30th December, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine
On 30th December 2015, Israeli forces showered the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) in tear gas and shot skunk water at family homes and a kindergarten.
When students at the schools in the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood were leaving school after finishing their exams, Israeli forces started throwing stun grenades from the checkpoint the students must cross on their way home from school. They advanced towards the schools firing several rounds of tear gas at the students. One school boy was randomly grabbed off the street by the border police and taken first to the checkpoint and then to the police station. The 13-year old student is accused of throwing stones. Whether he was released or not is unknown at this moment.
13-year old schoolboy arrested by Israeli forces
Israeli forces then fired endless rounds of tear gas towards the group of students still in the street as well as directly into the neighbourhood. Schoolchildren were suffocating on the tear gas, running away trying to hide from the clouds of gas making their eyes and throats burn and making it almost impossible to breathe.
Once the streets were empty, Israeli forces drove the ‘skunk’ truck into the neighbourhood, spraying the foul-smelling liquid aimed from large trucks all over the streets. At the time they sprayed the skunk water, the neighbourhood was already deserted, as clouds of tear gas were still lingering in the streets. Right after, the skunk truck directly targeted a kindergarten and several windows of family homes. This is clearly a collective punishment on the whole neighbourhood, as the foul-smelling skunk water – intended for ‘riot control’ purposes – was arbitrarily used on residents living in the area. Incidents like this, in the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood, are not a rare occurrence, with Israeli forces often firing tear gas directly at or even into family homes and soaking the streets in skunk water.
Watch a video of the skunk truck targeting residents of the Abu Sneineh neighbourhood.
30th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza strip, occupied Palestine
Last Friday, 25th of December another youth, 22-year-old Hani Wahdan, was killed in Shijaia in Gaza. One week before, 20-year-old Mohamed El Agha was killed in El Faraheen in Gaza.
Demonstration in Gaza
Since the beginning of October Israeli snipers have killed unarmed demonstrators along Gaza’s fence almost every week, and injured hundreds with live fire.
Mohamed Abu Taima, 22 years old, is one of those injured by the Israeli snipers. He was shot in the leg minutes before the killing of Mohamed El Agha took place in the same area.
Demonstration in Gaza
In the European Hospital of Khan Younees, 19-year-old Abdel Kareem Kalwaji lies in a bed beside Mohamed’s. He was shot a week before Mohamed; unfortunately the explosive dum-dum bullets used by the occupation completely destroyed both bones in one of his legs and one bone in the other leg. He has already undergone two surgeries and doctors say that he’ll need a lot of rehabilitation in order to move around by himself again.
Mohamed Abu Taima in hospital.
When questioned regarding their reasons to demonstrate despite the high risk of getting shot, both answered that they do it for the liberation of Al Quds and Al Aqsa Mosque and in support of their brothers and sisters in the West Bank.
December 24th 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
During recent months the subsidence of the land along the Egyptian border have become a great danger for the population of Rafah.
Land subsidence next to the city of Rafah
Land subsidence next to the city of Rafah
This is due to the Egyptian project that has been pumping seawater all along its border with the Gaza Strip. The goal of this project is to flood the tunnels that provided access for the Palestinian people who have been locked in Gaza since the implementation of the blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation.
Flooded tunnel
Abdel Aziz El Atar, Head of the Civil Defence Office in Rafah, explains how they are receiving daily calls alerting about the appearance of new holes in the land, the flooding of more agricultural areas by seawater or the flooding of more homes.
Abdel Aziz el Atar, Head of the Civil Defence Office
All of this continues to happen despite the fact that most of the homes near the Egyptian border have been evacuated due to the flooding and the high risk of land subsidence.
The staff of the Civil Defence Office regrets not having the technology and the equipment required to cope with this situation, “we fear that with the winter and the heavy rains it will just get worse…” “Besides the flooding, we are suffering from the contamination of the aquifers with sea water, the salinization of the croplands… And moreover, this project broke several pipelines that supplied drinking water and destroyed as well the sewage system in some areas near the border”.
Road destroyed by land subsidence
All these dangers and consequences had been warned by a great number of international NGO’s that saw that project as “a new threat for the food security and the access to drinking water for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. In addition, this poses a serious threat for the environment, both for Egypt and Palestine.
For this reason, the Palestinian Government in Gaza demands that international agencies, such as the UN, take the required measures in order to stop and cancel this project, that represents a clear violation of the international and humanitarian law and of the international conventions and principles regarding common cross-border water resources.
