Category: Reports

7 January 2009 – The Mattar family

7 January 2012 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

“It would be great if someone could take me to the dessert and leave me there, that way I wouldn’t have to see people”

Mahmoud Mattar (Photo: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

At around 09:30 on 7 January 2009, Israeli forces targeted the al-Taqwa Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. The mosque was 150 metres from the home of Mahmoud Mattar, who was 14 at the time. Having run to the scene of the attack, Mahmoud was present when two further strikes hit the area, killing two 15 year old boys, including one of Mahmoud’s school friends. Mahmoud was thrown unconscious and suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds. He has been left totally blind as a result.

Mahmoud tells of the changes in his life since the attack: “I used to go by myself to the sea. I was independent. Now I need someone to go with me everywhere I go. I go out maybe once every two or three months, I spend my days inside.” Mahmoud’s self awareness of his injuries means he is now afraid to go out and be amongst people. “I don’t want to go out due to the comments I get from children. Anytime I do I cover my face with my clothes and dark glasses”, says Mahmoud. “The glasses broke yesterday.”

His isolation has left him with a bleak outlook on life. “It would be great if someone could take me to the dessert and leave me there, that way I wouldn’t have to see people.”

The emotional and physical scars of 7 January 2009 have taken their toll on Mahmoud. Keeping his head lowered into his chest and pausing to catch his breath as a result of breathing problems related to transplanted bone matter in his nose, Mahmoud says he is not the young man who spoke with such optimism for the future, in spite of his injuries, three years ago. “When I was in Egypt for medical treatment and when I got back to Gaza everything was calm and people were so supportive of me. But things changed, people started fighting and it’s always noisy. The change you see is out of my hands.”

Mahmoud has been left anxious and short tempered. “I have become very nervous since the attack. If someone is kidding with me I will try to hit them with anything at hand,” says Mahmoud. His anger has resulted in problems in school, for which he was suspended for a year. “As a result of my rushed reaction to incidents there are problems between me and the teachers as well as other students.”

Mahmoud has also had to adapt to the new challenges he faces, including learning brail, which took him a year of dedicated study.  Mahmoud was in Grade 9 at the time of the attack three years ago, he is now in Grade 10.

Mahmoud’s anxiety complicates his family life with his parents and siblings as well as his school life. “Mahmoud is a good guy,” says his father Hani, “but he can be problematic, including being violent with me. But I understand, I am patient with him.” His mother Randa, 38 adds; “he can be very destructive, including taking his anger out physically on the home or his little brother.”

Speaking of the future, Mahmoud says: “before the attack I played lots of sport and I had wanted to be a PE teacher or to open a sports club. But all these hopes are destroyed. Now my only wish is to leave my formal education and focus on my religion and learn the Koran”.

Mahmoud hopes to eventually receive surgery to clear his breathing, as well as reconstructive plastic surgery, which he says has been promised to him by many charity organisations, all of whom have failed to deliver; “If I could get the surgery I would be more comfortable amongst people.”

Like any young man, he also has dreams to be married, but his parents say there is no room in the house for another young family.

Mahmoud is dismissive regarding the prospect of justice before Israeli courts. “I don’t expect the case to be successful. The Israeli’s are liars; they attack children and are careless in what they target.”

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli authorities on behalf of Mahmoud Mattar on 30 December 2009. To-date, no response has been received.

The series of narratives:

6 January 2009: Al-Dayah family
5 January 2009: Amal al-Samouni
4 January 2009: The Abdel Dayem family
3 January 2009: Motee’ and Isma’il as-Selawy
2 January 2009: Eyad al-Astal
1 January 2009: The Nasla family
31 December 2008: The Abu Areeda family
30 December 2008: The Hamdan family
29 December 2008: Balousha family
28 December 2008: The Abu Taima family
27 December 2008: The Al Ashi family

Palestinians and international solidarity activists detained 5 hours in Hebron

by Aaron

7 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Friday night, Israeli soldiers at Checkpoints 56 and Gilbert in the town of Al Khalil (Hebron) detained Palestinian and International Solidarity Movement activists for a total of five hours for unexplained reasons. The detainees, a mix of activists and community members, were held for hours out on a cold night while groups of settlers and military squads arrived to heckle, shout, curse and point their guns. The soldiers of the recently arrived Golani Brigade, one of whom, a checkpoint commander, said their reasons where because “because [he] said so.”

