IOF human rights violations in Nablus

by IWPS, March 2nd

Soldiers Raid Student Dormitory in Nablus

March 1, 2007, 4:15-10:30am

At 4:15am on Thursday, March 1, 2007, Israeli jeeps and bulldozers surrounded a student dormitory for Al-Najaa University in Nablus, threw sound bombs, and announced over loud-speakers that everyone should leave the building immediately or the Army would bomb it. According to a couple who own several of the apartments and live in the building with their family, residents hurriedly ran out to the street, where soldiers separated the men from the women and children. Several women were told to return to the building to check if anyone was left inside. They returned to confirm that the building was empty, and were taken with the rest of the women and children (about 30 total) to a small room in a nearby building, where they were enclosed together for six hours. They were allowed to sleep and occasionally use the bathroom, but not to contact their families.

The men who came outside were ordered to raise their hands. All 30 or so men (including boys as young as 14) were handcuffed and led to the basement of the same nearby building. There they were enclosed in two separate rooms, guarded by three soldiers. They were not permitted to speak, nor to lie down or even lean against the wall to sleep. They were denied access to a toilet until they insisted, and soldiers refused to loosen their handcuffs (which were so tight that they left marks on many of the men’s wrists) or let them open a window for fresh air.

Around 10:30am, the Army left the area, leaving the men with their handcuffs (made with strong plastic) still on. Residents returned to their building to find it in ruins. Each flat had been raided. Soldiers used bombs to open several doors, and left the students’ homes in a shambles. Windows were shattered, light fixtures were broken, living and bedrooms were turned upside-down, and the elevator door was blown apart, creating a very dangerous drop into the lift’s cavity. None of the wanted people that the soldiers were looking for were found in the building.

15-year-old Nablus Resident Shot with Rubber Bullet while Trying to Buy Bread

February, 28, 2007, mid-afternoon

On February 28, 2007, a 15-year-old boy from the Amud neighborhood in the Nablus Old City went out to buy bread for his family. According to the boy, just before he reached the shop he saw soldiers aiming at him and he froze. One soldier shot him in the wrist with a rubber bullet.

The Red Crescent Society wanted to take him to the nearest hospitals, but ambulances were being delayed by closure by the Israeli military so instead they took him to a clinic and bandaged him up, unable to even x-ray the injury. The boy says he has no idea why the soldier aimed at him, and fears his wrist is fractured or even broken.

Unarmed 49-year-old Man Killed; Son also Shot and Denied Medical Care

February 26, 2007, around noon

According to 20-year-old Emergency Medical Committee Volunteer Ashraf Tibi, on February 26, 2007 around noon his father Anan Al-Tibi went up to the roof of their home to check on the water source, which was not functioning properly. Ashraf heard that a neighborhood boy was being pursued by the Army, and saw soldiers through one of the windows in his house. He ran up to the roof to warn his father that soldiers were present, and as he was delivering the message he was shot in his right arm, shattering his elbow. With help from his 12-year-old brother who was with him, he started downstairs to call for medical help, and then heard more shooting. When he ran back up the stairs he found his father shot twice (according to medical volunteers in the head and the neck). They were both unarmed.

Ashraf, a medical volunteer, tried to give his father CPR, and immediately called for an ambulance, stressing how dangerous the injury was. Shortly thereafter, soldiers entered his home. One soldier announced that he had shot them both, and demanded whom the third person on the roof had been. He was surprised to see it was Ashraf’s 12-year-old brother and not one of the wanted men. Meanwhile, Ashraf’s father was rapidly losing blood. Eventually, the family was allowed to carry Anan down to an ambulance that was waiting, but soldiers prevented the ambulance from moving for more than one and a half hours by parking jeeps on either side of it. Ashraf was taken into one of the jeeps, given basic first aid, and held for an hour and a half, before being taken in the jeep to a nearby village named Jit, where a Palestinian ambulance met him and brought him to the hospital. Ashraf says the soldier who shot him followed them all the way from Nablus to Jit.

Ashraf’s father died and doctors say Ashraf will need several operations to repair his elbow. They recommend he get them in Jordan, where there are better facilities.

‘When they took us… they did not even look at our IDs.’

my day in Huwwara by J.

