Category: Reports - Page 398 - International Solidarity Movement

Scrap collector injured in the North

26 February 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

As his family was hungry but running out of cooking gas, Khaled Mohammed Al-Hsunmi (37) went out to collect wood. Cooking gas in Gaza is scarce and expensive (the siege does not allow much gas to enter), so Khaled regularly goes on a hunt for wood. Burning wood is plenty near the border, so he headed in this direction. The 26 of February he was at approximately 450 meters from the fence when an Israeli sniper hit him with a dum-dum bullet. The bullet, which explodes on impact and is illegal under the Geneva Convention, scattered the bones of his right lower leg.

“I have a family of nine. My eldest son is 10 years old and my eldest daughter is 18. I used to be a farmworker, but in the past two months nobody has called me,” sighs Khaled.

He had a surgery with external fixing to solidify his bones. Probably Khaled will need another surgery after a year to transmit parts of his hip bone to the scattered leg bones.

It is not the first time that his family has been put under live fire. His 18-year old nephew, Bilal Shaban Al-Hsunmi, is one of the two people visiting him in the hospital today. Bilal was himself injured on December 11th, 2010, while working as a scrap collector 350 meters from the border. Bilal still walks around with the metal fixing on his leg. He was hit by a dum-dum bullet too and is also waiting for a transplantation surgery to fix his scattered leg bones.

Bilal explains how his two elder brothers were also shot at by the occupation forces while working, which has put the entire family without an income, because the three of them were the only ones with work.

Khalil’s second visitor’s leg is also wrapped in external metal fixing. It is Mohamed Smail Al-Khamadaw (34), Khaled’s neighbor. On November 19th he was also hit by a bullet while collecting rubble 350 meters from the border. “The only thing that kept my leg together was the skin: the bones were shattered to pieces”, says Mohamed. “Nobody else in my family has a job. May God help us find a way to survive.” When he was asked whether he has a message for the outside world, he replied without hope: “I have no message. Any message is useless: Israel will continue doing whatever it wants to do. Anything I’d say won’t make any difference.”

Today’s attack exemplifies yet again Israel’s escalating assault on workers in the border area: since the beginning of November, approximately 40 people have been injured in the buffer zone: the no-go zone as declared by Israeli military that runs along the Gazan side of the border in a swathe 300 to 500 meters wide. However, according to the United Nations, this “high risk” zone stretches up to 1500-2000 meters. The total area amounts to 35% of Gaza’s arable land. Almost nobody enters the no-go zone, so most of the cases of injured or killed people in the last period have been in the high risk area, though it is not clearly defined nor explicitly declared by the occupation forces.

West Bank Palestinians anticipate settler’s ‘Day of Rage’

Violence of settlers against Palestinians throughout the West Bank is a known issue and is often excessive, vandalizing, injuring, and sometimes lethal. One month ago, in a span of two days — the 27th and 28th of January — two young men were killed in settler attacks. One, 20-year old Oday Maher Hamza Qadous was shot dead by settlers while working on his fields in the village of Iraq Burin. The other, Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, a 17-year-old youth from Beit Ommar, was shot in the head by settlers and left brain-dead in Hebron hospital after around 100 settlers from Bat Ayn settlement descended upon the Palestinian villages of Saffa and nearby Beit Ommar.

This week, after the radical settler outpost ‘Havat Gilad’ was evicted on Monday, factions of the settler movement are calling for a ‘Day of Rage’ against Palestinian villages and people on Thursday.

The policy of ‘price-tagging’ is not a new tactic used by radical settlers. The phrase means revenging any act against them from the Israeli government by punishing Palestinians.

According to Ma’an news, Rabbi Meir Goldmintz, who teaches at a seminary on the outpost, pointed at nearby Palestinian villages and said:
“The government must understand that it doesn’t pay to destroy our homes and we are going to make them regret what happened here. We are going to pay them a visit on Thursday to do what the [Israeli] government should be doing to them and not to us.”

For the onlooker it is difficult to discriminate if the many settler attacks of the last few days have been ‘just the usual’ violence towards Palestinians, as these kind of attacks are a daily routine in many parts of the West Bank.
In the Nablus area there have been reports of cars being vandalized and molotov cocktails thrown against houses.

This week, following the Open al-Shuhada Street Demonstration, Hebron also witnessed an increase in settler harassment. On Sunday, shop-keepers near the Tel Rumeida settlement were attacked in their shop by a settler, while soldiers looked on and did not intervene. The following day settlers in the same area held a ‘prayer’ demonstration, blocking Palestinian access to the road, on behalf of the settler who they claim was attacked by the shopkeepers the previous day.

Whether or not the attacks in the last two days are connected to the ‘price-tagging’ policy of settlers against the eviction of a small illegal outpost, there should be concern for what a ‘Day of Rage’ will mean, when violence against Palestinians is already an every day issue.

We are calling on the International Community to take a stand for the rights of Palestinians to security of their lives, homes, land and work. Furthermore we are calling for for an immediate action to pressure Israel to stand full responsibility, as within International Law an occupying Power is responsible for the well being of the occupied population. This means ending the one sided protection of illegal and violent settlers in the Palestinian territories, and prosecuting at last those settlers who commit these criminal acts.

