30th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Thursday 29-May-2014. At approximately 11pm yesterday evening in al-Khalil (Hebron), ISM activists went to checkpoint 56 where they had been told there was an ongoing incident. Palestinian eyewitnesses gave the following account:
About an hour earlier, two Palestinians youths were detained by the Israeli army on the H2 [under full Israeli civil and security control] side of the checkpoint. They were both handcuffed and blindfolded. The army then proceeded to beat both youth violently, one of the youths suffered injuries that required medical treatment. A Palestinian ambulance was called but Palestinian medics were not allowed to attend the two youths. Instead, the youth who was seriously injured was treated by the Israeli military and then taken away under arrest.
At present, the whereabouts of the two youths, and their injuries, are unknown.
The two youths were named by one eyewitness as Mohummad Jamal, 22, and Hamud Jama, 25.
During the incident, approximately 20 Israeli soldiers were surrounding the detained youths, preventing the assembled Palestinians from photographing and videoing the incident. Israeli police were also in attendance. Later, a settler from a nearby illegal settlement present at the scene, attempted to assault one of the Palestinians who was filming the incident. He began shouting; he then got into his car and attempted to drive straight through the crowd of Palestinians, running over the foot of one of them. Neither the Israeli soldiers nor police present attempted to take any action against him.
26th May 2014 |International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Kafr ad Dik, Occupied Palestine
Early yesterday morning, at approximately 05:00, two drilling machines were at work in Daher Sobeh, at the top of a mountain in the eastern part of Kafr ad Dik, an area where there are many water springs.
Together with the machines, there were a large number of settlers from nearby illegal settlements, a tent with Israeli flags, and four military jeeps, with approximately 40 soldiers. According to several witnesses, the land grab could sum up 600 dunums (60 hectares).
When the first farmer arrived on his land at 06:00, the area had already been declared a closed military zone. When he asked why there where machines at work, and why he was not allowed to access his land, he was told that the area was closed for “security reasons”. He was later handcuffed and detained for almost two hours when he attempted to access his land.
In the following hours, other villagers arrived at the area to protest, together with international activists and Palestinian media, documenting the construction. The Israeli military reportedly stated that if they continued to take photographs, local olive trees in the area would be burnt.
The villagers remained in the area for approximately three hours, but only the mayor of Kafr ad Dik was allowed to speak with the Israeli captain. The mayor stated that the soldiers claimed to operate under a military order, but no documents were ever shown. International witnesses reported that this military zone was arbitrary, allowing some people through but stopping others.
These events followed the previous Thursday; where there was a first attempt to take over the land. Thursday, 22nd, May, in the early morning, approximately 30 Israeli soldiers and border police officers, together with a dozen settlers and one bulldozer, entered the area. The villagers started to protest, involving around one hundred people from Kafr ad Dik and other villages in the area, Israeli forces left at approximately 15:00.
The Israeli captain working with the DCO [District Coordination Office] in the area (Salfit and Qalqilya) was present on Thursday. Before leaving he stated that they would come back. When Israeli forces returned on Sunday morning, they claimed to have governmental approval and that any complaints should be taken to the court.
Furthermore on Thursday night, undercover Israeli police arrested a 34-year-old man in the town. A villager in the town stated that Israeli border police stopped a Palestinian car and took the vehicle. With this car, and without uniforms, they entered in Kafr ad Dik and stopped in front of a supermarket, taking the owner, Wafee at Turc. No further information is available.
The first attempt to build in this area began in 1992, when the construction was stopped by a court decision. After this, there were a further two occasions when settlement expansion was attempted. Currently the municipality together with the owners of the land are trying to take this land seizure to the Bet’el court. This can take two or three years, and there are no guarantees of an impartial court.
The Kafr ad Dik area is actually the table plane of water of the West Bank, although, the people of Kafr ad Dik are only allowed to use 300 cubic meters of water per day, in a town populous of about 6,000. The governing body in the town has asked for an increase in water supply, to no avail.
As suggested by many sources, this attempt is made in order to increase the size of the already large illegal settlement of Ari’el, linking it with all present and future illegal settlements in the area. Kafr ad Dik is actually surrounded by four illegal settlements (Ale Zahav, Pedu’il, Bruchin, and Lesh’ev), while the only area fully available to the village is the one between the village itself and Ben Ghassan. Of the 16,500 dunums owned initially by the village, over the 80 % is under Area C [full Israeli civil and security control]. Some Palestinians have suggested, this is just one step to a further expansion of the Annexation Wall, made in this area in order to divide the West Bank into two parts.
24th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine
On March 22nd 2013, Mohamad Walleed Qwareeq was near the local school in the northern district of the town of Awarta, located approximately 8 kilometers southeast of Nablus.
Mohamad, 22 at the time, was with a friend eating almonds, in a grassy field, when he came across a foreign object that would alter his life forever.
Mohamad opened what appeared to be a covered box which was triggered to explode. “They [the Israeli military] put them there in spring because they know all the kids play in the fields,” says Mohamad.
This box is apparently a common phenomenon in Awarta during the spring season, with two other serious incidents apparently being recorded last March.