On Wednesday I was in an Israeli prison for one day. As you know, Nablus, and the old city mainly, is now undergoing the Israeli operation of ‘The Hot Winter’. The operation started on Sunday, continued on Monday, stopped just for Tuesday and was resumed yesterday. Yesterday was the turn of our area (Al-qariown area) in the old city. They started at 3:00 at night, told all the families to leave their houses, including women, babies and old people.

After standing for more than 6 hours without being allowed to get any food or even chairs they told all the women, children and those over 30 to go back home, and kept just us, the youth They put some blindfolds on our eyes, and tied our hands behind our backs with some very painful plastic cuffs.

After that, we were moved to some stores in the street, which were opened, destroyed and converted to prisons. We were there for half an hour, after that we had to go up a lot of stairs and through passages to a very dirty unused room, full of dirt that is not suitable even for animals to sit inside. When we were moving, I was the last one of the prisoners, I was grabbed by one soldier who led me as I could not see anything, then another two soldiers came and started to beat me using thier weapons on my back! note that we still had our hands cuffed and the masks on our eyes. We were kept there for 7 hours (untill 10:00 am), not allowed to go to WC , and when we requested some food, they brought some bread, threw it to the ground, and said that this is food, eat it as you want, they demanded that we eat like animals, but we refused that, and continued without food.

We were there until 4:00pm, then we were taken to an Israeli military vehicle, big enough just for 4 people (inside it one of the prisoners who could remove the mask was able to read in Hebrew, that the maximum number of people is 6) but we were 22!!!!!! we sat one on top of the other, which was the worst period of the day, we were taken through different streets until they decided to take us to Huwwara military base. We arrived there at 5:30 pm and after a while they decided to keep us inside a room. The room had 6 beds, but we were 28. When we really were hungry, we told the army that we were really hungry, and after 3 hours they brought us some meals that are suitable for 3 prisoners. Every 4 people shared a small piece of bread, and for the rice-meal, every one had a little – we had to eat rice with our hands, not spoons)

At 9:00pm we decided to sleep, because we did not expect to be released that night. Three people slept in every bed, two top to toe and the third in the rest of the bed, and the other three had to sleep on the ground – there was no proper floor. Every one had a blanket but there were no pillows so we used our shoes.

It is not possible for 28 people to be silent immediately, and we continued chatting. I was the last to get to sleep at 10:00pm. At 10:30pm a soldier knocked on the door loudly and told us we were going to the “intelligence” (I am not sure of the word but it’s some military intelligence like CIA) They again blindfolded and handcuffed us, put us in a military vehicle and drove us for a short distance, then let us out.

Here we met some very bad soldiers who asked us to sit down on the rough,very cold ground for about 30 minutes before one of the human rights workers asked the soldiers to remove the masks and untie our hands, when we discovered that we were in a large area of ground, surrounded by razor wire. At 12:30am they started taking us one by one to the intelligence colonel, during the waiting period we asked for some blankets or anything to cover ourselves but they refused.

When it was my turn to meet the colonel, I was searched, even my shoes and socks were searched with high-tech machines!

When I entered the office, it was just ordinary questions and they tried to persuade everyone to spy for them. But the thing that made me most angry was that while we were suffering with temperature less than 8 degrees, the colonel’s room was supplied with an LG air conditioner.

After that and as expected as I had done nothing against them, they sent me back to the same vehicle to send us to some place, don’t know where (again masked and handcuffed), the vehicle moved for 3 minutes and they ordered us to get out, removed the masks, cut the ties and said, this is Huwwara check point (I think you know it well) it was about 1:30am. We passed the checkpoint , some of my friends said – this is the only time you come to Huwwara and pass it quickly.

We knocked on the door of the first house after the checkpoint to call the Palestinian emergency services who came with two buses and took us home. I arrived home at 2:00am to find my parents waiting and my little brothers Ahmad(12 years) and Abdulqader(5 years) still crying, and my sister was staying with our neighbours.

I just want to tell you, that when they took us from the street, they did not even look at our ID cards to check if we were wanted or not.

I just Pray to God to take us away from this situation.

Twelve-year old undergoing surgery after being shot in the head at Bil’in

by the ISM media team, March 2nd

Twelve-year old Mahmoud Yusef Abu Rahme is undergoing surgery on his skull in Sheikh Zaid hospital in Ramallah after being shot at close range by rubber bullets in Bil’in today. Two other children and one Palestinian adult were hospitalised after being shot at close range with rubber bullets but have been discharged. According to eyewitnesses, 16-year old Fares Abu Ghosh said something to a soldier and walked away. As he was walking away the soldier shot him three times with rubber bullets in his legs and arms from about 10 metres.

