Category: Nablus - Page 32 - International Solidarity Movement

Demolitions in Bruqin: “If you really want peace, you wouldn’t take what’s mine”

2nd April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Bruqin, Occupied Palestine

On the 1^st of April, at approximately 5.30 AM, a bulldozer and eight military jeeps arrived in the village of Bruqin close to the city of Nablus. The bulldozer first destroyed a farmers shed, killing the ten rabbits inside. The destruction continued as a caravan belonging to another farmer was also demolished, and finally later the same night, a building belonging to a farmer in the nearby village of Beit Furik was also destroyed.

This is just one of many nights where Palestinian property has been demolished by the Israeli army. Inside the village of Bruqin a girl’s school, recently financed by US Aid, is threatened by a demolition order.

The mayor of Bruqin spoke to an ISM activist after the demolitions:

“I talked to some Israeli settlers one week ago, and told them that we could live in peace, together. But they replied that they want another 700 dunums of land from Bruqin. So, I don’t think that they want peace. If you really want peace, you wouldn’t take what’s mine”.

The resistance in Bruqin against the illegal expansion of settlements continues. The day after the demolitions, men, women and children of the village went out on the hills close to a nearby illegal settlement and planted olive trees.

Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinian civilians and armed group member and wound 12 civilians in Jenin refugee camp

24th March 2014 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights | Jenin, Occupied Palestine

In excessive use of force, on Saturday, 22 March 2014, Israeli forces killed, 2 Palestinian civilians and a member of a Palestinian armed group and wounded 12 civilians and a members of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Jenin refugee camp, west of the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Israeli forces claimed via the Israeli media that they killed 3 Palestinians during armed clashes in the aforementioned refugee camp. However, investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) investigations refute the Israeli claim and confirm that the two civilians were killed as Israeli forces opened fire heavily at dozen of civilians who were trying to pull and carry the militant’s body in the centre of the camp.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 02:00 on the Saturday, 22 March 2014, an Israeli special military force from “Alimam” Unit in the Israeli military, which is described as “an anti-terrorism unit” infiltrated into the south of Jenin refugee camp, west of Jenin. The Israeli force surrounded a two-storey house belonging to the family of ‘Azmi Mohammed Mahmoud al-Hasaniyah (67) in Tal’et al-Ghabes area. Israeli forces then sent large military back-ups, which were deployed throughout the camp while Israeli drones were hovering overhead. Israeli snipers ascended roofs of nearby houses after they received information that Hamzah Jamal ‘Abdel Salam Abu al-Heijah (22), the local leader of the Izziddin al-Qassam brigades (the armed wing of Hamas), was in the house.

After the military back-ups had arrived, Israeli forces blew up the main door of the houses and opened fire. They then yelled at residents of the house to get out. When the residents were about to come out and Mohammed (23), the son of the house’s owner who is member of the Palestinian National Security Forces, opened the external door, he was shot in the left shoulder. Amidst the screams of his family, the shooting stopped and the residents began to get out one by one while Abu al-Heijah stayed in a room on the second floor. Israeli forces arrested Mohammed and his brother, Majd (18), and took the rest of the family members to a nearby house. They then entered a tracker dog into the house, but Hamzah killed it and this made the Israeli forces be certain that he is in the house. As a result, Israeli forces showered the house with live bullets and shells fired by machine guns and then used shoulder-fired missiles. As a result, the house was partially destroyed. Meanwhile, armed clashes broke out between Palestinian militants, who stationed in the areas of al-Sahah and Abu Thahir Mountain areas, and Hamzah from the house from one side and the Israeli forces, which were surrounding the house, from the other side. Hamzah took advantage of this and jumped from one of the western windows of the house. As soon as he stepped a few meters, the snipers opened fired and immediately killed him. They left him for two hours and he bled to death in the alley.

Young men then tried to pull his body, and Israeli forces opened fire at them. However, they managed to pull it. When they were passing by al-Sahah area, Israeli forces opened fire killing two of them: Yazan Mahmoud Basem Taha “Jabarin” (20) who was hit by a bullet to the chest; and Mahmoud ‘Omer Saleh Abu Zeinah (24), who was hit by a bullet to the chest. When the news of the death of 3 persons spread out, the camp residents started coming out of their houses. Immediately, the Israeli snipers opened fire at these civilians wounding 11 of them, including a 65-year-old woman. Thus, the number of wounded persons mounted to 12 civilians. It should be mentioned that Hamzah Abu al-Heijah is the son of Jamal Abu al-Heijah, who is serving a sentence of 9 life imprisonments in the Israeli jails. Hamzah had been subject to several extra-judicial execution attempts, the last of which was on 18 December 2013 when an Israeli special unit targeted him. However, he managed to escape and Nafe’a Jamil Nafe’a al-Sa’adi was killed.

