25 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
Israeli occupation forces enter the village of Nabi Saleh during the weekly demonstration. Youth hit in the head by tear gas canister.
The Friday demonstration in Nabi Saleh this week was dedicated to the memory of Lubna Hanash, 22, and Salah Amareen, 15, murdered this week by the Israeli army.
At 12:30 the demonstration marched through the village with, as usual, the children of Nabi Saleh arm in arm skipping and singing along. The Israeli army broke up the demonstration with skunk water, tear gas and excessive use of rubber coated steel bullets. A stand off ensued with the shebab defending their territory. At 13:45 the Israeli army aggressively entered the village. Around 14:00 a youth about 16 years old was hit in the head with a tear gas canister. A Palestinian Red Crescent medic rushed to treat the injury. Two other people received minor injuries.
The demonstration aims to reach their natural spring, the use of which has been denied to the village by the illegal settlement of Halamish. The people of Nabi Saleh were shocked and dismayed by the news that on Tuesday 22nd January 2013 Israeli occupation forces began work on expanding the illegal settlement. Settlers accompanied by the Israeli army arrived at dawn, tearing up the land with bulldozers and trucks to set up fifty mobile homes on land that belongs to Nabi Saleh.
For a personal account from a resident of Nabi Saleh about the theft of the village’s land, click on the following link: nabisalehsolidarity.wordpress.com
Youth approaching Israeli soldiers on the road to the natural springTear gas in the village of Nabi Saleh
Team Khalil is a group of volunteers of International Solidarity Movement based in Hebron (al Khalil)
23 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
A 22-year-old Palestinian woman was killed after being shot in the head by Israeli occupation forces in an unmarked car around 2 pm near the entrance of Al Arroub refugee camp, some eight kilometers north of Hebron. Three others were injured including Suad Jaara, 28, shot in the hand and Ahmad Yousef Abu Ghazi shot in the arm. They were taken to Al Ahli hospital in Hebron.
Lubna Hanash lived in Bethlehem and was a fourth year political science student at Al Quds university.
Witnesses talked of a civilian car with Israeli plates stopping on the main Hebron-Bethlehem road and two men wearing military fatigues got out and began shooting at a group of four Palestinians. They said that after Lubna was killed soldiers prevented an ambulance from arriving at the scene for ten minutes. Clashes followed in the Arroub camp Wednesday evening. Upon the family of the martyr’s insistence the burial took place in Betlehem on the same night.
Speaking to Maan News Agency one of the injured, Suad Jarra, said: “Lubna arrived two days ago to visit her sister, who is married to my brother. She had heard about Al Arroub College and she wanted to visit it. I accompanied her to campus and she admired the area because it’s in a charming natural landscape.” Suad continued that they decided to leave the campus: “I saw an Israeli soldier on the main road firing gunshots haphazardly, so I put my left hand on Lubna’s back, and grabbed her to try and run backward. A gunshot hit my hand, and I shouted as I ran. I thought Lubna was running behind me until I reached the security guards of Al Arroub College who took me to a clinic in the camp before an ambulance arrived and took me to hospital.” Suad concluded by describing the soldier as a “a criminal who opened fire at us and in cold blood killing Lubna and injuring me.”
Lubna’s death brings to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the past two weeks: Anwar al-Malouk, 21, was killed on 11th January in Gaza, near the barrier in Jabalya. On Saturday 12th January, Oudai Darwish from Dura near Hebron was killed in the South Hebron Hills, when trying to cross the barrier to find work in Israel. Another Palestinian, Mustafa Abu Jarad, 21, was killed on 14th January near the barrier in Beit Lahia. Sameer Awwad, 16, was fatally shot in Burdus on 15th January. On 18th January, Saleh al Amareen (Saleh Amarin), 16, from Azzeh refugee camp in Bethlehem, was critically injured by live bullet by an Israeli soldier. Saleh died in hospital of fatal injuries on the same day as Lubna was killed, 23rd January. Perpetrators of these crimes remain unpunished.