After midday prayers the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) held a rally to celebrate their 38th anniversary with music and speeches which lasted around an hour. Speakers included PLC member and head of the DFLP committee against the Wall Walid Assaf, Amna Arrimawi, and Sayed Abu Saleh from the PLF (Palestine Liberation Front).

A large crowd of around 600 protesters then marched to the gate in the Wall, where their path was blocked by the IOF standing in front of the gate.

Political and anti-occupation slogans were chanted and some protesters climbed on the gate. Isolated incidents of stone-throwing were met with large amounts of tear gas and sound grenades and the shooting of protesters not throwing stones.

As well as the four protesters hospitalised after being shot with rubber bullets 17 others were injured.

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تسعة عشر جريحا في مسيرة بلعين الأسبوعية

الجبهة الديمقراطية تحي ذكرى انطلاقتها الثامنة والثلاثين في بلعين

بلعين \الجمعة 2\3\2007

مرفق كلمة اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار في بلعين

احتفلت الجبهة الديمقراطية لتحرير فلسطين اليوم بعد صلاة الجمعة بذكرى انطلاقتها الثامنة والثلاثين في قرية بلعين ،وقد اختارت الجبهة بلعين لرمزيتها وصمودها في مقاومة الجدار والإستيطان ،وقد شارك في المهرجان أكثر من ألف متظاهر من كوادر واعضاء الجبهة الديمقراطية ومؤازريها ، بالاضافة إلى عدد من المتضامنين الدوليين والإسرائيليين وأهالي قرية بلعين ، وقد بدأ المهرجان بكلمة ترحيبية القاها منسق اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار في القرية عبدالله أبو رحمة ، مثمنا ما قامت به الجبهة من خلال اعلان انطلاقتها في بلعين ،داعيا كافة الفصائل للتواجد في مناطق التماس مع الاحتلال في مثل هذه المناسبات ، منبها إلى الخطر الذي يحيط بمدينة القدس من اعتداء على الأماكن الدينية ومصادرة الأراضي داعيا إلى إنتفاضة شعبية أخرى في كل المناطق وبمشاركة كل الفئات ،وقد ختم كلمته بدعوة إلى الوحدة الوطنية مباركا اتفاق مكة .

وتحدث بعد ذلك عضو المجلس التشريعي وليد عساف رئيس لجنة الجدار في المجلس التشريعي ،مشيدا بخيار الجبهة في اختيارها بلعين للاحتفال بانطلاقتها ،وتعرض في حديثه عن القدس وما يتعرض له من تهويد ومن اعتداء على المقدسات الإسلامية والمسيحية ،وقد بعث بتحية اجلال واكبار لشهداء الجبهة الديمقراطية وشهداء فلسطين .

اما كلمة القوى الوطنية والإسلامية فقد القاها السيد أبو صالح من جبهة التحرير الفلسطينية ،وقد اشاد بنضال الجبهة ونضال أهالي قرية بلعين متمنيا أن تكون الحكومة القادمة مشكلة على أساس من الكفاءة ، ثم اشاد بالدور الذي يقوم به علماء القدس في الدفاع عنها .

وفي ختام المهرجان القت الرفيقة أمنة الريماوي عضو اللجنة المركزية للجبهة كلمة الجبهة الديمقراطية متحدثة عن الجدار وسلبياته والأضرار الناجمة عنه ،مستذكرة اللاجئين وحق العودة لهم داعية الشعب الفلسطيني إلى التوحد والتكاثف .

