Category: Reports - Page 29 - International Solidarity Movement

Resisting the expulsions in Wadi Siq

Wadi Siq is a Bedouin community East of Ramallah, under threat of forced displacement.

Some families have already been chased away. The combined pressure from the Occupation authorities and the fanatical settlers has been increasing dramatically in recent months. Four nearby communities – Ein Samiya, Al-Qabun, Ras al-Tin and a community close to Taybeh Junction – have been forced to evacuate since 2019. Settler violence is on the increase, and the communities off Wadi Siq and Ein Rashash are facing an existential threat.

Even where families are still in their living spaces, there are ruined buildings that the frequency of settler attacks has discouraged people from rebuilding. The small primary school is now bearing the brunt of the attacks. It is under threat of demolition and it is unlikely that the plaques proclaiming the EU’s pious policy of opposition to forced transfer will offer much protection. When we spoke to the Headmistress, her fear of demolition was far less than her terror of settler violence. An outpost has been set up opposite the school gate, only a couple of hundred meters away. The young hooligans who live there use their vehicles to harass children and teachers on a daily basis, blocking the road and provoking minor collisions whenever the children’s school bus or the teachers minibus enter or exit the school.

The constant feeling of insecurity has forced many children to abandon their education. Numbers have declined from 120 students to 65, since the erection of the settlers tents last year.

A day before we were there, a settler had pointed his gun through the window of a classroom, terrifying children and teachers. They break and steal when possible: the school is equipped with impressive solar panels, but the batteries have been stolen, meaning that the classrooms have no digital technology any more, and the lack of air conditioning makes it difficult to work and study under the tin roofs.

Currently, different activists and organisations are working together to set up a protective presence and to raise awareness in the hope of preventing another episode of ethnic cleansing.

Watch: Israeli soldiers harass Palestinian teenager and try to intimidate internationalists in Masafer Yatta

On August 10th, three israeli soldiers harassed Abud Huraini, a palestinian teenager from the village At-Tuwani, in the region of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, while he was brining out his flock of goats to graze.

The three soldiers arrived by jeep from the illegal israeli settlement of Ma’on, which is located just few houndred meters away from At-Tuwani, and tormented Abud, asking him to leave the road from which he was tending to his flock. However, the three soldiers were confronted by a large group of Palestinian men and women accompanied by internationalist activists, including three ISMers, who filmed the soldiers and interposed themselves between them and Abud.

Just a few hours earlier Hamoudi, Abud’s older brother and an activist of the palestinian group Youth of Sumud, had been arrested arbitrarily by israeli soldiers as he was driving his car to return home in At-Tuwani. Hamoudi would be released a midnight without charges from the police station of Qiryat Arbaa’, after being blindfolded and physically abused by the soldiers who kidnapped him.

The three israeli soldiers, who had gotten nervous due to the determination of the group, asked for orders on the radio and thus tried to intimidate the internationalist activists present by filming them with phones and by trying to take pictures of their IDs. The soldiers also lied by insisting that the internationals were legally obligated to hand over their passports and allow them to take pictures.

Having this last intimidation tactic failed, the soldiers had no choice but to wait for Abud to finish herding the flock.

A palestinian told us that the three soldiers were likely new in Masafer Yatta: “They have rotations. These ones [the three soldiers] clearly don’t know the area, they don’t know what’s happening here. They probably just received a call from a settler who told them to go and bother [Abud]”.

Last year, on the very same place where Abud was harassed by the soldiers, Abud’s father Hafez, a human rights defender, was brutally attacked by five settlers. That time, the settlers broke both of Hafez’s arms with metal pipes. When Hafez’s family rushed to the scene, one of the settlers began shooting into the air with an assault rifle. Sami, Hafez’s oldest son and an activist, recounted that when soldiers arrived, they started pushing the Palestinians away from Hafez, who was lying on the ground.

“The settlers were giving orders to the soldiers. They told them that my father had attacked them and ordered the soldiers to arrest him” said Sami

When an ambulance of the Red Crescent arrived to the scene, the soldiers blocked the entrance of the vehicle to prevent medics from transporting Hafez to the hospital, while a settler pierced the tyres of the ambulance with a knife.

Eventually, Hafez was arrested and charged with attacking the settlers.

Palestinians accused of a crime are not tried in civilian courts, but rather in military courts, which according to Amnesty lnternational “systematically fail to meet international standards of fair trial, and where the vast majority of cases end in conviction”. Hafez would probably have spent the rest of his life in prison, had it not been for the videos recorded by Palestinian and internationalist activists on the scene, which clearly showed that he had been the victim of the attack. The charges were dropped, and after recovering Hafez was able to go home to his family.

Destruction after destruction in Nur Shams camp

Photos and text by Diana Khwaelid for ISM

20 days after the storming and the recent massacre in Nur Shams refugee camp (in Tulkarem), the Israeli occupation launched a military campaign into the camp again. On the night of Saturday, 24-9-2023, at 12:00 AM, dozens of Israeli military vehicles, two bulldozers and two D9-type military bulldozers stormed the Nur Shams refugee camp.

