December 2nd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement with Meta Peace Team, Tulkarem team | Tulkarem, occupied Palestine
Palestine Tech University (PTU) in Tulkarem has now been closed for two days, for unknown reasons. The school has been witnessing many clashes between the students and the Israeli forces since the beginning of October. Dozens of young people are getting injured daily from tear gas inhalations, rubber coated bullets and live ammunitions shot by soldiers in the middle of campus. The students are deeply concerned with the situation as they all have experienced this violence in the past month. “The army came into the university, smashed the windows, broke the doors, and they are doing that for this moment everyday”, explains Ahmad Yaseem, a student who recalls the first incursions of the university Israeli forces. The university administration has asked the Israeli government the reason for this sudden explosion of violence but were not given any answers. According to the administration, the university should open again tomorrow.
Israeli forces come on campus and scare the students
The campus of the university has become the centre of clashes between Israeli forces and students
Yesterday during clashes two students were arrested, one of them after being shot with live ammunition. He was not allowed to access medical care though, and was taken away directly in the jeep.
On the 29th of november, while the students were attending an art exhibition on campus, the Israeli forces entered the university and started shooting tear gas, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition at the students. Eyewitnesses and human rights activists said that the area was filled with teargas that day, and as a result 58 students suffered from severe gas inhalation. 7 more people were injured from live ammunition, 5 from rubber coated steel bullets and 9 to 10 from rubber coated bullets. In addition to this, one student had to be taken to the intensive care unit in Nablus, and is still there at this moment. All of them were between the age of 15 and 20 years old.
Many students have been injured by live ammunition being shot in the middle of campus
Since october 1st, over 20 students have been arrested during clashes. None of them has yet been released. Nabeha Hasan Ahmad, 21 years old, remembers the first time the army entered the university : “At first they started on the outside. They were shooting in the air. They were shooting live bullets at the students. They started to get inside the university more and more. They threw skunk water on the library. The students who were there were getting hurt by bullets. So many students have had a gun shot. It affects our psychology, we become more afraid when we are doing our exams. We hear the sound of the bullets and we smell the gas. It became normal for our body to smell gas.” This situation obviously affects the students’ ability to attend their classes and to succeed in their studies. “Everyday they were throwing gas, so the students were afraid to come to the university, adds Beisan Ismail, a second year program information student. For the students that were shot, and the others who were arrested, it makes their education hard because they are unable to move on to the next year, they have to repeat the current year. Just like them, if I inhale gas or get arrested it’s going to be bad for my education.”
December 3rd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Nablus, occupied Palestine
Wednesday night, at 1 am, Israeli forces came to the neighborhood of Dahia, in Nablus, to demolish the house of the family of Raghib Elawi, who was accused of participating in the Itamar killings a month ago. Local witnesses say that around 300 jeeps entered Dahia and its surrounding areas to seal the area. Soldiers came in great number and started evacuating the neighboring houses at 1:30 am. They forced men, women and children out of their homes in the middle of the night with their guns pointed at them. Women complained that soldiers entered the houses without minding them not wearing their hijab, before being rushed out of their houses at gunpoint. All the families had to sit down and wait outside, in the cold, without talking. At around 4 am, the home of Raghib was demolished using explosives.
Elawi house: 1st floor belonging to Raghib and his brother and buttom floor belonging to their parents.
The apartment of Raghib Elawi’s family is located on a four floor building, the two top ones still being under construction and not inhabited. Raghib’s apartment had been emptied when they received the warning for the demolition two days ago. Next to Raghib’s apartment was the home of his brother, living with his wife and three daughters. They had moved the furniture to the side to avoid it from being damaged from the explosion but the wall between the two brother’s apartments collapsed during the demolition, making both places inhabitable. Two families including 6 children now find themselves homeless. All of them are currently staying at a brother’s house, a very precarious situation for all the them especially at this time of the year.
Children forced to witness house demolitions.
The demolition has not only affected the Elawi brothers, it also affected their parents, whose apartment is on the bottom floor of the same building. Windows shattered, doors broke, walls have been damaged, most of the furniture is ruined and the whole place is now filled with rubble. It will be a long time before anyone can live there again.
The local mosque, located 100 meters from the house, was damaged in the explosion, deeply affecting locals. On one side, all windows were shattered and broken glass covered the floor.
This morning at sunrise, many people were in the street attempting to clean up their houses before starting the day. They all will have to bare the consequences of this collective punishment, especially families with children who will now have to go through the beginning of winter without windows or doors to keep them warm. Furthermore, the usage of dynamite (TNT) in the house demolitions causes severe collateral damage on neighboring houses and thereby extends the collective punishment, which is already illegal and declared a war crime by international law.
Window frame in neighboring house severely damaged from the explosion
Raghib Elawi was accused of being involved on the 1st of October in the killing of two illegal Israeli settlers driving a car near Beit Furik. He was brutally arrested by Israeli forces in the night of the 4th of October while he was recovering from a surgery. The trial in his case still hasn’t taken place as the hearing was postponed, yet without being found guilty, his home has already been destroyed. This violates international law stating the right of being presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law.
Three homes of Palestinians, believed to be involved in the same killing, were demolished on November 14th, leaving several families homeless.
