, to allow him to take her away from the checkpoint, to explain to her what was happening, to de-escalate the situation. “She listened to me immediately when first I spoke with her, but they moved me away and continued to scream at her in Hebrew which she obviously didn´t understand.”
18-year old Palestinian student moments before being shot to death by Israeli forces Photo credit: Youth Against Settlement
The scene, plainly described by Fawaz, seemingly had any number of alternatives to close-range, rapid fire, kill shots into a Palestinian female teenager´s body. After the fact, Israeli forces claimed the woman had a knife on her person. Fawaz challenges this contention. “She was covered completely, there was no knife showing at any time. Even if she did have a knife he could have arrested her so easily. I was there… I could have talked to her, she cooperated with me in that very first moment. I asked her to move and she moved but after that I begged him to let me talk to her but they took me away from her and started pointing their weapons at me. After they shot her more and more soldiers arrived. There were still 3 or 4 kids a few meters from the checkpoint so I moved the kids away. ”
As if the incident weren´t wholly disturbing in itself, beyond the shooting, Israeli soldiers were seen laughing, smiling and talking casually with one another as Hadil clung to life while rapidly losing blood to the concrete. Israeli settlers similarly stood in circles photographing Hadil. Fawaz noted that the Palestinian ambulance had arrived within five minutes to rush the dying girl to the hospital, yet Israeli forces blocked them from getting to her, choosing rather to let her bleed openly for forty minutes in the street until an Israeli ambulance arrived. In that agonizing period of time, an Israeli soldier was seen dragging the dying young woman by her feet.
18-year-old Hadil Salah Hashlamoun died of her wounds only after arriving at a hospital in Jerusalem. The question of whether she would have lived had she been permitted the right to be treated immediately by the quickly arriving Palestinian ambulance rather than left to bleed out for an eternity of forty minutes may never be answered.
If humanity, in any measure, exists within the occupying entity, it was shockingly absent today at the Shuhada Street checkpoint.
22nd September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Last night Israeli soldiers threatened to arrest internationals, who were present during the arrest of 3 Palestinian boys in Tel Rumeida, al-Khalil (Hebron).
After the 3 boys were brought to the military base, internationals went back into the house in Tel Rumeida. Ten minutes later about 15 soldiers surrounded the house and half a dozen of them walked up the stairs to the main door, demanding them to open it, because they wanted to arrest the internationals.
Even though the internationals repeatedly asked to see a warrant on the arrest, soldiers kept refusing to show any legitimate reason for their arrest. The soldiers only verbally accused the internationals of entering a closed military zone. When the internationals refused to open the door as soldiers cannot arrest internationals, they kept banging on the door, shouting and threatening to bring the police to have them arrested. Upon the embassies requests, the internationals asked for the commanders name which was outright refused by soldiers in front of the door.
After about one and a half hours, the soldiers called the police and a policeman arrived, He did not talk to the internationals at all, and left after less than half an hour. In the meantime, soldiers started accusing the internationals of consuming drugs in the apartment without any real reason or evidence. After yet another half hour soldiers again called the police, and came to the door with a policeman that did not speak any English. Instead of translating what the Policeman was saying to the internationals, the soldier just kept up the same conversation as before, with only one sentence being translated to the policeman. The soldiers refused to let the policemen talk to the international’s lawyer and did not give the internationals any information on how to contact the police station or military base, who send out the arrest warrant. After the policeman left the soldiers threatened the internationals to break down the door of the house.
In total, soldiers stayed outside the apartment for about four hours, threatening internationals with arrest, leaving only with the threat of the police arresting them the next morning.
21st September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Monday the 21st of August three boys were arrested in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron, occupied Palestine. The boys were arrested at 8:45 pm and taken to the military base in Tel Rumeida.
Two of the boys were arrested after allegedly having a fight with ‘Jewish boys’. The two boys – Awne Abu Shamsiyye, 17, and Tarek Salhab, 17 – where both dragged up a hill by soldiers, the first handcuffed, the latter one with his arms twisted behind his back by a soldier. The three boys from the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida however, did not even get stopped or questioned by the soldiers.Instead, they stood watching the arrest and harrassing the boy’s families and Palestinian families living in the neighbourhood.
Boy blindfolded and handcuffed by Israeli army.
