Palestinian activists marked the third consecutive anniversary of the revival of national events to resist the occupation of the lands of Beit Dajan – east of Nablus. At noon on Friday-2-9-2023, Palestinians set off to participate in the weekly march from the village of Beit Dajan to the illegal outpost in the village to confront the occupation and settlers, and to demand the departure of the occupation and the return of confiscated lands.
Palestinian, international and Israeli activists have participated in the weekly demonstration against the occupation and in defence of the village lands that were confiscated by the Israeli occupation forces for 3 years in a row.
Palestinian activists from the National Action factions and the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) participated in the weekly demonstration to express their anger and condemnation and continue to face the occupation until the liberation of the village lands. The occupation forces suppressed the demonstrators with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets, and the Israeli occupation forces assaulted the demonstrators.
The Palestinian activist Mansour, Moayyed Shaaban (the head of the CWRC), and Nasr Jaish (the activity and coordinator of the National Action factions in Nablus
and the village of Beit Dajan) were attacked.
Medical and press crews were also attacked. Journalists Abdullah Bakhsh and Diana khwaelid were assaulted and dozens were injured by suffocation.
For three years now, the Palestinians in the village of Beit Dajan have been continuing their patriotic activities and weekly demonstrations until they regain their right to stay, liberate the village from the occupation and settlers, and regain their lands. The demonstrators were threatened to retreat and leave the area at gunpoint, but the Palestinians decided to continue and face the occupation despite everything.
An international activist from the International Solidarity Movement also suffered an injury to her foot and was treated earlier by Palestinian medical staff.
Palestinian, international and Israeli activists raised the Palestinian flag to emphasize the right to survival and the Palestinian presence in the village, the area and the confiscated lands.
The Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum is located 13 kilometres west of Nablus and has a population of roughly 4300 citizens. Eleven thousand dunams of the village’s land (roughly 52% of the total area) are part of area C, under full control of the Israeli Occupation Forces. Saqerobeed, the former mayor of the village told ISM that, for the residents of Kafr Qaddum, this means being banned from accessing the land where their olive trees are planted. Olives are the main source of employment for the locals.
Saqerobeed, who served as the mayor of the city for six years, told us:
The army gives us permission to reach this land only twice a year; one week during olive harvest season and two other days during the year to take care of the land, which is not enough”. He also explained how settlers often go to these Palestinian lands and destroy the olive trees or impede the harvesting of these.
Other than being denied access to their land, Palestinians in Kafr Qaddum have been banned from using the main road of the village since 2003, one which easily connects it to Nablus. This is because of the presence of a settlement, which was built by the extreme right-wing Zionist group Gush Emunim in 1975 and has been enlarging ever since.
Reaching Nablus used to take only 15 minutes by car, but the trip now takes at least 40 minutes due to this permanent roadblock.
Soldiers shoot at demonstrators in Kafr Qaddum
After bringing this issue to an Israeli court multiple times throughout the years with no result, the citizens of Kafr Qaddum began organising weekly demonstrations in 2011, taking place every Friday.
For the past 12 years, the Israeli Occupation Forces have violently repressed these protests by shooting tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and live ammunition. On the 12th of August, a 15-year-old boy lost an eye after being shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. A week after, seven more Palestinians were hit with the same ammunition, one of which led to hospitalisation. The number of people suffering from suffocation due to tear gas reaches the dozens every week, and this includes many children.
During the demonstration of the 1st of September, for instance, the IOF arrived to shoot tear gas canisters outside of a shop where people were sitting while drinking coffee, forcing them to run away immediately. Moreover, 175 people have been arrested for attending these demonstrations, leading the villagers to pay more than half a million shekels of bail-out money over the years. It is also routine for the IOF to place one or two snipers in an abandoned building adjacent to the site of the demonstration.
Demonstrators in Kafr Qaddum
Four attempts at negotiations with the IOF have taken place, the last one in 2014. The community offered to halt the weekly demonstrations if the road was re-opened. During his time as mayor, Saqerobeed participated in these and recounted how, during the last negotiations, they had come close to reaching the goal of re-opening the street. Even though an agreement had been made and the demonstrations were due to be halted, the IOF still refused to open the road.
When asked about the steadfastness with which the villagers attend this demonstration, the ex-mayor said:
We believe in this form of protesting because there is no one helping us from outside. If we ask for help to NGOs and human rights organisations, or other countries, no one will do anything so we do it alone. We will continue even if we lose people to jail, we all pay the price of this, because the alternative is to accept the way things are right now, which is impossible for us.
