Yesterday, November 23rd, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager at the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus. Samah Abd al-Mumen Ahmad, a Palestinian woman who was shot in the head in the crossfire as she drove past the scene, is currently in the hospital in critical condition.
Palestinian teenager killed at the Huwwara checkpoint on November the 23rd.
The incident occurred only 24 hours after the last killing at the checkpoint, where a 16 year old Palestinian girl was run over and then shot dead by a prominent Israeli settler. Taha Ahmad Qatanani from Nablus was run over and shot by Gershon Mesika, the former head of the “Samaria regional council” which represents the illegal settlements in the northern West Bank.
Car in which the woman was shot in the head.
In response to the events on November 22nd, the Israeli army forced all shops and restaurants in the village of Huwwara to shut down until the following morning. The forced closing of shops is a frequent occurrence in the occupied West Bank, and a Israeli soldier in the village described the action as “collective punishment” when asked about the reason by an ISM volunteer.
Furthermore, residents of Nablus trying to pass the checkpoint were only allowed to enter, but not leave, the city. The checkpoint is crossed by route 60 which connects Nablus with the central and southern West Bank. Route 60 is one of the only roads in the West Bank used by both Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
Israeli forces at the scene where a Palestinian teenager was killed on the 23rd.
19th november 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Tell, occupied Palestine
Early morning today, November 19th, at around 1:30 am, Israeli forces raided approximately twenty homes in the village of Tell, Nablus, destroying furniture, televisions and other household items. Mohammed, 73 year old citizen of Tell, describes that soldiers were shooting tear gas, live ammunition and stun grenades, injuring two youths by live ammunition after clashes erupted in the area.
Ransacked home in the village of Tell, Nablus (photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/Tal.village.for.all/)
Furthermore, nine men were arrested without any charges and six men were asked to go to the Israeli security on the following day for security check. The nine men were all released six hours after the arrests.
“These random night raids are a way of scaring the people and demonstrating the occupier’s superiority” states Monther Ishtaya, the mayor of Tell village. He continues: “Also, the night raids are part of the training of new soldiers as well as for the newly appointed local leader of Shabak (Israel’s internal security service)”.
As the village Tell is part of area A, Israeli occupation forces have to coordinate – under the terms of the so-called ‘security coordination’ of the Oslo accords – their entry of the village with Palestinian Authority. According to the mayor, the reality, however, is that PA many times is either not informed or only informed shortly before Israeli forces enter the area.
According to the mayor, Israeli forces enter the village sometimes on a daily basis in order to check people on the street, do night raids and other so-called ‘security measures’. Since the beginning of October, 15 youths have been arrested, many of them sentenced for 6 months and/or forced to pay fines of several thousands shekels.
During the same night, in the village of Kafr Ad-Deak, Salfit, more than hundred Israeli soldiers invaded the village and raided and ransacked 15 houses in the As-Suqqiya area. In addition, they put up posters around the village stating that stone throwing will imply retaliation and punishment. Verbally the soldiers expressed to the villagers, that stone throwing would imply being shot.
Poster put up in Kafr Al-Deak threatening stone throwers (Photo credit: Murad Samara)
17th november 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Burin, occupied Palestine
ķ The Israeli forces came to the family’s field
On monday morning, Mahmoud Yasser Eid, a 22 year-old palestinian from the village of Burin, was stopped by the Israeli forces as he went to pick olives with his mother, near the Huwwara checkpoint. The land, that the family has been harvesting for three years along with another family, is located between route 60 from Ramallah to Nablus, and the road leading to the Bracha illegal settlement. The family did not get a permit to harvest this year : “they don’t want us to work near this road because of the situation. They say it’s for safety”, said Mohammed, Mahmoud’s older brother. The family tried to access their land anyway, as olives are an important income to the family of nine children. “People here need the olives”, added Mohammed.
The Israeli forces came at around 8 am, as the mother and son were having breakfast in the field. They controlled and searched Mahmoud and made them both sit there for a few hours while they searched all their belongings. Mahmoud’s mother, Raeda, cried until the soldiers accepted not to arrest her son. They warned him that they would come to arrest him at his house if he tried to access the field again. “We didn’t sleep that night !” said Mahmoud.
During the last three years, the Yasser family was allowed to harvest on this field, but this year they were not granted permission to do so. A neighbour who was picking olives in his field nearby saw the scene and said “they [the israeli army] don’t want anyone to go to this land anymore”. The family thinks that they won’t be allowed to harvest the olives on their land in the next few years, as it is strategically located a few meters away from the main road, route 60, between Ramallah and Nablus, and near the Huwwara checkpoint.