Nizar Salhab, only 16 years old, was accused of hitting a soldier, and thus handcuffed and blindfolded by soldiers in front of Gilbert checkpoint. He was forced to wait standing on the sidewalk unable to see anything for almost an hour. His family and friends then helped him remove the blindfold, only a few minutes before the army took him to the military base in a jeep.
One of the boys being dragged up the hill by a soldier.
Even though soldiers claimed to have video-evidence for all the accusations, Awne was released after about two hours in the military base. The two other boys instead were taken to the police station and only released after about 5 hours.
Random arrests of Palestinian chlidren is a common occurence in al-Khalil (Hebron). Palestinian families constantly have to live with the fear of their children being arrested or kidnapped and disappeared, with soldiers not informing families of these kind of events. The three boys yesterday, fortunately, were released – but still this only happens rarely and still, they were detained for a long time without any evidence or valid reason.
19th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Khuzaa, Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine
It only depends on us that this mother’s cry of pain does not drown in the silence.
“My paralyzed daughter was murdered by Israeli soldiers and I couldn’t save her” she told us, looking at us with clear eyes veiled with tears of pain, the other of a paraplegic girl, just 18 years old, massacred in her wheelchair by Zionist occupation forces during the ground invasion in Khuzaa, in southern Gaza Strip.
“My paralyzed daughter was murdered by Israeli soldiers and I couldn’t save her.”
The mother’s voice is like her eyes, clear and painful, sad and intense. In her tone there is much suffering – although she is a victim of the zionist atrocities – there is also a lot of guilt for failing to rescue her daughter from a terrible death under the fire of one of the most powerful armies of the planet: the Israeli Occupation Forces.
“My daughter asked me not to leave her, but she was in a crater formed by a bomb explosion in the middle of the street and I couldn’t move her from there, I didn’t have the strength to carry her in my arms, and the Israeli soldiers were coming back, shooting with tanks, guns, with everything. Crying I told her that I had to leave her and prayed to God.”
What happened next is so cruel and vicious as the crime itself: an officer of the Israeli forces communicated by telephone with the family to say the girl was with them in one of the houses that they had occupied n Khuzaa “Come and get her, she is unharmed”, said the officer. The family was so happy that one brother decided to leave the house where they were sheltering with the intention of picking up the girl, but when he opened the door, multiple shots from the occupation forces began to impact the house.
The Zionist’s macabre game is repeated, they call again to tell the family to look for the paralyzed teen and again they open fire when one of the brothers tries to leave the house to rescue his sister.
“This kind of inhuman mockery of Palestinians is common from the Israeli Army”, explain various witnesses of the Zionist crimes. Not content just to kill with impunity, they also like to torture their victims, tease them and laugh at the suffering of the families.”
It hurts, but is not surprising, knowing that she had never been safe in the hands of the occupying forces, she had been murdered in cold blood and she lies near her wheelchair with multiple gunshots in her limbs, heart and head, when she was found days later by her family in an advanced state of decomposition on the main street of the devastated village of Khuzaa, southern Gaza Strip, a place where life is worthless, where the slaughtering of Palestinians is a coward game without consequences for this criminal army.
21st August 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Occupied Palestine
Update 6th September:
We are making an urgent call for volunteers to come and join us to support Palestinians in their daily resistance towards the Israeli illegal occupation of their land.
Just this last Wednesday, a 75 year old woman was brutally attacked by Israeli soldiers as she tried to defend her son from being kidnapped, in the village of Salem. The same soldiers then attacked and kidnapped 8 shepherds from that area. The shepherds of Salem struggle everyday to access their fields and do their work, and they urgently need our help to accompany them and secure a safe environment to prevent the soldiers from harassing and attacking them.
Likewise, in the Jordan Valley, Palestinian bedouins are suffering from massive house demolitions every week, leaving them homeless in extremely harsh conditions. There is an urgent need for international presence to prevent more destruction of houses, theft of land and construction of illegal settlements, and to call out for international actions and campaigns, as we did in Susiya.
And now that the season for olive harvest is soon to come, we also ask you to join us in October to pick up olives with the farmers. October is the time when the olives are ripe and ready to be harvested, but the Israeli authorities only permit farmers a very limited amount of time to do all this work, and they depend on our help to harvest as many olives as possible, since this is their main source of subsistence. Moreover, our international presence during harvest is crucial to prevent soldiers and illegal settlers from attacking the farmers during their work. This is why your presence makes a real difference.