The detentions occurred one after another and involved activists and community members being sent back and forth between checkpoints.  Each time they thought themselves free to go they were again detained a short walk away.  In each round of detentions, the problems started with arbitrary detention of a Palestinian, after which ISM and Youth Against Settlements activist observers were asked to show passports and detained by Israeli soldiers without any pretense of justification.

Commander with international passports

The first person held, a man returning home to the Palestinian-controlled “H1” zone of Khalil, had been in military custody two and a half hours prior to the arrival of solidarity activists. According to the soldiers, this was because the man lacked identification, but they were unwilling to accept his personal information (including passport number) and did not offer any other options. The man was finally released when the soldiers’ superiors arrived and ordered him released.

Activists were stopped again a mere 300 meters away, where passports/IDs were again checked and more soldiers were called. A number of illegal settlers arrived to offer soldiers tea and treats and shout insults at ISM and Palestinian activists.  One settler returned again and again to make threats, attempted to block or take cameras, and at one point persuaded soldiers to give him the activists’ passports. When all but one of the detainees (Izzat of Youth Against Settlements) had their identification returned, the rest remained in solidarity and as a group returned to the checkpoint to demand the last activist be released.  This yielded yet another round of ID inspections and a police visit before all were finally allowed to head home.

First detention at the checkpoint

In the last two weeks since the Golani Brigade were shifted to checkpoint duty in the Israeli-administered H2 quarter of Hebron, military aggression and human rights abuses have increased, according to ISM activists and Palestinian residents of the area. While checkpoint stops and attacks on Palestinians have been historically commonplace in the divided city, Sami of Youth Against Settlements says that when the Golani Brigade is assigned  the number of human rights abuses goes up many times over.  Additionally with the Golani deployment in Hebron, military harassment of international activists has also increased, as witnessed by the repeat detentions of Friday night.

According to the Israeli news source Haaretz.com, the Golani Brigade has a ‘complex’ and special reputation for at once being particularly ‘tough,’  and routinely sent to front line combat “as a brigade that struggles with no small number of disciplinary problems and scandals, caused by bad behavior ranging from revolts against commanders to abuse of Palestinians.”

According to ISM and Youth Against Settlements activists this ‘bad behavior’ has been more than evident with the last few weeks’ upsurge in arbitrary detentions and harrasment.

 On the following morning, one of the ISM activists detained Friday night was stopped yet again, her passport taken, threatened with arrest, and surrounded at her apartment. Another ISM volunteer asked, “Why do you keep breaking international and Israeli law?”  The commander’s response, also present the night before, summed up his answer in four words: “I am the law.”

Aaron is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Kufr Qaddoum marches forward despite threats of violence

by Alex

7 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At noon on the 6th of January, 2012, a demonstration was held in the village Kufr Qaddoum, located just outside Nablus. The people gathered after the Friday-prayer and started marching along the main road that runs through the village. This road was, until the year of 2003, also the main road to Nablus, which by then only was a 10 minute drive away. This came to a short end during the second Intifada when the Israeli army decided to close the road as they considered it a safety risk to the nearby illegal settlements. The Israeli government has, since the end of the Intifada, agreed that the road is not a “safety risk” anymore and therefore gave the green-light to reopen it. The army however has so far disobeyed this decision and refuses to open the road which means that the villagers still have to take a detour of about 30 minutes, making the drive to Nablus three times longer and more expensive than before.

This denial by the army is the reason why today 150 – 200 Palestinians, accompanied by  internationals, marched in a peaceful demonstration towards the roadblock to show their dissatisfaction with the Israeli army and to reclaim their right to their road. When the demonstrators  approached the road-block they were met by about 15 armed soldiers standing on the road and approximately 5 more soldiers stationed on the hills next to the road. About 50 meters in front of the soldiers on the road they had placed barbed-wire. The soldiers spoke through a megaphone declaring that if anyone crossed the barbed-wire the demonstrators would be met by violence. Not one of the protesters crossed the line nor used any violence but simply tried to remove the barbed-wire when the soldiers began to fire teargas-canisters, forcing the protesters to run back towards the village. The protesters were then followed by a truck spraying them with “skunk-water” from a water canon as well as by soldiers attacking them with teargas and stun-grenades from the hillsides, as well as from the streets, and continued following the protesters deeper into the village. This violence continued throughout the demonstration, which lasted for about two hours. In the end the soldiers withdrew, and the Palestinians reached the road-block where they sang and cheered before they went back to the village, all the time watched by soldiers ready to take action from a hill closer to the nearby settlements.