ISM also met the Head of Security at the border, who said that actually their biggest concern is that “the wall that separates Egypt from Gaza has been sinking in several points… we are afraid that during the next months it will collapse completely, making it almost impossible for us to keep the security of the border… several security posts have been already displaced due to land subsidence”.
Egyptian soldiers fixing parts of the wall that had been destroyed by land subsidence.
He continues, “However, that’s not the only aggression we suffer from the Egyptian authorities; everyday, the Egyptian soldiers insult and open fire both against the Palestinian civilian population from Rafah and against our security forces. Two weeks ago for example, they shot three workers that were fixing a subsidence near the border. After that, the soldiers entered Palestinian territory and kidnapped the three injured workers. Until now, the government from Gaza doesn’t have any news about them.” He also adds, “Just another example happened a few days ago, when the Egyptian soldiers shot a drinking water deposit”.
Both interviewees demand the international community to put pressure on the Egyptian Authorities. “That’s the only way of stopping this humanitarian and environmental crime, as locally, the Egyptian government enjoys the support of both Israel and Ramallah’s governments on that project”.
Egyptian workers working on the pipes that pump seawater along the border
|December 23rd 2015 | Hamza Abu Eltarabesh | Gaza, occupied Palestine
Palestinian journalist from Gaza, born in 1991, studied journalism at the Islamic University of Gaza, and works as a freelance journalist for various local media outlets.
Participated in covering the third aggression against Gaza, & basically writes in social and political issues.
(According to Marah’s family)
As they left the gate of their school, residing at the western area of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem, Marah Bakeer, a student in her last year of high school (Tawjihi), insisted to her friend, Asma’a Elkhatib, to join her family to take lunch at her home. At first, Asma’a refused her friend’s invitation, but after many attempts of convincing her, she had eventually accepted Marah’s request.
On the way home … The two 16-year old girls, wearing their dark blue uniform, and school bags on their backs, left the bus at the entrance of Beit Hannina town, and were excitedly talking about their school life and the crucial year they have to pass; to move to college and build up their future.
Marah in her house.
In the midst of their talk, the Israeli forces stopped them at the main road of the town. One of the soldiers came close to them, and fired twelve bullets towards Marah’s small body, while he was shouting “Subversive .. subversive!”.
Asma’a freaked out and had no idea about what to do or where to go when she saw her friend Marah covered with blood, crying, while the soldiers were only watching her bleeding.
Marah was left bleeding till she lost consciousness; then the soldiers moved her to the Israeli hospital Hadassah to receive medical treatment, while her friend Asma’a was finally able to escape. This was on 10.12.2015 at noon.
The moment Marah was being shot by Israeli forces on the street.
The Family in a Shock
With too much fear and tension, Asma’a quickly called Marah’s mother, Sawan, and told her what happened to her eldest daughter. At the beginning, the mother did not believe what she heard and what came to her mind was that she was only joking. But the fear and crying sound of Asma’a made her believe the story, which then caused her to lose control and fall on the ground.
With a faint voice, the forty year old mother said: “When we heard the news, we immediately went to the Israeli prison in Al Isawia; to ask about what happened with my daughter, but the occupation forces refused to tell us anything”, and according to the mother, the only information the occupation forces gave the family was that their daughter was having a surgery at Hadassah hospital.
Israel Tells Lies
Israel claims that “Marah”, who lives in a family of five members, was holding a knife in her hand to stab one of the soldiers who were in the place of the accident. However, their story was denied by Asma’a and a group of students who were in the place at the time of the incident. Also, a video tape was published and widely shared via social media showing Marah screaming and crying with no knife near her.
The mother refused the accusations made against her daughter that she tried to stab an Israeli soldier; and said during our phone call with her: “My daughter is dreaming of getting the university certificate; to make us proud of her, and all the Israeli accusations are totally refused”
Prison & Hell
After she was moved to the Israeli hospital, she was taken to the operations’ department for a nearly two-and-half-hour surgery in her left shoulder; where multiple bullets had settled. According to the lawyer assigned by the family for Marah’s case, Sana’a Kwaik, the doctors had inserted platinum bars to the injured girl’s shoulder and hand, as a result of significant fragmentation in the shoulder’s bone.
Marah spent twenty days in the hospital bed, without a mother beside her to comfort her, or a father to give her strength. The only thing she had was herself, with too much pain and weeping, and a little sleep.
Amjad Abu Asab, head of the Jerusalem district committee of prisoners’ families, said that Marah was heavily guarded by security personnel after being accused of planning to execute a stabbing.