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During the months of July and August, there has been an escalation of violence from illegal Israeli settlers and the Israeli army towards Palestinians.
ISM is sending an urgent call for volunteers to join us in Palestine. Check the join us section of our website or email ISM at palreports@gmail.com for more information.
On a weekly basis, people throughout the West Bank are being arrested without charges, houses raided during the night, new houses have been demolished, settler violence has increased in the city of Hebron and in other villages, and the Israeli navy has increased the number of attacks towards Gazan fishermen.
On August 1st, the infant Ali Dawabshe was brutally murdered with an arson attack to his house perpetrated by illegal Israeli settlers in the village of Duma. His father, Saad Dawabshe, died one week after from severe burn injuries. Both his mother, Riham, and his 4 year old brother, Ahamd, remain hospitalized with severe burn injuries all over their bodies, with high risk of dying.
Baby Ali’s bedroom in ashes, with his pictures
Since the end of the last Zionist massacre against Gaza there have been 1312 reported attacks against Gazan fishermen.
Since then, 22 boats have been stolen; 26 fishermen have been injured; one fisherman, Tawfiq Abu Riela, has been assassinated; 28 boats have been disabled by bullet fire; 2 big fishing boats have been sunken by rocket fire, one in Deir El Balah at 300m from the coast and one in Gaza City at 5 miles; 51 fishermen have been kidnapped while working and 3 fishermen remain prisoners until now.
Fishermen’s boats in the coast of Gaza.
The team in Hebron has reported an increase of night raids by Israeli forces and attacks by illegal settlers, which is terrorizing Palestinians living in Hebron. Two days ago, on August 20th, a group of French extremist Zionists intimidated and attacked international activists and local Palestinians. This group of extremists, called Kahane, which is considered a terrorist organization under Israeli law, was received with signs of sympathy by the soldiers.
The extremists proudly held the infamous yellow flag of Kahane groupThe soldier handcuffed and blindfolded a Palestinian young man
At approximately 5:00 am, on Wednesday, August 19, the homes of the Totah and Totanji families were demolished by the Israeli army in the neighborhood of Wadi al Joz, in East Jerusalem. This neighborhood has been under threat of demolition since December, 2014, despite the fact that there are no accountable papers presenting a demolition order, nonetheless, the army has been slowly carrying out this plan. Neighbors live in constant fear that anytime their homes will be torn down.
Nureddin Amro sitting on the rubble of his home, which was demolished on March 31st this year (photo credit The Washington Post)
In very similar conditions, the village of Susiya has been suffering from enormous fear by the threat of mass demolition orders issued by the Israeli government since 2012.
Village of Susiya
ISM also needs volunteers to join the 2015 olive harvest campaign.
ISM volunteers join Palestinian farming communities each year to harvest olives in areas where Palestinians face settler and military violence while working their land. Your presence can make a big difference, with Palestinian communities stating that the presence of international volunteers reduces the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers and the Israeli army.
The olive tree is a Palestinian national symbol, and the Israeli military systematically prevents agricultural fruition, in order to make life for Palestinians more difficult. The Israeli occupation provides a platform for Palestinian rights to be violated in an array of ways; the attack on agriculture is at the forefront.
Already documented this year, and to list a few cases; the trees have suffered settler sewage runoff , sabotaging fires, and being uprooted. Olive trees comprise of an essential 14% of the Palestinian agricultural economy.
We support Palestinians’ assertion of their right to earn their livelihoods and be present on their lands. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation and practical support, which enables many families to pick their olives.
The campaign will begin during the last week of September and will last around 5 weeks. We request a minimum of 10 days commitment from harvest volunteers once they have finished their training, but stress that people staying for a longer period of time are needed as well. We ask that volunteers start arriving around the 20th of September, so that we will be prepared when the harvest begins.
Training
We request volunteers who join us any time of the year to commit for a minimum of two weeks after completing training, but stress that people who can work with us for longer periods of time are needed as well. In the case of the olive harvest campaign, we ask volunteers to commit with ISM for a minimum period of 10 days after completing training. The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will run weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please see the join ISM page or contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.