PCHR strongly condemns this crime, which further proves the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in disregard for their lives. PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective action to stop Israeli crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions.

Israeli forces arrest and hold 13-year-old for seven hours

20th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Bruqin, Occupied Palestine

On Tuesday 18^thMarch, Israeli forces entered the village of Bruqin and arrested 13-year-old Abdel Hafez Mohammed, holding him for seven hours before releasing him later in the day.

Abdel Hafez Mohammed Samara was working on his land, picking ‘aqoub’ (a local plant), and allowing his sheep to grave, when an Israeli soldier and two security guards called him to the closest road, which is nearby the illegal settlement of Ariel.

Abdel went to speak to the soldier and the security staff and he was told to throw away the small broken knife that he had been using to cut away the aqoub. He was then forced to kneel down, while guns were pointed directly at him. At that moment, Walid Samara, a local teacher who had been working in the nearby village of Hares stopped on the road close to Abdel. He was threatened at gunpoint and then beaten as two Israeli police officers arrived to arrest him and Abdel.

The police officer then accused Abdel of threatening the guards with his knife, and Walid of attacking them with stones. They were both taken to a nearby checkpoint, Walid was then released but Abdel was taken to the police station in the illegal settlement of Ariel.

Abdel was then interrogated for four hours before his father was called. Once his father arrived, he was able to see his son, but not allowed to say anything during the interrogation. The Israeli police took fingerprints from both Abdel and his father before forcing them both to sign conditions saying that did not have the right to go back to the land to graze their sheep or to cut aqoub.

Israeli forces are increasingly intimidating, beating and arresting Palestinians, and the arrest of children is unfortunately common. In the second half of February alone, Israeli forces arrested 31 children. According to recent figures by the Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry, as many as 187 Palestinian children remain jailed in Israeli prisons on various charges.

The remains of martyr Ahmad Saleh finally returned to family

20th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira al-Qibliya, Occupied Palestine

In June 2002, Israeli soldiers assassinated 18-year-old Ahmad Saleh from the village of Asira al-Qibliya after he entered the illegal settlement of Yizhar.

Ahmad’s body was then convicted post mortem to be held for 20 years by the Israeli authorities. Today, twelve years later, the body was given back to the family and was finally able to be buried with dignity.

Two other martyrs’ bodies were also returned to their families yesterday and their funerals began in the morning from a local hospital in Nablus, and continued on to the centre of the city. The funeral procession for Ahmad Saleh continued to his home village of Asira al-Qibliya, with approximately 700 Palestinians in attendance.

For the past 12 years the martyrs’ bodies have been held inside one of the ‘cemeteries of numbers’, which are secret cemeteries in closed military areas with bare graves surrounded by stones. Each ‘grave’ has only an identification number on a metal plate; family members are not allowed to visit.

There are at least 300 known Palestinian martyrs from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip whose bodies are withheld within one of these ‘cemeteries of numbers’, with more remaining in Israeli morgues.

Prisoner released leads to celebrations in Awarta

18th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday in the village of Awarta, 26-year-old Rais Abdat was released from an Israeli prison.

Three years ago, two youths from Awarta killed a settler from the nearby illegal settlement of Itemar, and for this act they both received five life sentences. In response, Israeli forces arrested approximately 18 young men and women from the village. Rais Abdat was one of these men.

Rais was not convicted of the crime he was arrested for, yet he was sentenced to 38 months in prison. A member of his family believes this is due to his activism and political affiliations.

10 of the men and women arrested three years ago remain imprisoned, included Rais’ cousin Walid Abdat (24-years-old) who is due to be released in July.

Today Rais was released from Salem Court in Jenin to joyous reactions from his friends and family.

Although he has now been released, Rais has lost three years of his life due to the Israeli occupation. Before he was imprisoned Rais was a university student studying Arabic, as a family member commented, he will return to his studies although it may take some time to adjust to his newfound freedom.

According to Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) as of January 1^st 2014 there are currently 5,023 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres. This includes 155 administrative detainees, 17 women and 154 children.