As a result Mohamad sustained a multitude of serious injuries: charred legs with lacerations, tinnitus (constant ringing/buzzing in the ears), ageusia (loss of taste), the maiming/ loss of his right hand, a decreased sense of smell, and a loss of sight approximately described as a 70% and 60% loss in the left and right eyes respectively. He can only see one meter out of his left eye.
Mohamad was brought to a hospital in Nablus to be treated; however with insufficient supplies to perform an operation on his eyes, the medical staff suggested he apply to have the operation in Jerusalem.
After what has become the standardized modus operandi from the DCO (District Coordination Office) to refuse proper medical treatment to Palestinians, Mohamad’s request was denied. Instead he was suggested to visit Ramallah hospital and it is now too late to consider a full recovery.
Due to his tinnitus, most nights Mohamad cannot sleep from the buzzing in his ears. Mohamad has been struggling financially and has received almost no support. He is forced to pay for the vast amount of medication himself, with the only cost covered being that of the eye operation.
Mohamad doesn’t have the money to do a proper check-up on his eyes, and his family is poor. He cannot read Arabic since he was often leaving school to go work whatever jobs were available; therefore finding work now is extremely difficult. In addition, his father suffers from an intestinal illness that forced him to stop working; Mohamad has four sisters and two brothers all living in the same house.
To add to the torment, Mohamad, his brother, and a friend were walking on the main street in Awarta two months after the event, when they passed a temporary Israeli military checkpoint in the form of a military jeep. All three were detained on false grounds, with his friend and brother being interrogated for four hours, and with Mohamad remaining in custody for 18 days.
Apparently suspicious of his injuries, during his interrogation he was asked, “What happened to your hand?”
Mohamad Walleed Qwareeq suffered severe injuries in 2013 (aged 22), when an explosive device placed by the Israeli army near Awarta exploded
23rd May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Occupied Palestine
During the night of the 23rd of May, approximately at 02:00AM, the Israeli army raided several houses in the town of Kafr Qaddum and arrested two people. Ryad Mohamad Eshtewi (40) and Fadi Baseem Jomah (27), both of whom are Palestinian police officers.
Another two villagers were threatened during the same night raid. The Israeli army, numbering up to 50 soldiers, stormed into their houses, but the villagers were not there at the time. In one of the houses, according to a witness, the Israeli army left bullets underneath a bed “to send a message”. The other villager who was not at his house during the raid found a police order.
Ryad was sleeping at one of his brothers’ house when he was arrested at 02:00AM. Israeli soldiers forced Ryad back to his house, where they broke into his home and threw a stun grenade inside, searching Ryad’s property. Ryad asked the soldiers why they were being violent if he was already arrested, but no reply was given. No personal items were stolen nor any reasons given for his arrest.
On the morning of the 23rd of May, Ryad’s family received a call from an Israeli captain informing them that he was being held at the Israeli military base of Huwwara. The whereabouts of Fadi are still unknown since his family have not yet received any calls from the Israeli authorities.
According to a villager, this month there have been up to 30 arrests in Kafr Qaddum although 15 of them have been released on bails. These bails, however, could reach as much as 9,000 NIS (over 1,800 euros). Some of these arrests have already been documented, among them is also Murad Eshtewi who is the media coordinator for the weekly demonstrations in Kafr Qaddum. Murad was arrested along with another four youths from the village on the 29th of April. Three of them have recently been released but Murad and Reslan remain under custody almost one month after their arrest.
22nd May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday during the early evening, several Palestinian youths were riding bikes near checkpoint 56 in the Tel Rumeida area of Al-Khalil (Hebron). At around 7pm, one youth, 17-year-old Izz Adel Bedo, from the Jabal Al-Takruri area of Hebron was knocked off his bike and run over by a settler driving a bus on the way to the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement.
Paramedics arrived within about five minutes, leaving their ambulance parked outside the checkpoint whilst they came inside to attend to the youth. By this time, approximately 15-20 Israeli soldiers and border police had arrived on the scene and were preventing local Palestinians from filming and photographing the incident, and the bus that had run over the youth had driven away from the scene.
The youth had sustained injuries to his arm and leg, and possibly also to his neck, medics placed him in a neck brace as a precaution before attempting to move him. He was taken through the checkpoint to the awaiting ambulance and was taken away to Al-Ahli Hospital for treatment.
At around the same time that the ambulance was leaving, a group of Israeli soldiers entered through the checkpoint into the H1 (Palestinian Authority controlled) area of Hebron and threw a stun grenade in the general direction of the ambulance and some Palestinian youths who had gathered. The youths then started to throw stones in the direction of the checkpoint. Israeli soldiers then launched tear gas canisters and more stun grenades.
Back on the H2 (Israeli military controlled) side of the checkpoint, approximately five or six settlers, some of them armed, were extremely aggressive in their behaviour. One armed settler assaulted a Palestinian man who was coming through the checkpoint into H2. He then argued with the soldiers, apparently demanding that they take some sort of action against the Palestinians who had gathered. He spent a further 10 minutes doing this and generally attempting to provoke a further incident. Other settlers, including the hardline settlement leader Baruch Marzel, were verbally abusing the Palestinians and international observers present.
After a further 30 minutes, the settlers left in their cars and the soldiers also dispersed. Neither the Israeli soldiers nor border police made any attempt to locate and/or talk to the driver of the vehicle.
Settlers have used their vehicles as weapons against Palestinians many times before, as has been reported previously.