Alex is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

6 January 2009: Al-Dayah family

6 January 2012 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

“The bodies of nine of those killed were not found, including the bodies of my wife and my children. I tried my best with the civil defense personnel to find their bodies. All we found were pieces of flesh that were unidentifiable.”

Mohammed al-Dayah (31) with his daughter Qamar (1.5) (Photo: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

On 6 January 2009, at approximately 05:45, an Israeli aircraft bombed the al-Dayah family in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. 22 people, including 12 children and a pregnant woman, were killed. Only one of the family members inside the house at the time of the attack, Amer al-Dayah (31), survived. Amer, two brothers who had not yet returned home from Morning Prayer at a nearby mosque, and two sisters who live elsewhere with their husbands and children are the only surviving members of the al-Dayah family.

Mohammed al-Dayah (31) recalls the day of the attack: “after I finished praying, I stood beside the mosque, talking to our neighbor, waiting for the sound of the airplanes and bombardments in the area to decrease. Then I heard a very powerful explosion. Shrapnel landed where I was standing. I immediately rushed home. When I reached it, I only found a pile of rubble. I began screaming and calling out for members of my family, but there was no reply. They were all under the rubble. Dead.”

Mohammed was not able to bury his wife Tezal (28), daughters Amani (6), Qamar (5), Arij (3) or his son Yousef (2). “The bodies of nine of those killed were not found, including the bodies of my wife and my children. I tried my best with the civil defense personnel to find their bodies. All we found were pieces of flesh that were unidentifiable,” he says. Tazal was 8 months pregnant with a boy when she was killed.

“At the moment I cannot imagine ever being happy again, or celebrating a happy occasion. It reminds me of the old life I used to have with my family. Before, I used to go to many parties. I always danced dabke, together with my extended family in Zeitoun. I led the dancing. Whenever we had a chance to celebrate, we would. Now I cannot bear the sound of party music, of celebrations. It makes me too sad. Whenever there is a party in the neighborhood, I have to leave the house and go somewhere else,” says Mohammed. The holidays are the most difficult time of the year for him: “during Ramadan and the Eid holidays I suffer and think of them even more than usual.”

His brother ‘Amer pushed Mohammed to remarry. “At first I didn’t want to but I was alone and I had to somehow rebuild a life,” says Mohammed.  Now Mohammed is remarried and has two daughters, Amani (4 months) and Qamar (1.5 years old), both named after his daughters who died in the attack. “I didn’t make a party when I remarried. Neither did my brothers for their weddings. We simply do not feel like celebrating anything.”

Mohammed works as an electrician with the Ministry of Health, but has had difficulties at his work since he lost his family. “I am not able to sleep at night. The night time is the most difficult part of the day for me as I cannot fall asleep. I have tried everything. Even medicine, but that only made me dizzy. So, at night I just stay up and keep myself busy; eating, taking a walk, sitting in the cemetery, going for a run. Only after sunrise I fall asleep for a few hours, exhausted. Then, how can I go to work in time? I can’t. My boss has given me 10 warnings so far but at the same time I know that he understands and has sympathy for my situation.”

The three brothers rebuilt a house on the same place as the old building. All three of them insisted to return to the same location. “It is where we grew up,” says Mohammed. “The Ministry of Works assisted us in constructing the base and first floor of the house, but the bomb left a seven meter deep hole under the building which affected the foundation and ground water. It took us 3 months to fix the water problem, before we could even start construction of a new building.” However, Mohammed still notices that there are problems with the foundation of the building. “Every time there is a bombing, I feel the house move. It wasn’t like that before. The house is not steady. The base was destroyed by the bomb.”

As Mohammed tries to rebuild a life and a future, he has no hopes that he will see those responsible for the death of his family being held accountable. “I expect nothing from Israeli Courts. They [Israel] prepare a plan and justification first and then carry out their attack. The war crimes are justified before being committed. Crimes could happen anytime again.”

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli authorities on behalf of the al-Dayah family on 18 May 2009. To-date, no response has been received.

