Category: Reports - Page 11 - International Solidarity Movement

Palestinian Family at Um Darit Harassed and Isolated

Acts of harassment and terror are a daily fact of life for residents of Masafer Yatta, a collection of rural hamlets at the southern end of the West Bank. One example is Mohammed Abed’s family in Um Darit, where they are surrounded by a rapidly expanding network of illegal settlements.

After the Israeli escalation in October, they have been driven from their home by armed vigilantes and returned to find it largely destroyed. They have had sheep stolen, a vehicle burnt, a washing machine, water lines, and access panel destroyed, sewage system ruined, windows broken, their house turned upside down, and a Qur’an burned. Male members of the family have been imprisoned and beaten, and repeated incursions and acts of vandalism and terrorism are the norm.

Other acts of violence are more subtle: cars, shepherds, joggers, horseback riders, soldiers and armed settlers regularly traverse the closest roads and hills surrounding the house. As elsewhere, the closest settlements of Avigayil and newly established outposts establish themselves in high places and forbid Palestinians from setting foot in the hills and valleys leading to them (or other arbitrary boundaries). As a result, the majority of the family’s land is stolen, for the exclusive use of the State and the settlers.

Settler shepherd grazing on Abed's land — Settler shepherd grazing on Abed’s land

For example, this week a young settler on horseback came off the road attempting to parade through Abed’s yard, garden, and flock, startling the sheep. Solidarity activists on premises asked him what he was doing there and asked that he leave. The belligerent youth aggressively and repeatedly pushed his horse, attempting to force his way past the activists. After 5+ attempts, another settler arrived with a long gun, and menaced the family and activists. Abed states he recognizes the armed settler as one of those that wrecked his home. This settler has also been involved with many other acts of harassment against Palestinians and solidarity activists. After the family spoke loudly about calling the police, two of the three settlers left and a third stayed to graze his flock of sheep on the family’s plants. In following days, this shepherd returned daily, apparently preferring to graze his animals on Abed’s land and in the valley between Palestinians villages over the closer lush valley reserved for only settler use.

Settler on horseback in Abed's yard — Settler on horseback in Abed’s yard

Armed settler guards settler on horseback in Abed's land — Armed settler guards settler on horseback in Abed’s land

These daily incursions affirm what Indigenous activists of Turtle Island (so called Americas) have said for years: colonization is a process, not an event. It appears in the everyday disrespect for Palestinians’ safety, life, land and religion, the increasing isolation of Um Darit from other Palestinians’ villages, daily military and settler harassment, the bright flood lights from the settlement shining into the village. These constant assaults and affronts aim to displace and wear down the spirit of Abed’s family and others like them.

And yet they continue, spending time as family, coloring together, raising cabbage and animals, extending amazing generosity to others, harvesting thyme and other herbs, and remaining steadfast in their commitment to resist through existence.

Occupation Forces Targeted Series of Strikes Kills 7 Aid Workers in Gaza

02 April 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Deir al Balah, Gaza

Following the offloading of a desperately needed 100+ tons of humanitarian aid into a Deir al Balah aid storage warehouse, a seven-person, three-vehicle World Central Kitchen convoy was traveling a deconflicted coastal road when the first Israeli army targeted strike hit one of their vehicles. As the surviving injured desperately scrambled into the two other vehicles in the convoy, occupation forces fired again, and again until each of the three clearly marked aid transports were destroyed and all seven foreign aid workers dead.

A Vehicle in the WCK Convoy attacked by IOF. Photo Source: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

News began flashing across global media as World Central Kitchen confirmed the occupation forces’ precision attack on their volunteer aid workers of which included foreign nationals of the U.K.,Poland, Australia, a Canadian/American dual-citizen, as well as their Palestinian driver; 26 year old Seif Issam Abu Taha. They had been coordinating all movements on the ground with Israeli occupation forces, including the movement of their convoy from Deir al Balah which was almost immediately pursued and horrifically attacked again and again by the IOF to ensure the destruction in-totality of all life inside the three vehicles.

World Central Kitchen statement confirming the murder of aid volunteers

In a statement on its massacre of the aid workers’ convoy which was unarmed, emblazoned with the World Central Kitchen logo on all sides and on the top of their vehicle and posing no threat who had communicated this movement with the IOF, Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the “tragic mistake” which killed “innocent people” and stated that “such things happen in war.” The killings of clearly marked humanitarian aid workers has been a routine strategy of the IOF who has, to date, murdered 196 volunteers doing critical aid work on the ground in Gaza as genocide, famine and ethnic cleansing across the strip move unabated across the threshold into its seventh month.

The passports of the murdered WCK aid workers. Photo Source: Associated Press

World Central Kitchen, who had been serving over 10,000 life-sustaining meals in Gaza daily, have now ceased all operations in the area as occupation forces continue the daily murder of unarmed Palestinian civilians, journalists, medical staff and aid workers. A large portion of the humanitarian supplies shipment WCK volunteers were preparing to receive through established maritime aid channels is now headed back to Cyprus from where it shipped and was due to be supplied to Palestinians who are currently, and purposefully, being starved to death by Israeli forces.

Illegal Israeli Settlers Continue Attacks on Shepherds in Masafer Yatta

23 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta

March 21. @ISM

On March 20 and 21, Palestinian shepherds from the village of Umm Fagarah in Masafer Yatta faced violent attacks and incursions onto their grazing lands by illegal Israeli settlers.