Video: Victims of Al Arrouba shooting being taken to the hospital in Hebron
23 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
On Friday January 18th at approximately 3.20 pm, fifteen year old Saleh Elamareen was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. Today Wednesday 23 January he was pronounced dead.
Salah Elamareen was outside the Lajee Refugee Centre when he was shot through the left forehead. The Centre lies some distance from the wall itself. At the time of the shooting eyewitnesses have said that protests were not happening, and that the people of Aida were simply watching the soldiers from afar. This is supported by video documentation of the incident, which shows a group of youth carrying Elamareen after he was shot.
Two of the doctors who treated Elamareen did not rule out previous rumours that he was shot with a dumdum bullet, due to the fragmentation of the bullet within his head. Another doctor has claimed it was definitely a dumdum bullet in his opinion.
Dumdum bullets expand after impact and are designed to cause maximum damage and pain. Due to the brutality of these bullets they are illegal under international law. Article 8 at the Review Conference of the Rome Statute in Kampala made the use of expanding bullets in non-international armed conflict a war crime. The Hague Convention also prohibits there use in international warfare. If the doctors are correct and a dumdum bullet was in-fact used, this would be another serious violation of international laws and standards by Israel.
The head of the department under which he was treated at the government hospital said he was hit with the bullet in the left frontal section of the head, around the eye, causing large intracranial hemorrhaging. A number of doctors who looked at the patient concluded that the bullet exploded in the brain. The CT scan shows the shrapnel inside his skull. The entry wound shows significant impact to the skull, and there is no exit wound.
Note: There are several occurrences of English transcription of the victim’s name: Saleh Elamareen (used here), Saleh al Amareen, Saleh Amareen and Saleh Amarin.
23 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Massafer Yatta, Occupied Palestine
On Monday 21st January over 100 soldiers from the Israeli army held training exercises in the firing zone 918 in Massafer Yatta, also known as South Hebron Hills. The exercises continued throughout the day on Tuesday 22nd January. The Israeli military set up tented encampments near to two Palestinian villages, Mirkez and Jinba. Live fire could be heard in the area until late on Monday evening and on Tuesday.
Israeli occupation forces erected a large tent midway between the army base camp and Jinba. Another large tent was erected in the valley between Jinba and Mirkez, also several groups of soldiers of around ten, camped near the two villages in small tents or ‘bivvi bags’. These camps, some of them less than 50 metres away, surrounded the village of Mirkez, other camps were in front of Jinba and on the hill towards Hallawi. A large military truck was parked on the road near to Mirkez and jeeps and humvees drove around the area. Soldiers constantly walked from one camp to another over the fields where crops have been planted for sheep to graze.
Residents in Mirkez complained about interference from the soldiers when taking their sheep out to graze, being told they could not bring their sheep close to the soldiers. One resident of Mirkez said soldiers had thrown stones at their sheep hitting three of them, he also complained of being a prisoner in his own village unable to move freely. Residents of Jinba expressed similar sentiments saying there were soldiers camped in front of the village and settlements behind.
On Monday afternoon international volunteers talked to an officer at the camp between Jinba and the army base. When asked what the army was doing, the officer said the soldiers were being trained in how to deal with the cold conditions and that they would be there for a week. The officer went on to say they would not enter the villages and the actions of the army were nothing to do with the Palestinians. The international volunteers said the residents were worried by how close the camps were to the villages, especially Mirkez. The officer said that they were thinking of moving one of the camps for this reason. On Tuesday, the only discernible difference was the army truck had moved from the road near Mirkez but soldiers were still camped in the same place where the truck had been.
