28th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Wednesday 28th October at 3.25pm, Islam Rafiq Obeido, 23, was shot in cold blood in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. Human rights observers from International Solidarity Movement witnessed the young man being murdered while walking in the street near the Gilbert Checkpoint.
The eyewitness from ISM, identified as Orion, states: “I am 100% sure he was unarmed. I saw the two soldiers creeping slowly along the road outside our apartment window with their guns cocked, so I looked down the street to see why. I saw an unarmed man walking normally towards the soldiers and suddenly they shot.”
The young man was shot at a distance of around two meters and at least 12 shots were fired. He died immediately after being shot.
No shouting or running was heard on the site prior to the murder. Minutes before the incident, a policewoman was overheard at the Shuhada Street checkpoint 56 saying on her radio “he looks like a good one, shoot him.”
Another activist from the ISM states: “It was just like last night, when they shot Hoummam Said. Everything was quiet and suddenly we heard many shots outside our apartment. I am sure he was unarmed and they murdered him for no reason, just like Hoummam”
28th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
At 10.30pm last night, Tuesday 27th October 2015, a Palestinian man who has been identified as 23 year old Hoummam Said was shot in al-Kahlil (Hebron) at the Gilbert checkpoint, directly outside the ISM apartment. The man was in the H2 neighborhood of Tel Rumeida which was otherwise quiet at the time.
No commotion, shouting or running was heard prior to the six gun shots echoing suddenly through the streets and no other security risk could otherwise be perceived.
Immediately following the incident, Israeli forces, who are permanently posted at the checkpoint for 24 hours a day, surrounded the body of the fallen man. Within minutes settlers from the nearby illegal settlement arrived and were allowed to approach and photograph the scene. Further forces then arrived, including soldiers and several police vehicles. An Israeli ambulance arrived but no medical aid was delivered to Said, instead paramedics stood close to the bleeding man and watched passively as he died.
Said was then stripped of his clothes, revealing that the gunshot wounds were all on the back of his body. He was then placed in a bodybag and the street was cleaned. By midnight the scene was totally cleared of all evidence of the incident.
A short video shows Hammam after he was stripped of his clothes by Israeli forces:
Eyewitnesses reported that no knife was originally witnessed on the scene, though one appeared after the soldiers surrounded the body. “I cannot say for sure they put the knife there, but I know even 5 seconds after the shooting I looked, I really looked, and I could see nothing. I am 99% sure of it. But afterwards, it was there.” She added “if an attack was planned at this location it wouldn’t even make sense. He was still 20 meters from the soldiers or checkpoint, in the middle of the night. Why would he wave the knife around?”
The body of Hammam Said after Israeli forces stripped him of his clothes
Extrajudicial executions of this kind are illegal in international law and there is no evidence that warning or deescalating force was applied before the lethal shooting of Said. The checkpoint has a camera positioned above the street and the International Solidarity Movement is demanding that Israeli forces release the raw footage to prove an association between the man and the knife allegedly found at the scene.
An hour and a half after the incident, an eyewitness reported that “it is like nothing happened, there is no bloodstain, nothing but a dog sniffing the ground. The street is eerily quiet and there are just the normal number of soldiers at the checkpoint.” They added that “they cannot really feel like there is a security threat here right now.” An hour after that an illegal settler vehicle was parked by the location of the shooting, playing loud festive music.
Listen to audio of settlers playing party songs after Hammam Said’s blood was washed off the ground:
Said’s death marks four Palestinian deaths in Hebron within two days, and brings the total death toll within the Occupied Territories of Palestine to 64 since the start of October. Hebron has been a centre of the rising tension in the West Bank, and today witnessed extreme suppression of peaceful protests in Bab Al-Zawwiya, when innumerable rounds of teargas were shot directly at dense crowd of demonstrators who were demanding the release of Palestinian corpses killed by Israeli forces.
It is anticipated that with allegations that Said had a knife that no investigation will be launched, yet another Palestinian will be branded as a terrorist, and as a final injustice another family will be denied their rightful mourning rites.
27th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Tuesday afternoon, 27th October, a mass peaceful demonstration took place in the streets of occupied Hebron (al-Khalil) with about two thousand people, including men, women and children demanding the release of the 11 bodies of martyred Palestinians kept by Israeli forces this month.
Palestinian women with image of Dania Ersheid, 17, killed by Israeli Forces 25th October
Answering the call made by different Palestinian factions, the people of al-Khalil took to the streets to join the “rally of anger,” beginning at the Al-Haras mosque and moving towards Bab Al-Zawwiya following speeches.
Demonstrators peacefully sang, clapped and waved flags in Bab Al-zawwiya before the rounds of teargas were shot at the crowdIsraeli Forces at the Shuhada street checkpoint 56
At the Shuhada street Checkpoint 56, hundreds of people were gathered, standing with flags and clapping and chanting when suddenly, without other apparent provocation than their presence, Israeli forces began to shoot round after round of teargas, stun grenades and live ammunition against the peaceful protesters. At least 10 Palestinians were injured with live rounds and gunshot wounds, according to Dr. Walid Zalloum, the director of Hebron’s governmental hospital.