Residents of Tulkarm – and in particular the Nur Shams refugee camp – woke up to a sad morning on Tuesday 5th of September.
Destroyed buildings in Nur Shams
Dozens of military vehicles, troop carriers, and three Caterpillar D9 military bulldozers accompanied by an Israeli police vehicle stormed the Nur Shams refugee camp – east of Tulkarem City at 3:00 AM.
According to residents of the camp, power lines, water pipes and communication lines were cut off from the first hours of the invasion. The attack continued for almost four hours.
There were also violent clashes between Palestinian resistance fighters in the camp and the Israeli occupation forces that lasted for almost four continuous hours.
Confrontations also broke on most of the main roads leading to the camp. Palestinian youths confronted the occupation forces and military vehicles, and the Israeli occupation forces fired live bullets directly and indiscriminately. Stun grenades and gas were fired at the Palestinian demonstrators.
The Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed five shops, three inside and two outside the camp.
Dozens of Palestinian houses and dozens of cars were damaged inside the camp, and the windows of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque, the main and largest mosque in the camp, were shot at.
Destruction in Nur Shams
The main street leading to the camp and the main streets of the city were completely destroyed.
Ayed Abu Harb, 21, the eldest of his brothers, and a resident of the camp, was shot in the head while on one of the roofs of the camp’s houses. He was martyred.
Iyad Mustafa Abu al-Rab was shot directly in the head and wounded. Iyad is 37 years old, married and the father of two children. Eyewitnesses said that he was not doing anything, he had witnessed the invasion that took place in the camp and was standing and watching, but the Israeli occupation does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Iyad Abu al-Rab is now lying wounded in Ibn Sina Hospital in the Jenin city for treatment.
The Israeli occupation forces also prevented medical personnel from reaching the camp to treat and transport the injured, and the medical relief staff and ambulance crews were attacked when they were outside the camp.
The residents of Nur Shams refugee camp, children, women and men, lived in a state of terror that lasted for four continuous hours. The sounds of bullets and explosions continued until the Israeli occupation withdrew from the camp at approximately 7:15 AM.
Palestinian and international activists and officials condemned what happened and what the occupation did in Nur Shams camp. They blamed the Israeli occupation and said that it was the occupation that started the attack against civilians in the camp.
Funeral of Ayed Abu HarbMourning in Nur Shams
The people of the camp mourned the young martyr Ayed Abu Harb, and took him to his final resting place. His family took a last farewell look at him. Meanwhile, the occupation forces continue to kill
Palestinians, and the occupation does not differentiate between anyone.
The people of the camp expressed their anger and steadfastness in the face of the occupation despite everything they are subjected. One resident said: “We continue to resist the unjust and deadly occupation. Our weapons are a legitimate right to defend ourselves, our homes and our land.”
When I arrived in Jenin, on Tuesday July 4th, the city was a battlefield, the streets were destroyed and burnt, tear gas canisters and bullets lay on the ground, the air was filled with smoke, the sound of live bullets, the screams of young men. The residents were in a state of high alert.
The day before, Monday the 3rd of July, residents were awakened by the sound of the explosion aerial bombardment by drones and Energa anti-tank rifle grenades. More than 2,000 soldiers and about 450 military vehicles invaded the city.
Ashraf Al-Saadi, a resident of the camp told me: “We are civilians. We did not go to the Israeli military sites. The occupation came to us. What did we do!? How do we deserve this?”
Jenin Refugee Camp was destroyed once before in 2002. In 2023 alone, there have been three massacres: In the first the occupation forces killed 12 martyrs, in the second the occupation forces killed 8 martyrs, and in the last most recent massacre the occupation forces killed another 12 martyrs, including 3 high school students.
As I watched the occupation forces turn the streets of Jenin upside down and transform them into a burning battlefield dominated by smoke and blackness, I asked myself: “Will Jenin be able to rebuild and light up again?”.
Ashraf Al-Saadi, told me that since the first hours of the operation, while ambulance teams struggled to reach the besieged houses and the injured inside the camp’s lanes Israeli snipers were deployed heavily on tall buildings on the outskirts of the camp, including in his own home. As we entered Ashraf’s house he explained: “The occupation forces broke into my house, which is part of a building consisting of four floors. We are four families, one living on each floor. The occupation forces detained us all, four families in one room, and seized the rest of the house and used it to monitor the movements inside the camp and to deploy snipers in the house. They damaged the house, broke and vandalized furniture, and stole some money.”