The project of expanding part of route 60 to a wider road, with a financiel help from the US Aid, could explain the difficulties faced by Mahmoud’s family to access their land. The construction, that has already started, will make the road from Yizhar junction (west of Huwwara) to the palestinian village of Beita (east of Huwwara), through the town of Huwwara, a 21-meters wide road. This would lead to an even more limited access to the surroundings of the road for palestinian locals. “Some land might be taken by Israel”, carefully said Raed, from the Burin village council. The situation is already complicated at the moment for the villages close to route 60, and especially for Huwwara, a rare example of palestinian village crossed by a road used by both israeli settlers and Palestinians, that is under permanent surveillance from the Israeli forces.
Map of the Huwwara surroundings (ocha)
The “bypass-roads system”, was thought to enable “access to settlements and travel between settlements without having to pass through Palestinian villages”, according to a Bet’selem research from 2004. It has become a way to reinforce apartheid within the West Bank. According to the study from the Israeli organization, many of these roads had as a goal to refrain palestinian villages from expanding. And it had indeed refrained them.
1st November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwarra Team | Burin, occupied Palestine
Yesterday, the 31st of October, close to the end of this year’s annual olive harvest, another family of farmers in the village of Burin, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, were again prevented from picking their olives by the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers.
Israeli army arrives to farmers’ land to stop their harvest. Photo credit ISM
Israeli soldiers and guard from illegal settlement of Yitzhar. Photo credit ISM
At approximately 9:30 am, 4 soldiers and 1 guard from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar arrived to the field while the Palestinian family was picking olives and announced that they had no permission to work that day (but stated they were allowed to do so the next day and the day after). On the contrary, the farmers, who also own the land, explained to the soldiers that they did have a permit which was issued by the city council but the soldiers ignored them. Two volunteers from ISM who were present in that moment asked the soldiers to show a document that stated the farmers were not allowed to work. The soldiers told the volunteers to go with them, but they refused. Instead, the volunteers and the family continued picking olives with one soldier standing watching them while the other 3 soldiers went to look for the document that supported their claims.
Soldier stands watching creating tension in farmers’ work
Farmer stops working in presence of the army. Photo credit ISM
15 minutes later, the soldiers returned with a document written in Hebrew and showed it to them. The Palestinian family decided to leave. They picked up all their bags with olives and equipment and put everything into their tractor. A few minutes later, approximately 5 illegal Israeli settlers wearing masks arrived to the field, scaring the farmers and causing them to flee. The two ISM volunteers walked closer to the settlers to show their presence, but the soldiers demanded that they stand back. The ISM volunteers did not want to leave, but the settlers began throwing stones at them, forcing them to move back while trying to document. Once they left the field, the volunteers approached the soldiers and asked, “Why didn’t you do something about this?” The soldiers got into their car and closed the windows without saying anything. Everyone left the field.
Illegal settlers, oftentimes extremely violent, this time managed to terrify the family away from their farm. Photo credit ISM
Earlier in the morning of the same day, a bus full of volunteers who intended to support picking olives in another farm were prevented to do so by the Israeli army, despite the fact that this group had coordinated with the Palestinian village council which in turn coordinates with the corresponding Israeli office and therefore had permission to carry out this action. Read more about it here http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768578
A large group of volunteers arriving to another farm to support olive harvest is confronted by the Israeli army. Photo credit ISM
The army finally forces volunteers to get back into their bus and leave. Photo credit ISM
On October 4, at 4:00 in the morning, 8 Palestinian men were arrested under extremely violent conditions by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus, North West Bank. The men have been accused of participating in the killing of two illegal Israeli settlers driving a car on the Beit Furik road on October 1st. According to a spokesperson for the families of the accused men, no evidence has been presented to uphold the accusations.
Arrest Operations
Karam Al Masri, 23 years old, was violently arrested in the Nablus hospital. According to the spokesperson, Al Masri was lying in recovery from an operation on his left shoulder, which had been injured in a work accident in a Nablus iron factory.
Approximately 20 men from the Israeli security forces stormed at 4:00 in the morning with guns into the hospital to kidnap the patient who was sleeping in room 302. When leaving the hospital, they broke the cameras in order not to leave evidence, but you can watch the video when they entered searching for Karam al Masri here.
At the same time, the three cousins, Samir al Kusa, 23 years old, Zahi al Kusa, 32 years old, and Abdullah al Kusa,19 years old, were arrested while sleeping in their homes in Nablus and Askar refugee camp, were Samir was visiting his parents in law.