“It was a peaceful demonstration, really just clapping and with flags, and suddenly everything was on fire’’ said human rights activist group International Solidarity Movement who were present at the march.
Rounds of teargas fired directly at the crowd filled the entire area, trapping many
One more time, Palestinian peaceful resistance has been repressed by the occupying power in an unjustifiably harsh and criminal way. The occupation authorities also detained eight Palestinians, including lawyer Farid Al-Atrash.
27th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
During the last two days international human rights activists have repeatedly been attacked verbally and physically by infamous illegal settler Anat Cohen.
At 7:15 this morning, Anat Cohen emerged from Beit Hadassah illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida onto Qurtuba checkpoint, where two internationals were documenting the treatment of children and teachers as they passed through on their way to school, when she started screaming in Hebrew. When both internationals listened to her for a moment, then turned up the stairs where they were headed, she charged and punched one international in the back of the head. Six Israeli soldiers stood about five feet from them and did nothing to intervene at any time.
On deserted Shuhada street, a car rode up close to three internationals returning home from their monitoring of students safety at checkpoints near school clusters. After a short while a settler identified as Anat Cohen got out of the car and immediately started to harass the three human rights observers. Over the course of approximately six minutes, she physically assaulted all three, knocking one to the ground so that he was bleeding in multiple places, and attempting to destroy recording equipment, and striking them in the head.
Anat Cohen hitting international
Among other things in the constant stream of verbal assault and profanity, she said: “Go to Auschwitz. (…) Die in Hitler’s gas.” “Are there not enough European ladies in Europe? Do you have to come here to f*** Arab women? I know you are doing that!” After she noticed a male settler had arrived with his jeep, she became more physically aggressive while continuing to rant: ”What do you help the Palestinians with? Killing us?!”
All activists strictly complied with non-violence, backed off from her or shielded themselves with a raised hand against her attacks. Israeli forces arrived on the scene and asked her what the activists had done; she replied they wanted to help the Palestinians. The human rights workers were allowed to go while she kept on complaining to the soldiers.
Watch a video of the attack on internationals:
The day before the settler had followed two activists in her car to their apartment. While they were walking up the hill towards Tel Rumeida, she trailed them in her car and then blocked the way when they attempted to cross the road. She then complained to soldiers at a checkpoint about the internationals.
Anat Cohen
While Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces on a daily basis and four inhabitants of Hebron were shot to death in and around Hebron in the last two days only, also the hostility and violence towards internationals is soaring high.
Settlers have shot close-up photos of internationals serving different organisations and put up posters of them warning soldiers and settlers of them. The headline of the individual posters read : “This is not a tourist- it’s a hostile anarchist! Watch out: The individuals in these pictures are here to harm Israelis for anti-semitic reasons. Act accordingly!”
27th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
Monday, October 26th 2015, Israeli forces entered the Palestinian market, fired tear gas into the busy market place and closed down part of the market.
Twenty minutes past two o’clock, a group of 14 soldiers entered the Palestinian market, bustling with school-children on their way home from school and adults doing shopping. The Palestinian souq is located right next to illegal Israeli settlements. The soldiers entered the souq from the direction of the settlements, took over the main junction at Bab al-Baladiyya and immediately stopped all civilians from passing by in any direction.
Israeli forces blocking the main Palestinian market
Watch a short video:
Just a few minutes after Israeli forces aggressively took over the main intersection, they started firing tear gas towards a group of children. In total, one stun grenade and 14 tear gas canisters were fired into the busy market by Israeli forces. All the time, settlers on top of the nearby Beit Romano settlement were watching and cheering on, as Israeli forces showered tear gas on civilians in the Palestinian market.
Israeli settlers cheering as soldiers shoot teargas at Palestinians
Watch a short video:
While the soldiers were shooting tear gas and a part of the soldiers was going closer into a Palestinian neigbourhood to shoot tear gas, Palestinian freedom of movement was entirely stopped in the market for more than half an hour. A group of at least 20 school-girls was stopped on their way home from school by the soldiers yelling at them and raising their guns at them, ordering them to move back immediately. When the school-children were asking to be allowed to ‘just go home’, Israeli forces refused to allow them passage and continued yelling at them.
Watch a video:
A Palestinian man that drove up in his car was also denied passage. He got out of his car and requested soldiers to check his ID and pleaded to be allowed to go through, as it was an emergency and he had to go to the hospital. Even though soldiers in the beginning refused to let him pass dismissing his urgent request, they did finally allow him to go after about 2 minutes.
Watch a video:
While soldiers were blocking the market, about 50-80 Palestinian civilians were stopped and not able to move in any direction, forced to wait for the soldiers to finish their violent attack on every-day life in occupied al-Khalil. Once the soldiers went back through Bab il-Baladiyya towards segregated Shuhada Street, people were finally able to continue their everyday life.