Meanwhile, Marah’s father, who is working as a small trader, ensures that his daughter is an innocent school student who is clear of all the charges, saying: “Marah is doing her best since the beginning of the academic year; to get a high score that will enable her to study medical secretary, and her only goal now is to obtain a university certificate that will build a bright future for her.”
In that period, the Bakeer family made many desperate attempts to have the occupation’s permission to visit their injured daughter at the hospital. But all their attempts failed.
Their lawyer, Sana’a Kwaik, ensured during her interview in the phone: “Israeli soldiers assaulted Marah, and during the trial, which was held in absentia, no evidences were provided to prove that stabbing was to take place, and every time I ask about evidences, a short Israeli answer is given to me: “this is a secret file that we cannot talk about””.
Injuries in Marah are not yet cured. However, the Israeli authority didn’t heed to her deteriorating health condition and moved her to Ashkelon prison, to stay with another two wounded young female prisoners, Istabraq Nour and Ihan Arafat, 14 and 15 years of age, in an isolated room lacking the basics of a decent human life.
“When I was moved to Ashkelon prison, one of the wardresses removed the dressing covering my injury; I’m in need for medicine and medical care for my injury” This is what Marah told the lawyer after three days of her stay in jail.
Despite the medical negligence and the pain that took over Marah’s body, Israel didn’t show any mercy to her when she was assaulted along with other prisoners by Israeli policewomen.
Nour, Marah’s sister, a 13-year old child, innocently said: “Every time the lawyer tells us that Marah is being beaten while she’s in need for medication, I spend my whole night crying, and praying to Allah to ease her pain,” and concluded her talk with the statement “I miss my sister too much … oh God, please let them release her”
Marah spent a week in Ashkelon prison, and then she was moved along with her mates to El Ramla prison. It is worth mentioning that this prison is specific for female criminals, to find themselves, again, living in hell-like life conditions.
“I was inspected while I was semi-naked in a humiliating way. The prison condition is very bad, they never treated us with mercy” another quote Marah told her lawyer in her second visit.
Returning to the grieving father, he continued: “When we were informed that Marah was transferred to the criminals’ prison, we contacted the prisoners’ committee, and sent a letter to the Palestinian president, but none of this brought any result”
In her seventh day of jail, when the Israeli authority finally gave permission to her family for a visit, her mother said: “Marah is keeping her spirits high, she asked me to bring her books to continue what she planned for, but her body is very ill and she’s in too much pain as a result of her shoulder’s injury”.
The visit was only for fifteen minutes, the injured girl returned to her prison, and the family returned home praying to God to ease the pain of their daughter. Marah stayed with her mates for nearly two weeks at El Ramla prison, and then they were moved to the Hasharon Israeli prison.
According to Marah’s mother, when Marah reached the Hasharon prison, Haneen Zoghbi, member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) visited Marah, who told her: “I want to complete my year of school, prison and medical negligence won’t hinder my way to achieve my dream”.
I’ll Achieve My Dream
Marah’s story is not the first, and seemingly won’t be the last; as the head of the Palestinian prisoners’ issues committee, Issa Qraqeh, clarified that besides Marah, there are four other injured female prisoners among 39 others arrested during the Jerusalem intifada (uprising) since the beginning of October, and these are: Istabraq Nour, Amal Taqatqa, Shoroq Dwyat, and Helwa Mhamra.
In the same context, Riad El Ashqar, researcher of prisoners’ issues and Head of the Jerusalem Center for Studies, said: “Arrested female prisoners since October are living in very bad conditions.” And he added: “There’s a possibility that Israel will release some prisoners, however, it’s not easy to do so; as female prisoners constitute a pressure tool over Palestinians to accept the Israeli demands.”
At the end of our talk with the Bakeer family, they all agreed that: “Marah, in spite of arresting her, and in spite of all the pain she suffers from, will keep determined to get her high school certificate, and nothing will stop her except death”
21st December, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine
Children and teachers of Ziad Jaber elementary school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) are daily subjected to body searches and intimidation by armed Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, as they walk to school.
International ISM activists monitored a checkpoint right in front of the school two times today: during the morning when children go to it and during the afternoon, when they go back home.
During the morning, when teachers and students went to school, as well as during the afternoon when they left school after the exams, international observers monitored:
20 male adults body searched
12 male teachers body searched
11 females bag searched
34 boys body searched
~150 people passed throught the checkpoint
Some boys turned around because they did not want to be humiliated due to the body search, avoiding the street they were walking through.