Hebron witnesses increase in settler harassment following al-Shuhada street demonstration

02 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Sunday a shop in Tel Rumeida was attacked by a middle-aged settler who smashed the shop’s window with a stick. Of the two shopkeepers inside, one was disabled in a wheelchair. The other went out and was then attacked by the settler. Soldiers from the nearby checkpoint did not aid or intervene on behalf of the shopkeeper. When ISM arrived at the site, nearly 20 soldiers were pushing away the palestinians near the shop, while allowing settlers to pass. A Palestinian teenager was arrested and brought in for questioning. He was released the same night.

On monday about 50 settlers bearing arms held a demonstration. They gathered at the same shop to pray, claiming that it was a settler who had been attacked there the day before by a Palestinian. No Palestinians were on the streets, and they warned ISMers to hide on the roof for fear of settler violence. When the procession left the street, three settlers remained under the protection of soldiers to antagonize Palestinians as they came down from there houses. At that point a soldier blocked road access for TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) and other international organizations. A settler pushed an international, and a soldier removed that international from the scene. Half an hour later the procession returned to the site for another prayer, once again blocking Palestinian access to the street. Finally, according to locals, two Palestinian men were arrested and a third was detained for two hours after making a complaint.

Village of Khirbet Tana completely demolished by Israeli military

02 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At 9 am this morning the Israeli military arrived to the village of Khirbet Tana, close to Beit Furik, south east of Nablus, with four bulldozers and army jeeps. For the sixth time this year the Israeli military demolished homes and animal shelters in the village, this time destroying the village completely. Around 250 people were made homeless and left without any shelter.

The soldiers carrying out the demolition prevented the villagers from collecting their personal belongings, and instead buried it all under dirt. Most of what could be of use for rebuilding the village was confiscated or destroyed in order to make it harder, or even impossible for the villagers to rebuild their homes.

Some of the villagers carried their belongings to the small mosque, seeking shelter there for the night, though there was not enough space for all. The only two buildings left standing were the mosque and the school. The school, however, could be described as a makeshift: it has just been built after the last demolition one week ago. The villagers believe that is just a matter of time before the army returns to destroy this school too.

Besides all the homes and animal shelters that were demolished, the Israeli army also punctured at least two water tanks, leaving as many families without drinking water. The lack of water, food, and shelter for their herds will lead to losses of animals.

During the demolition, a young man was beaten by a group of soldiers with sticks until he reached a state of unconsciousness. The family finally managed to stop the assault by throwing water at the soldiers. At 2 pm the young man that had been beaten was feeling well enough to help his family build a shelter for the animals.

Among the people made homeless today were a young mother with her small baby. When asked where the family will sleep tonight they responded with, “under this tree”.

The residents of Khirbet Tana are trying to rebuild their homes with what materials they can salvage, but are in desperate need of building materials and tents.

Background of Khirbet Tana

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, occupied Palestinan territory: “Khirbet Tana is a community of around 250 people, located in Area C,2 south-east of Nablus city, in an area declared “closed” by the Israeli military for training purposes. The residents, who have lived in the area for decades, reside in basic shelters (tents, tin structures, old caves) and rely on herding and agriculture for their livelihood.

Because residents of Khirbet Tana need grazing land for their livestock, most have no choice but to stay in the area, in order to sustain their livelihood. As such, the community has repeatedly re-built modest structures on the land, including residential tents and animal shelters. In 2008, the community, with the help of the Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, lodged a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice, requesting the preparation of an adequate planning scheme for the village that would allow the issuance of building permits. The Court rejected the appeal in January 2009, and, shortly thereafter, the community again began receiving demolition orders.

The repeated waves of demolition carried out by the Israeli authorities make it extremely difficult for Khirbet Tana residents to live in stability, sustain their livelihood, or, given the repeated demolition of the village school, educate their children. There are numerous other Palestinian communities living in a similarly precarious situation due to their location in an area declared “closed” by the Israeli authorities. “ //unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/9A55FFBA1724298B852578340057A2F0

Many injured and several detained at al-Shuhada street demonstration

26 February 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Hundreds gathered in Hebron on Friday to march against the continued closure of al-Shuhada Street. The non-violent protestors were met with tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets from the Israeli army. Witnesses also said that the army fired tear gas canisters directly at the protestors, which is illegal under international law. Organizers say 20 people were taken to hospital – around half for physical injuries, the rest to be treated for tear gas inhalation – and one Israeli, two Palestinians, and three internationals were detained. Military sources say that only one arrest was made.

One of the city’s major streets, al-Shuhada (Martyrs) Street was forced to close following the Baruch Goldstein massacre of 1994, in which a Jewish extremist murdered 29 Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahim mosque and wounded a further 125. Friday’s march was held on the anniversary of the massacre as protestors demanded that the street be reopened.

Protestors chanted slogans including “Hebron is Palestine!” and “Down with the occupation!” and waved Palestinian flags. The soldiers and border police occupied the centre of Hebron, blocking movement throughout the city and confining many in the city’s old town.

As the protestors were displaced widely throughout the city, estimates of the numbers vary widely. The Israeli military claim that only were 300 present, however the Temporary International Presence in Hebron – an international civilian observer mission mandated by the Israeli and Palestinian Authority to report on events in Hebron – estimate that 1,500 people took part in the demonstrations.

The demonstrations began from several locations throughout the city following midday prayers, and the clashes with the Israeli army continued for several hours. Palestinian Authority soldiers were also present in stopping the demonstrations.

Hebron is home to around 600 Jewish settlers, living in settlements which are regarded as illegal under international law. In 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the settlers should be evicted from the area and that al-Shuhada Street should be reopened, but no action has been taken against the settlers and the street remains closed.