The Israeli occupying forces have launched large-scale military campaigns against Nur Shams camp in the past few weeks. The camp’s infrastructure had been almost rebuilt and restored after the last invasion 20 days ago. After Saturday, however, the Israeli occupation forces once again destroyed the electricity and water systems, as well as the roads and the communication network.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured in this large military operation, and medical teams were prevented from entering the camp to aid the injured and transfer them to the hospital. Two of the injured people died. The young martyr Abdul Rahman Abu Daghesh from Nur Shams camp and the martyr As Abu Ali, 21, who was shot with a live bullet in the head.

Moreover, Israeli snipers were deployed on the rooftops of Palestinian homes in the camp. Strong clashes took place between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli occupation forces. The clashes lasted until the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the camp, after almost five continuous hours. The occupation forces used anti-armour munitions to bomb a Palestinian house. The house belonged to the martyr Sanad Ghoneim, killed in 2001. Palestinian militants were allegedly hiding inside it.

A comprehensive commercial strike and day of mourning mourning were declared in the city of Tulkaram and its villages because of the massacre suffered by the Nur Shams camp. Hundreds of Palestinians in the city, camps, and villages participated in the funeral of the two Palestinian martyrs. There is a state of anger, tension, and fear in Nur al-Shams of the occupation forces storming the camp again and killing Palestinian youth. The people of the camp are still steadfast despite all the violent and criminal occupation practices against them and the camp.

Funeral of a Martyr after the attack on Nur al Shams

Six Palestinian martyrs in less than 24 hours

Six Palestinian martyrs in one day - 19 Septemeber 2023 — Six Palestinian martyrs in one day – 19 Septemeber 2023

Jenin – 20-9-2023

By Diana Khwaelid

An Israeli Special Force unit stormed the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank on Tuesday evening, 19-9-2023, around 20:30 to besiege a Palestinian house. Palestinian fighters were inside the house, which belongs to the Abu Al-Baha family.

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles stormed the camp, and Palestinian fighters confronted the Israeli occupation forces in the attempt to defend the camp and its residents. The Israeli occupation forces damaged one of the houses in the camp, a civilian car belonging to one of the camp residents, and the pylon which distributes electricity in the camp. The electricity in the camp was cut off from the first minutes of the invasion, as the Israeli occupation forces blew up the electricity transformer in the camp. The invasion lasted almost three and a half hours continuously.

After that, fear and tension reigned throughout the camp and its inhabitants, women and children had their share of this situation. Medical staff and journalists were also targeted while inside the camp. Medical personnel were prevented from reaching and assisting the injured.

Four Palestinian martyrs were killed in this military operation, two died upon arrival at Avicenna hospital and two died later because of serious injuries. The martyr Mahmoud al-Arrawi was 24 years old, the martyr Mahmoud al-Saadi was 23 years old and the martyr Tamo SA was 29 years old from the town of Qabatiya, one of the neighbouring Jenin villages. The youngest of them is the young martyr Arafat Omar Khamaisa, 22 years old. At least 30 people inside the camp were injured by live ammunition. They were taken to the hospital for treatment.

In Gaza, Palestinian crowds mourned the body of the young martyr Yousef Salem Radwan, 25, from the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, who was shot by the Israeli occupation forces after clashes broke out between young men and the occupation forces on the border with the Gaza Strip.

The sixth martyr, 19 year old Dergham Al-Akhras from Aqabat Jabr camp in Jericho was shot dead while he and some young men were in the camp while the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Aqabat Jabr camp this morning. Palestinian crowds in a state of anger and vigilance called and grieved the six Palestinian young men in Jenin, Gaza, and Jericho. These killings have raised the number of martyrs since the beginning of 2023 to 250 in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

Palestinians in Qaryut reassert their right to visit their spring, despite IOF violence

On Friday 15th of September the people of Qaryut – a village between Nablus and Ramallah – held a demonstration reasserting their rights over the village spring.

The village is close to the illegal settlements of Eli and Shilo, and every Friday settlers come to wash in the spring. This is a clear act of provocation, aimed at staking a claim on even more of the surrounding land.

There are often clashes between village youth and the settlers at the spring, and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) protecting them. This week, however, the community had called on other communities to join them in reasserting their rights to the spring. The protest was also over the closure of the main road into the village by the occupation forces. The demonstration began after Friday prayers and marched down from the village toward the spring.

The IOF blocked the road, firing tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets. One man was shot in the face and injured with a rubber coated bullet. Several people were treated by the Red Crescent medical services after inhaling gas.

Settlers could be seen on the hillside watching the army’s repression of the demonstration

The photo above shows the moment a tear gas canister was fired through the window of a building in Qaryut, you can see the gas billowing from inside.

The whole village of Qaryut was flooded with gas fired by the IOF. Canisters rained down onto residents – threatening to cause serious injury

Demonstrators persisted – however – and were eventually able to march to the spring. This video shows them dancing in celebration.

Palestinians from many communities in the West Bank had come to support the people of Qaryut in their demonstration.