On the 20th March an armed settler, from the illegal outpost Jebel Dov, moved up the Sarura Valley where they intimidated Palestinian shepherds pushing them out of the valley. The settler called nearby settler/soldiers who arrived and backed the settler, forcing the shepherds to leave and threatened to detain internationals present. Police arrived at the request of the Palestinians, recorded identification and left, with no justice for the shepherds.

Armed settler approaching a shepherd on March 20. @ISM

At 9am on March 21, shepherds from Umm Fagarah, moved their flocks onto the hills directly to the south of the village. At 10am, two armed settlers ran down the hill from the nearby illegal settlement of Avigayil, located several hundred metres over the hill to the West. The settlers aggressively pushed the shepherds and their flock several hundred metres down the hill forcing them back to their village. At 10.30 two IOF soldiers arrived, also telling the shepherds to go back into the village.

The loss of grazing pasture through land theft and violent settler attacks has greatly affected one of the remaining sources of income for rural Palestinian villages. These attacks have been ongoing for decades, but are rapidly increasing in frequency and violence.

Illegal settlers coming down the hill on March 21. @ISM

Settlers chasing away Palestinian shepherd and his sheep. @ISM

Settlers and soldiers walking away together. @ISM

Second Friday of Ramadan at Qalandia Checkpoint

22 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Qalandia checkpoint

Women performing mid-day prayers outside Qalandia checkpoint. @ISM

Palestinians perform Friday mid-day prayer outside of Qalandia checkpoint this morning while held at gunpoint by Israeli occupation soldiers, after being forcefully denied their right to enter Al-Quds to pray at Al-Aqsa.

People trying to enter were again met with an intensified militarisation of Qalandia checkpoint of heavily armed occupation border police, some of them masked, and vehicles.

Israeli occupation forces at the checkpoint. @ISM

While the Occupation Force officially has announced that men above 55 years, women above 50 years and children below 10 years from the West Bank are allowed to enter, today numerous people in the applicable age group were denied entry by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) claiming that “too many” had entered.

Close to 12 noon, IOF completely shut the checkpoint entrance.

In resistance, and under surveillance and held at gun point by IOF border police, denied women gathered in front of the closed gate to perform the midday Friday prayer, joined by a group of men.

One of the women stated: “We will pray here, what else can we do? Allah will understand that this is the closest we can get to Al-Aqsa”.

She had come from Al-Khalil with a permission to enter, but was denied entry at two attempts, and so was her 66 year old father; IOF told both that “too many” had entered.

Another 60-year old man who had been denied was told that now he had to apply online a week prior.

As the women were praying, a masked IOF border police officer shouted to disturb the prayers, while another masked officer made dance moves towards the prayers. During the IOFs surveillance of people trying to enter, a border police officer was observed removing the safe on their gun.

A large amount of Palestinian medics were present wearing fluorescent vest saying: “Don’t shoot me, I’m not a target. I am a health care provider”.

IOF dancing and disturbing prayers. @ISM

IOF closing Qalandia checkpoint. @ISM

IOF soldier removing safe from gun. @ISM

Deceptively “quiet” first week of Ramadan in Jerusalem: a result of restrictions at Qalandia checkpoint

19 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank/East Jerusalem

Stories from Israeli and international press extoll a safe and unencumbered celebration of the first week of Ramadan for the thousands of Palestinians with Israeli or Jerusalem ID cards, who were allowed entry to Al-Aqsa in most cases with minimal delay.

Unfortunately, Palestinian Muslim prayergoers from the West Bank encountered conditions very different from the story distributed by the press.

Instead of open access, the vast majority of Muslim Palestinians were denied entry to Jerusalem at a heavily militarized Qalandia checkpoint—the largest, most-trafficked access point out from the West Bank. This resulted in a chaotic scene of delay, frustration, and service taxis offering early long-distance rides home to Palestinians who traveled from far away for prayer, only to be immediately rejected at the gate.

After much debate in the executive branch of Israeli government, it was recently announced that only Muslim men over 55, women over 50, and children under 10 would be granted passage through Qalandia. These parameters exclude more than 90% the West Bank population—and, of course, all of Gaza. For comparison, the Ramadan 2023 restrictions on passage from West Bank permitted all men over 45, and all women.

But the constraints and confusion did not stop here; even among those who met the age requirements, West Bank residents could not enter through Qalandia unless they had been previously approved for a special entry ID.

Regarding his exclusion under the entry ID restriction, a Palestinian man in his early 60s shared: “They told me I needed a special permit. But no one here knows they need this permit. And even when you apply, they use any reason to deny you.” Absence of this “entry permit” was used as an excuse to turn away thousands of prayergoers on the first Friday of Ramadan. Another man denied entry (he was twenty days shy of 55) added that those standing outside Qalandia represented only a small fraction of those rejected, because “mostly everyone don’t bother to try. With the [Gaza] war, people don’t feel like celebrating. They don’t think they will be let in.”

For many Palestinian Muslims, praying at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered a special religious responsibility.

A group of women who had been banned from meeting this responsibility staged a protest Friday morning outside Qalandia. Together, standing meters away from heavily armed IOF soldiers, these women gathered and chanted—in the shadow of the wall, 10 kilometers from Al-Aqsa, as close to the Dome of the Rock as Israeli authorities would permit them to stand.

Photos and videos @ISM.