The presence of the Israeli army holding these exercises in the firing zone 918 is causing worry and distress to the Palestinians living there, as well as disruption to daily life. On Monday afternoon around 15 people were standing in the fields by a fire in front of Jinba concerned for the village and their families. At least one person from the village did not go into work in Yatta on Tuesday in order to protect his loved ones and livestock. The people of Jinba and Mirkez are unable to access and work their lands during such exercises. The sound of live gunfire throughout the day causes anxiety and at night disturbs sleep. The gunfire lasted until after 10 pm on Monday night.
Background
The so called firing zone 918 is an area of 30000 dunams in Massafer Yatta (also known as South Hebron Hills). Declaring it a “closed military zone”, the Israeli army uses the area for the training of its soldiers. There are 12 Palestinian villages within the area and around 1000 Palestinian inhabitants. Currently eight villages are under the threat of eviction. There has been ongoing harassment of the Palestinian residents of the area.
On 16th November 1999 the Israeli military forcibly removed over 700 cave dwellers, eighty-three families, from their caves in the South Hebron Hills, because the Israeli family said they needed the area for a military firing range (designated as a closed military zone for training, or “firing zone 918”). The soldiers confiscated and put the belongings of the Palestinians into military vans. They demolished scores of caves, cave entrances, and wells. Flocks of sheep were scattered. The people and their flocks had to spend the cold winter away from their caves. The people resisted by going to the Israeli High Court. On 29th March 2000 the villages won a partial, temporary victory, when the Israeli High Court ruled that residents who had signed on to the lawsuit in the Israeli High Court could return to their cave homes and land, pending a decision of the case. Finally the High Court decided that all residents could return. (In: Arthur G. Gish: At-Tuwani Journal: Hope & Nonviolent Action in a Palestinian Village, Herald Press, 2008)
For more information on firing zone 918 see also here. Sign a petition calling for abolishing the firing zone here.
Soldiers exercising near Jinba and Mirkez villages
Soldiers near one of the villagesSoldiers near one of the villages
Team Khalil is a group of volunteers of International Solidarity Movement based in Hebron (al Khalil)
22 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khan al Luban, Occupied Palestine.
The far-right settler organisation Regavim has filed a lawsuit against Khan al-Luban, taking the Darragmah family and various other Israeli institutions and groups to the Israeli Supreme Court. They claim that their home is a historical site on Israeli state land.
Regavim, who state on their website that their vision is for a “Zionist agenda for Israel that will lead to clear Zionist policies for all of Israel’s government systems”. The image on the right is a still from one of Regavims promotional videos; it claims that all Palestinian land including the Gaza strip is Israel and that Palestinians are illegally building on it.
Hypocritically Regavim are using international law to say that the historic building in which the Darragmah family are renovating should be preserved as a historic site. Khan al-Luban is surrounded on all sides by three settlements, which under international law are illegal, notably, but not exclusively, under the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 446.
The appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court unfortunately seems to be working. Soldiers arrived once again in Khan al-Luban with documents, this time stating that all building work must stop prior to a hearing, scheduled in less than a week.
Regavim at the same time as harassing people through the courts, have also been linked to violent attacks on Palestinians; this is consistent with what is happening to the Darragmahs. In recent weeks attacks have been again on the rise, an ISM activist and Khaled Darragmah have both been threatened with guns in separate circumstances. Khaled’s friend had two of his van windows broken when parked in the driveway to the family home. The family’s dog was attacked with sticks and stones, leaving him with open wounds on his neck and legs. The property was attacked with stones which broke the outdoor security light and damaged the newly fitted front doors.
At 12:30 the demonstration marched through the village with, as usual, the children of Nabi Saleh arm in arm skipping and singing along. The Israeli army broke up the demonstration with skunk water, tear gas and excessive use of rubber coated steel bullets. A stand off ensued with the shebab defending their territory. At 13:45 the Israeli army aggressively entered the village. Around 14:00 a youth about 16 years old was hit in the head with a tear gas canister. A Palestinian Red Crescent medic rushed to treat the injury. Two other people received minor injuries.