5 January 2009: Amal al-Samouni

5 January 2012 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights

“I have constant pain in my head, eyes and ears. I have been having nose bleeds for the past three years. I can still feel the shrapnel move inside my brain”

Amal al-Samouni (11) sitting in front of her house in Zeitoun neighborhood (Photo: Palestinian Center for Human Rights)

On 4 January 2009 at around 6:00 Israeli forces surrounded the house where Amal al-Samouni (11) and 18 members of her extended family were sheltering, in Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City. Israeli soldiers ordered the owner of the house, Amal’s father Attia al-Samouni (37), to step outside with his hands up. Upon opening the door he was immediately killed by shots to the head and chest. Soldiers then started firing bullets into the house, killing Amal’s 4-year old brother Ahmad al-Samouni and injuring at least 4 other people, of whom 2 were children.

Over the following hours, soldiers ordered over 100 other members of the extended al-Samouni family into the house of Wa’el Fares Hamdi al-Samouni, Amal’s uncle. On 5 January 2009 Israeli forces directly targeted the house and its vicinity, killing 21 persons and injuring many others. Amal, who was inside, was wounded by shrapnel to the head and buried under the rubble, lying between injured, dying and deceased relatives. On 7 January ambulance personnel, who were prevented from entering the area until then, evacuated her to hospital.

Between 4-7 January 2009, 27 members of the Samouni family were killed, including 11 children and 6 women, and 35 others were injured, including Amal’s twin brother Abdallah.

Amal survived those 4 horrific days but is left with permanent injuries and trauma. “I remember my brother and father and how they were murdered in every moment,” says Amal as she thinks back on the attacks and the three days she spent buried under the rubble of her uncle’s house without food or water. Amal does not need a lot of words to express how she feels: “before, we used to live together as a happy family. Now I don’t feel happy anymore.”

Amal did not only lose her father; the family’s home was also destroyed by the army. “For one year we lived with the parents of my mother, in Gaza’s Shaja’iya neighborhood. Then we lived in a storage room for 1.5 years. It didn’t have a floor. There was just sand. Since 6 months we are living where our old house used to be. It is not even half the size of our old home. I didn’t want to return to our neighborhood because of what happened. My family didn’t want to either but we had no choice.” Like many other members of the al-Samouni family, Amal’s household now receives some help from relatives living in their neighborhood, but is still struggling to manage financially. The living conditions of Amal and her family have somewhat improved over time, although the house still lacks equipment like a refrigerator, washing machine, and a closet for the children’s clothing. Amal’s father, Attia, was a farmer. He grew vegetable crops on a rented plot, which used to provide the family income.

As the reconstruction of life and livelihoods continues in the al-Samouni neighborhood, Amal continues to struggle with her injuries. The pieces of shrapnel embedded in her brain cause her severe pains. “I have constant pain in my head, eyes and ears. I have been having nose bleeds for the past three years. I can still feel the shrapnel move inside my brain,” she says. Local doctors say it would be too dangerous to remove the pieces, but Amal cannot accept this quite yet. She has a strong wish to travel abroad to see a doctor. “I want to be sure about my situation and have another doctor look at my situation. I want to try everything possible to end my problem and pain. Other children are sometimes able to travel for fun. My wish is serious; I won’t travel for amusement but for medical treatment.”

The continuous pain has a profound impact on Amal’s mood, her relationship with her siblings, and her performance in school. “When I have a lot of pain I become nervous and angry.” Her mother Zeinat (38) adds that “she then easily becomes angry with her younger siblings and beats them. Recently she and I visited a hospital again to see how she could be helped. The doctor prescribed tramal [a sedative] but I will not allow her to take medicine like that.”

“When I am sad I go to my aunt’s house to see my cousins, or I prepare my books for school,” says Amal. “Before the war I was excellent in school. Now my scores are not so good anymore.” While speaking of her dropped scores Amal becomes very emotional. The teacher told her mother that Amal is not able to focus in class. This semester Amal failed two subjects. “I have pain in my eyes when I look at the blackboard,” Amal says, very upset. Despite her difficulties in school, Amal knows what she would like to study for: “when I am older I want to become a pediatrician and help to treat wounded people.”

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli authorities on behalf of the al-Samouni family on 8 May 2009. To-date, only an interlocutory response has been received, noting receipt of the complaint. Despite repeated requests, no further information has been received.

The series of narratives:

4 January 2009: The Abdel Dayem family
3 January 2009: Motee’ and Isma’il as-Selawy
2 January 2009: Eyad al-Astal
1 January 2009: The Nasla family
31 December 2008: The Abu Areeda family
30 December 2008: The Hamdan family
29 December 2008: Balousha family
28 December 2008: The Abu Taima family
27 December 2008: The Al Ashi family