Locals watching and showing their support to the Elawi family.
3rd of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli forces closed the al-Hareka neighbourhood putting up new roadblocks and completely closing off a whole neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
The neighbourhood’s access to the main street has been blocked off with an iron gate for a long time already. Recently, a group of about twenty soldiers arrived to the neighbourhood to further limit the freedom of movement of the Palestinian residents.
Military gate blocking entrance for cars
One resident, a journalist documenting the soldiers putting the new roadblocks that completely barr any access to about 200-300 people living there, was detained by the soldiers for over an hour. Soldiers attempted to stop him from filming this measure of collective punishment, a clear infringement on the freedom of press. In order to reach the main road or leave their houses, people living behind the wall are now forced to walk all the way around and will thus need at least ten minutes more to reach the military gate that is already blocking their entrance.
Children playing on the newly erected wall blocking off the neighbourhood
Watch a video of soldiers installing this new wall:
Additionally, soldiers have commanded the roof of a private family home for military purposes and have erected a small military base there. A group of six soldiers is permanently stationed on the family home and “they slept on the roof”, as a school-boy explained.
Israeli forces stationed on a family home
The al-Hareka neighbourhood is bordering the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, and thus is often the target of harassment and violence both from the Israeli forces as well as the settlers – often under the protection of the soldiers.
This is yet another measure to intensify the efforts to restrict – or completely stop – Palestinian freedom of movement. Such collective punishment measures have sky-rocketed in the recent weeks and months in occupied al-Khalil, and add to the increasing efforts to further exacerbate everyday life for Palestinians and eventually make them disappear completely.
December 2nd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team |
It can be complicated to be a medical patient in Palestine. It is especially complicated when Palestinians need to have treatment in Israeli hospitals without having permission to travel freely to Israel. The army/DCO can basically give a death penalty when they deny patients travel permits to go for necessary treatment.
Maher has been fighting cancer for 5 years
Maher Falih, a 48 years-old Palestinian from Zawata, near Nablus had an appointment yesterday to go to a hospital in Israel. He has been struggling with cancer for 5 years. Part of that time he went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment in an Israeli hospital, because hospitals in Palestine didn’t have enough expertise to help his situation. It is not out of kindness though, that Israelis have the responsibility of providing health services to those who are occupied, it is a way of controlling. Now Maher has finished his cancer treatment, but he still needs to see his doctor to follow the recovery process. For the last 5 months Maher has been having a lot of trouble getting permission to cross the checkpoints, so he often can’t attend his doctors’ appointments in Israel.
The process to obtain a permission is long and complicated. First, the Israeli hospital to which he has to go must give him, each time, an appointment for the next time. He then has to contact the DCO (District Coordination Offices) to ask for permission on that date. At the moment the DCO refuses to give him the needed paperwork, arguing that since he is no longer suffering from a life-threatening disease, there is no reason for him to go to the hospital.
Yesterday, unfortunately during his last appointment, the doctors found a problem and decided to operate right away, which proves how much he still needs these follow up appointments in the hospital. The Israelis have so much power over life and death for the Palestinian people. For Maher, this was a threat to his life, and could have been a death sentence in the end. Palestinian people are dependent of what the DCO and the army wants, not what specialists want, and the power is in the hands of people who don’t know what they are doing.
2nd December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
On the evening of the 1st of December 2015, five Palestinian boys were shot at by Israeli forces with live ammunition on their way home to Tel Rumeida. The five boys – between the ages of sixteen and seventeen years – were on their way home, passing through the Jabal Al-Rahma neighbourhood at around 8pm when three soldiers shot at them with live ammunition without any reason. One of the boys managed to run away, while the other four were injured.
The Jabal Al-Rahma neighbourhood borders with the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and thus marks the border between the H1 and H2 area in Al-Khalil (Hebron). Both the Jabal Al-Rahma neighbourhood and the neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida have been subjected to house raids and increased violence, harassment and closures since the beginning of October. The Tel Rumeida area has turned into lawless zone with the declaration of it being a “closed military zone” on November 1st, in which heightened harassment, violence and humiliation increasing daily. On the evening of the 1st of December “we were walking home and they shot at us” explains one of the boys. This happened in the Jabal al-Rahme neighbourhood, in the H1 area of Tel Rumeida – supposedly under full Palestinian control.
When the soldiers started shooting, some of the residents of the Jabal Al-Rahma neighbourhood reacted quickly and tried to help the injured boys. Two of the boys immediately had to be evacuated to Alia Hospital in Al-Khalil (Hebron) where they had to spend the night. Both of them were shot with live ammunition into the legs and foot respectively. One boy immediately had to be brought to Al-Ahli hospital with serious injuries to both his stomach and legs. He had to undergo two surgeries to remove four bullets and is still in critical condition. The fourth boy was shot into the chest and then taken by the soldiers, before anyone could offer any first aid and bring him to a safe area. So far, it is unclear how severe his injuries are and where the soldiers have taken him.
The soldiers made use of their fire arms without there being any threat to them or anyone else and thereby severely injuring minors and unlawfully kidnapping one of them. Despite these illegal and highly immoral actions, they don’t have to face any consequences for their actions, whereas the families of the boys have to deal with the additional hardships of the impunity of Israeli forces.
