12th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
In the early hours of Wednesday the 10th of July, the Israeli army, arriving from the military camp near the settlement of Qedumim (8km west of Nablus) raided the Nablus neighbourhood of Al Junied, near the new Al Najjar university campus.
Remains of bed in student room, burnt by teargas canisters (Photo by ISM)
The neighbourhood, which includes many student dormitories, was invaded by seven jeeps, who arrived between the hours of 1am and 3.30am, remaining until 5am. Seven jeeps full of soldiers entered the neighbourhood. Multiple tear gas canisters and sound bombs were fired directly inside three student apartments, setting fires which broke windows and burnt the walls, furniture, shoes, prayer mats and beds. Soldiers climbed the stairs of an empty building opposite the apartments and from there fired at close range into the student’s windows, severely burning two bedrooms and a balcony. Luckily nobody was still asleep when the shooting happened because it is clear from what is left of the beds after they were burnt that anybody there would have been seriously injured. However, as the soldiers were shooting blindly into the apartments, they could not have known if someone was still in the rooms where they were firing.
Although there were clashes between the army and youth outside the dormitory, students stated that no stones were thrown from the two rooms that were particularly targeted by the soldiers. The tear gas didn’t just burn the dormitories, but also spread its suffocating effects throughout the area. Many students suffered from the effects of severe gas inhalation, but the army prevented ambulances coming to the area throughout their attack on the students. At 8 pm, 16 hours after the time of the raid, it was still possible to smell teargas in the student apartments. One student was arrested during the clashes – his current whereabouts are unknown.
This situation is not unusual in this neighbourhood; according to residents, the occupation forces generally raid the area at least twice a week. A man who works in the grocery shop near the student apartments explained that the commander of the Israeli army unit which invades the area regularly at the moment is quite new and must be ʺlooking for adventuresʺ.
According to one of the students, the invasions all take the same formː gas, sound bombs, injuries and destruction. The Al Junied neighbourhood is nevertheless a part of the city of Nablus, which according to the Oslo agreements, is in Area A, which means that both security and civil administration should be the role of the Palestinian Authority. As usual the Israeli army ignore these agreements, accompanied by the silence of the Palestinian Authority and the passivity of the Palestinian police.
Al Junied is not an exceptional situation in Nablus. Indeed, every week the Israeli army comes and often raids different parts of the city, ransacking houses, arresting people, firing sound bombs and gas canisters.
Tear gas canister on one of the destroyed beds (Photo by ISM)
28th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
In the early hours of the morning on the 27th June hundreds of Israeli army and police of the occupation forces invaded Nablus where they arrested people, destroyed homes and shot teargas and sound bombs all through the night.
The army remained in Nablus terrorising the population from 1.30am till 6.00am, when they eventually withdrew, forcibly taking three people whose families were left to repair their homes after they had been sacked by the army.
Father of three, Alam Hafif Qarim (40 years old) lives in a block of flats with his family in the North Mountain area of Nablus. Around 150 occupation soldiers and police in more than 20 military vehicles surrounded the building at 1.30am. The people in the building attempted to phone each other and outside for help and to find out what was happening, but the landlines had been cut and the mobile phone signal blocked. The army fired teargas canisters and sound bombs around the building, in the middle of the night. Fearing for the health of their children, residents closed their windows.
Israeli soldiers broke the children’s bed (Photo by ISM)
At 2.30am around 25 soldiers with attack dogs entered the building, and attempted to force the door; when that did not work, they hammered noisily on the door shouting in Arabic that they were the army. Alam quickly unlocked the door and the 25 soldiers moved into the house. They had a bag of tools – hammers and the like – with them. Alam’s wife was told to wake the children, two girls (7 years old and 3 months old) and their 10-year-old son, where they were forced with Alam, who was handcuffed, to sit in one room as the army began to use the tools to make holes in the walls, smash windows and overturn and tear up furniture in the recently redecorated house. “They came ready,” Alam’s family member later told ISM. The family repeatedly asked the soldiers what they were looking for and what they wanted, to which the army did not reply. “They came to destroy our house and our lives, under the pretext of looking for something.”