On the second day of the incursion, the Israeli occupation forces closed the entrances to the city, especially the main road of the camp, with jeeps and armored vehicles. This left the camp residents without water or electricity for more than 30 hours. Many families were forced to leave the camp. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN 3,500 people were internally displaced during the operation.
A mother cat tries to protect her kittens in the ruins of Jenin camp. Photos by D.N.
I went to Jenin government hospital. In my mind I can still hear the heavy sound of bullets fired by the Israeli occupation forces at unarmed civilians in the vicinity of the hospital, which is only 70 meters away from the camp. Everyone was a target, including the medical teams who were trying to reach the injured and the press teams that were documenting the events the occupation forces were targeting everyone, they did not differentiate.
The destruction caused by the occupation to the houses and infrastructure in the camp includes: 4 buildings completely destroyed, 25 residential buildings partially damaged, and roughly 250 damaged residential units. The number of commercial and service buildings damaged reached around 150 and a mosque was partially destroyed. The Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed the infrastructure, roads, and streets: electricity and water were cut off, and sewage pipes were destroyed.
Women walking by the damaged mousqe in Jenin camp. Photo by D.N,
Turkmen, another camp resident, lives with his family on the ground floor of a building, his brother’s family live on the second floor. In the early hours of the military aggression on Jenin camp his home and his brother’s home were bombed from the air. Both homes were completely burnt. In the burning house, new furniture bought by Turkmen’s eldest son, who was preparing for his wedding next Friday, was charred. ”I was preparing to take my son’s furniture to his new home, but the invasion surprised us and we couldn’t move anything, even our clothes were completely burned.”
UNRWA, The International Relief Agency for Palestine refugees, provided food parcels and medicines to help the camp’s residents.
The camp residents told me that despite being afraid, hungry, thirsty and unsafe they will not surrender to the aggression of the occupation.
But we are left asking: who will condemn the Israeli occupation for its crimes against the Palestinian people in general, and against the Jenin camp in particular?
Today, the people of the village of Nabi Saleh bid farewell to the slain infant Muhammad Tamimi, who tragically died after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.
Slain infant Mohammad Tamimi’s funeral Photo by Diana Khwaelid
The villagers of Nabi Saleh welcomed the child with flowers as they paid their respects. His mother, brother, sister, and father shared a final farewell look with baby Muhammad, and his mother embraced him, kissing him for the last time. “I want justice for my son, and for every person who shot at my husband and son to be held accountable,” she said.
The mother of salin infant Mohammed Tamimi Kisses her son for the last time Photo by Diana Khwaelid
According to the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, two-and-a-half-year-old Mohammed is the 150th Palestinian killed by Israel since the beginning of 2023. Documentation collected by Defense for Children International Palestine shows that 27 Palestinian children have been killed this year.
The brother of Maohhamed Tamimi Kissing his brother for the last time, Picture by Diana Khwaelid
During the funeral, confrontations broke out between the village youth and the occupying military that surrounded the village. Later that afternoon, while mourners were gathered at the grandparents’ home, the occupation forces invaded the village for the third time since Mohammad was shot, beating and shooting villagers, injuring six people.
The video below was taken by Neriman tamimi before she was beaten and injured by Israeli soldiers invading her village after leathaly wounding toddler Mohammad tamimi
Among the injured is Maher Tamimi, whose brother Qusai was tragically shot dead by the occupation forces last September. Maher sustained a gunshot wound in the pelvis, with the bullet entering his intestines. Renowned human rights defender Neriman Tamimi was targeted by a soldier, who struck her in the face with a rifle, and another mourner was hit in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet.
Reknown human rights defender Neriman Tamimi hospitilized after being hit in the face with a rifle by an Israeli soilder
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP, stated: “Unlawful killings of Palestinian children have become the norm as Israeli forces become increasingly empowered to use intentional lethal force in situations that are not justified. This is a war crime with no consequences.”
In response to Mohammed Tamimi’s killing, South African MO Nkosi ZMD Mandela, the grandson of the late Nelson Mandela, released a statement demanding accountability. He stated, “We are appalled by this level of inhumanity and the ongoing crimes against humanity, and we call for immediate charges to be brought by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu.”