وانطلق المحتفلون بعد ذلك في مسيرة حاشدة جابوا خلالها شوارع القرية رافعين الاعلام الفلسطينية ومرددين الهتافات الوطنية حتى وصلوا إلى الجدار في الجهة الغربية من القرية ،حيث كان الجيش يتمترس باعداد كبيرة ، محاولا منع المتظاهرين من العبور من بوابة الجدار هناك بحجة أنها منطقة عسكرية مغلقة ، لكن المتظاهرين لم يثنيهم ذلك عن مواصلة مسيرتهم واعتصموا هناك مما أدى إلى حصول مشادات واشتباكات بينهم وبين الجيش ،حيث استخدم الأخر في البداية العصي وأعقاب البنادق في ضرب المتظاهرين ،ومن ثم قنابل الصوت والغاز والرصاص المعدني المغلف بالمطاط ،مما أدى إلى اصابة تسعة عشرمتظاهرا وهم : قيس سرحان ،نهاد أبو غوش وابنه فارس وقد نقلا إلى مستشفى الشيخ زايد في رام الله ، أديب أبورحمة ،نسيم سعد ،فواز حماد ،وجدي نوفل ،معاذ صالح ،عبد الفتاح برناط ،شريف عاصي ،أحمد صلاح الدين ،محمد الياس نزال ،حسن العاروري ،محمود فايز ،راني أيوب النجار ،محمد العباسي ،أحمد محمد حسن ،محمد يوسف أبورحمة ،عبدالله أحمد ياسين

لمزيد من المعلومات مراجعة :

عبدالله أبو رحمة – منسق اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار والإستيطان في بلعين

0599107069 أو0547258210 أو022489043

Video: The Israeli military in Nablus

The Israeli military invaded Nablus on February 25 in an operation called “Hot Winter.” The following videos were jointly produced by the Research Journalism Initiative (RJI) and the “a-films” film collective.


“Hot Winter” Day One


“Hot Winter” Day Two


“Hot Winter” Day Four

For more videos, visit: http://www.youtube.com/afilmspalestine

PNN: “Palestinians mount nonviolent resistance campaign as Israeli forces escalate land confiscation”

by Najib Farag, March 1st

Israeli forces have escalated land confiscation throughout Bethlehem during the past several days, targeting Umm Salamuna in the south and Beit Jala in the west.

The Israelis are building the Wall through Bethlehem, further isolating the West Bank from Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians will be segregated from one another, human rights sources report.

In the Bethlehem District’s southern town of Umm Salamuna the confrontations continue between the large contingent of Israeli forces who are confiscating the land and the residents who are trying to stop them.

Joined by foreign and Israeli supporters, the land owners have taken to standing in front of heavy equipment in the campaign of nonviolent resistance mounted over recent weeks.

On Wednesday demonstrators held sticks to the soldiers’ machine guns. Israeli forces violently arrested five Israeli and two foreign supporters. Mahmoud Zoahrah is a member of the Wall Resistance Committee in southern Bethlehem. The group represents 10 area towns and was formed several months ago to combat land confiscation and Wall construction.

“The most tragic situation is occurring,” Zoahrah told PNN. “The bulldozers raised trees from nuts and lemons, to grape vines. In a few months 1,500 dunams of land are isolated in Umm Salamuna, in addition to the complete isolation that the coming weeks and months have in store for the entirety of southern Bethlehem.”

The western Bethlehem District will also be hemmed in by the Wall. Chairperson of the Committee to Defend against Land Confiscation, Khalid Al Azzeh, informed PNN that “the so-called Israeli Civil Administration distributed 11 home demolition notices in western Bethlehem where the Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion is encroaching.”

Ibrahim Attallah is among residents of western Bethlehem’s Beit Jala City whose home is slated for wrecking. He has two weeks to appeal the Israeli decision in the Israeli court system. The 100 residents who the Israeli authorities intend to evict in order to expand the settlements and Wall have agreed to collective action and say they will not leave their lands or homes.

In addition to destroying the stone fence surrounding agricultural land near the Talitha School in Beit Jala, over which the Israelis have under full control as Area C, Israeli forces are targeting the entire area for Wall construction.

Al Azzeh said that Israeli forces deliberately demolish houses during the early morning hours to avoid any major protest by land owners. He pointed that the Israelis claim the reason behind the destruction is that Palestinians have not solicited them for licenses for the existing structures. But the real reason, says Al Azzeh, is completing the Wall. Beit Jala will be surrounded by settlements, the settler bypass road and the Wall after the land is confiscated.

The same appeal that is circulated almost daily was issued again to international human rights institutions to pressure Israel to abide international law and stop the decades of looting Palestinian lands. “Dredging and demolition do not enable the search for a just peace,” commented Al Azzeh. Beit Jala’s Mayor said that the demolition order to establish the Wall here will lead to the isolation of approximately 7,200 dunams of agricultural land.

The only access will be through an iron gate in the Wall, and that is dependent on the mood of the Israeli soldiers, forewarned sources in the municipality.