All belongings including food and clothes were thrown into the bathroom as the destruction continued. One soldier who was careless in the destruction of the bathroom, injured himself with the tool he brought, and so the army called an ambulance to help him while Alam’s wife had to later clean up his blood in her bathroom he smashed.
A female soldier then initiated a body search of Alam’s wife and 7-year-old daughter. Alam’s 3-month-old other daughter was also not immune from suspicion when a soldier began to attack her pushchair. Alam’s wife intervened and patted it down to show that it could have nothing hidden in it and shouted at him that he “had no heart.” Later it was found that the children’s mattresses had been ripped apart in their room decorated with Mickey Mouse.
The army eventually left after 4am, taking Alam with them. Alam works in a shop that sells parts of BMWs and had been granted a visa to visit Germany to pick up parts. He was due to pick up his visa in 2-3 days.
Not far from Alam’s shop, which showed his pride in his work and in providing for his family, to live a normal life in spite of the difficulties unleashed by the occupation, is the home of 34-year-old Mazin and his parents. At 2am more than 50 soldiers burst into Mazin’s home and started to methodically destroy his family’s belongings as they interrogated him for four hours. Mazin and his parents suffer from ill health, his mother suffering from cancer and Mazin from a heart condition since he was 20, when the army shot him with 10 bullets for which he spent 6 months in hospital before being placed in prison, the same number of years as bullets, before he even had the chance to fully recover.
Mazen’s bedroon, ransacked by Israeli soldiers (Photo by ISM)
Mazin asked the soldiers for water for himself and his mother during the interrogation. The army refused. The soldiers demanded that Mazin hand over automatic weapons, of which he said he had none.
The army then sadistically smashed the home; destroyed all furnishing; threw food from the fridge over the floor; overturned the washing machine, the oven, and even hauled out water pipes. “They’re animals,” Mazin’s father said. Soldiers threw eggs at walls and broke them on chairs. They smashed the toilet bowl and attacked the walls of every room with their tools. See video here.
At one point a soldier approached Mazin; he put his hand on Mazin’s shoulder and told him: “I don’t want to arrest you. I want to kill you. I promise you, I will kill you.” Mazin’s parents were standing beside him when their son was being threatened with murder. The family noticed three stars on the soldier’s uniform, which meant he’s a battalion commander, a high rank in the occupation army.
Destroyed kitchen (Photo by ISM)
The army left the home in ruin; they took his laptop but found no illegal weapons. Later, Mazin, a FIFA-certified football coach in Nablus, found that his football had been skewered with a knife. In spite of condemnation from human rights supporters, Israel was recently chosen to host the 2013 UEFA under-21 championship.
Mazin and his parents chose to leave the house the way it was after the destruction; they hope that ‘“The world will see what life is like for Palestinians under Israeli occupation.”
Alam’s distraught family could not do this, when the army left they immediately started to clean and repair. “We didn’t sleep,” Alam’s sister said. She joined the family to help, as did many neighbours who came to support the family, as Alam is a popular man, but also through sense of duty and community.
The day after this attack on Nablus (Israel’s fourth in this last week alone), residents wondered what else the occupation army would do to their city the following night.Nablus is in Area A (according to the Oslo Accords), which means, in theory, that Israel does not have any military or civilian control over it.
23rd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
This Saturday, June 29 marks the 9th anniversary of the Israeli assassination of Naif Abu-Sharah, former resident of Nablus and leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade until his death. But even though his death has long passed, Israeli authorities haven’t ceased collectively punishing the family he left behind.
During the early morning of Monday, June 23, the Israeli military surrounded the Hosh al-Hitan neighborhood of the Old City of Nablus and arrested Fadi Abu-Sharah, the 25-year-old son of Naif, in the same building in which they assassinated his father nine years ago. He is currently believed to be held at Huwwara Interrogation Center, south of Nablus.