Samir’s 25 year old wife and 50 year old mother were both beaten up by the Israeli forces. Samir was first beaten brutally, then forced to walk down the hill while bleeding heavily, then put to the ground where soldiers began beating him again, kicking him with guns, to the point that even one soldier urinated on him. Nearly 300 soldiers participated in this operation.
In the case of Zahi and Abdullah al Kusa, who were staying in the same home, they had their house raided, furniture destroyed, and their families terrified with gun shots. Both were forced to step out the house, strip off their clothes, beaten up, forced to walk naked in the street, sworn and cursed at and humiliated. When another cousin of the men tried to take a picture, a soldier shot into his leg at such close range that the bullet entered the leg and came out, and managed to enter and come out the second leg, too. This man spent 4 days in the hospital. He is 21 years old.
Meanwhile, Rasem Khatab, a 37 year old nurse, was working in a night shift in the hospital at the time he was arrested. Israeli forces took him to his home, raided the house, broke the furniture, beat him in front of his wife, 2 daughters and parents. This operation included approximately 40 soldiers.
Even more shockingly, Ragheb Elawi, a 35 year old man who had recently undergone 2 heart surgeries and remained in his house in state of recovery was also violently arrested. Israeli soldiers stormed his home at 4:00 am terrifying, once again, his whole family, to arrest him. Despite the fact that this man is evidently in a delicate state of health, he was also beaten in front of his family.
In addition, Zeid Ziad Amer, 23 years old, and Yahya Hajj-Hamad, 24 years old, were also arrested at the same early hours in the morning in similar conditions of violence, raiding their homes, waking up their families and beating them up.
In all these cases, the soldiers blocked the neighborhoods, surrounded the houses, guarding them outside, after having closed the entrances of the city.
To this day, only Zahi al Kosa’s parents have information about their son, who will be imprisoned for two months with the highly likely possibility that the imprisonment will be extended indefinitely after the next military court hearing takes place. He is being held in the Megiddo military prison.
Samir and Abdullah are jailed in the Petah Tikva prison, without any other information available. The whereabouts of all other 5 prisoners are unknown until know. Neither their families, lawyers nor the Red Crescent have any knowledge about them.
House Demolition Orders
In the morning of Thursday 15th, 11 days after the 8 men were arrested, three of the men’s families received home demolition orders from the Israeli forces. The Al-Kusa family’s home is located at the top of the South mountain in Nablus, in the Al Dahiyya neighborhood, right below an Israeli military base. This house has already been evacuated by the family, and since it is on the first floor of a three story building, the army plans to fill it with concrete.
The Al-Kusa family home on the first floor of the building is now abandoned, waiting to be filled up with concrete by the Israeli army.
The homes of Karam al Masri and Yahya Hajj-Hamad have also been emptied by their families, who have moved to other family members’ homes, while they wait for their houses to be torn down.
These house demolition orders notified that they would be carried out within 48 hours, but even though the date has expired and the destruction hasn’t happened yet, it is common knowledge that the Israeli army can carry out these actions a long time after the orders have expired. In many cases, the houses can be torn down weeks, months or even years after demolition orders expire, representing a clear tactic used by Israel to create a psychological warfare and stress in the Palestinian population. Today, in the neighborhood of Al Dahiyya, all the neighbors living around these three homes are unable to sleep in the night because of fear that the army might come at any time.
What is even more concerning, is that the families of the imprisoned men are going through enormous distress from the uncertainty of their sons’, brothers’, husbands’ and fathers’ futures, in which they fear the very highly probability that their loved ones may be sentenced anything between 20 years to a lifetime in jail.
It is important to understand that these actions are part of a larger strategy that Israel conducts as a form of collective punishment and psychological torture towards Palestinians. The Israeli government has recently approved a new policy that states that, in case the government decides that a Palestinian is a ”terrorist” who wants to kill an Israeli civilian, settler, army or police, the government will take the right to kill him, not return the body to the family, later demolish the family’s home and subsequently forbid the family to build a new home in the same site of the demolished house. Given that Israel most of the time decides in an arbitrary manner and without any grounds that Palestinians are ”terrorists”, not only does it punish the people it claims to be dangerous, but also punishes their whole families, therefore proving to be extremely abusive and unjust in their law and actions. This form of collective punishment not only puts an enormous amount of psychological pressure on the Palestinians, to say the least, but also facilitates Israel’s ongoing plan of stealing their land and expanding its colonization project.