This is not the first instance of punishment by the Israeli military against the Abu-Sharah family. Fadi has been arrested and imprisoned for extended periods in a number of previous instances, and his older brother, Fathi, was kept in an Israeli prison for nine years before being released a year ago. According to his family, Fathi was also given an order from Israeli authorities to appear at Huwwara Interrogation Center for questioning this week. About five years ago, Naif’s brother Ghassan was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in his home. Neither Fathi, Fadi, nor Ghassan have ever been involved in military activities. The Abu-Sharah family hopes to hear news of their son within a week.
Collective punishment is a tactic long used by the Israeli authorities against the families and communities of those who have been active in resisting the Israeli occupation. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment is deemed a war crime. Further to this, under the Oslo accords Nablus city is Area A and is thus under full Palestinian civil and security control, meaning that the Israeli authorities have once again demonstrated their complete disregard for treaties that they have signed.
12th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Burin, Occupied Palestine
UPDATE 16th June: On Wednesday 12th of June Burin’s cultural centre was invaded again by the Israeli army. They entered the village at 2am breaking into the Bilal Najjar Cultural Centre and taking documents and the centre’s official stamp. The army spent around two hours in the village also breaking into the future cultural centre that is under construction and taking photos of it. The Bilal Najjar Cultural Centre has been closed since the army invaded it on the 11th of April, damaged the building and destroyed all resources within.
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At 2am on Thursday 11 April Burin village near Nablus was invaded by over ten army jeeps, 100 soldiers and border police. The Army raided houses arresting 3 young men from the village and destroying the cultural centre used by the community.
Destruction of Burin Cultural Centre
Solidarity activists entered the village shortly after 2am and witnessed soldiers all over the village, detaining a youth and raiding several homes. They were able to enter the home of one family and stay with them as the Army pulled back at around 4:30am. The family had several small children including a baby. Soldiers entered the home, questioning one of the family members and checking the families computer. The family regularly suffer harrassment from the Army due to their community activity, with the last invasion of their home only 10 days before.
The Army appeared to be targeting members of the cultural centre in the village, which is used to organise events, teach english and is a space for local people and youth to use computers and learn. The centre was destroyed , donated computers were thrown on the floor and the doors and equipment were smashed.
Destruction of Burin cultural centre
Saed Suhail Najjar (18), Muhammad Najjar (20) and Oday Eid (21) were arrested by the Army and are currently still being held with no contact with their families or lawyers. They were all regular attendees at the Cultural Centre. Burin village is regularly invaded by the Israeli Army due to its steadfast resistance to the stealing of village land by the illegal settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha.
These illegal settlements are particularly notorious and the villages surrounding them regularly suffer settler harrassment. On Friday 12 April settlers entered the village of Urif and burnt trees, attacked farmers and damaged property. Settler harrassment has been steadily increasing across the West Bank and are supported by the Israeli Army. In 2008 the nearby village of Asira al Qibliya was subject to a rampage by armed settlers, while soldiers looked on and passed their weapons to them. Several Palestinians were shot and several more have been killed in the villages that surround the illegal settlements. Under international law all these settlements are illegal and despite this fact, Israel continues to build on Palestinian land, stealing more land from villagers who them suffer harrassment from the illegal inhabitants
19th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Qaryut, Occupied Palestine
The young Qaryut boy here has his entire right leg in a cast, expecting potential surgery (photo: ISM)
UPDATED: The 13-year-old Qaryut boy attacked by settlers on 16 May completed an operation on his lower leg and foot on Friday and has since been released to recover at home. He also provided a full account of his attack and the time he spent in an Israeli jeep untreated and tortured for information he neither had nor could speak of due to the pain from his untreated injury.
The boy said he was alone on his land near the illegal settlement of Eli when he was attacked. His friend was coming to join him when settlers began shooting at the boy. He ran, but fell from a big drop in the land, being on the mountainside. Settlers pursued him but he dragged himself on his stomach by some bushes. He was in great pain but kept quiet, afraid of settlers or soldiers finding him and continuing to attack him. After some time, his phone rang when his sister and friend called him. The soldiers then found and descended on him, threatening him with their guns while he lay, unable to move, on the ground.
Below is video of the boy’s harassment when the Israeli soldiers found him; the video is taken in the village area down the mountain from the nearest illegal Eli settlement houses, in view of the land where the boy was attacked. He said that the soldiers and settlement security official (DCI) threatened to kill him.
Video by B. Qaryoute
No one from the village could come to the boy’s aid for risk of being shot at by the soldiers. Local Red Crescent representatives said that a man from the municipality was with the soldiers and was told that the boy would be treated in an Israeli ambulance and possibly taken to an Israeli hospital. However, as the Red Crescent, the boy’s family, solidarity activists and nearby villagers waited, watching the soldiers on top of the mountain for two to three hours, the boy was untreated and tortured by Israeli army officials for information.
“They said I was trying to set fire to the land by the settlement; they said I was with three others and had a lighter and a firebomb,” the boy said. “They would twist my leg every ten minutes or so when I would not give them names [of those with whom he was accused of conspiring].” The boy said he was also beat for information.
The boy’s interrogators also told him they had pictures him, evidence against him, and that a soldier had seen him. “Why don’t you ask the soldier, then?” the boy said. Reportedly the response to this question was, “No, I want to ask you.”
Finally, the local Red Crescent brought an ambulance to the entrance of the illegal settlement where they were given the boy, untreated. The boy’s grandfather said that his grandson’s flesh near his ankle was open, his leg wobbly, and black flesh showed from the boy’s yet untreated injury. The Red Crescent immediately took the boy to the nearest hospital in Nablus: Rafedia hospital 30-45 minutes away.
The area of the boy’s attack has seen several settler attacks on the nearby houses. Most notably, settlers from Eli have several times in the past year set fire to Palestinian olive trees near the house Im Fayyiz, a woman known in the village for her long-time struggle with attacks by the nearby settlers.
Qaryut also suffers from a key road-closure of a road leading to both Nablus and Ramallah. Previous peaceful demonstrations to open the road, however, have ceased due to fear of more arrests, as 15 innocent Qaryut villagers, mostly young men, were arrested in the past 5 months for peaceful activism in taking part in the demonstrations.
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At about 2pm on 16 May, a 13 year-old boy was shot at and beaten by settlers and soldiers; he broke bones in his leg running from the shots at him and from being beaten. After falling, the boy was threatened with his life by settlers, but soldiers arrived and stopped the settlers from killing him before threatening the young boy with three guns while he lay injured and immobile on the ground.
Nablus’ Rafidia Hospital took this X-ray showing the teenager’s broken bones from his attack (photo: ISM)
Initial medical attention was not allowed during the time Israeli soldiers had taken the boy into their custody, implying that he would be treated in an Israeli ambulance. However, three hours later, the boy had to be picked up, untreated, by the Red Crescent and taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.
When solidarity activists saw the boy, his entire right leg was wrapped in a cast. Later he described that he was sitting on his land which is close to an illegal Israeli settlement bordering Qaryut and famous for attacks such as olive tree torching. Settlers shot at him and he ran from the shots. When he fell, the settlers beat him and were going to kill him, but soldiers arrived and told the settlers could not. Afterwards, the soldiers also shouted at the boy with guns pointed at him.
The boy may undergo surgery for his broken bones.
Just two days before this attack, Qaryut faced an olive tree torching attack from another nearby illegal Israeli settlement and the village has a history of well-documented settler attacks on its land. In addition, Israeli military have closed a Qaryut road to Nablus and Ramallah for Palestinian use as the road is not far from illegal Israeli settlements on Qaryut land. Currently, 15 mostly young Qaryut men have been arrested for activism in peaceful demonstrations against the key road’s closure.
