2nd March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
In recent weeks, protests for both sick Palestinian detainees and those engaging in long-term hunger strikes have increased in the Gaza Strip.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Last Monday morning, following a regular weekly sit-in in the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office, demonstrators rallied by a protest tent erected outside.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
On 18th February, Addameer reported hunger strikes by seven detainees. Today the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said three additional prisoners had launched strikes against their administrative detentions.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Demonstrations in solidarity with the detainees have also been held elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, including yesterday by the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun.
At al-Shifa hospital Mohammed Helles, age 14, is laying in a coma with an uncertain outcome after he was shot, with what appeared, to be a tear-gas canister in the head and parts of it penetrated his brain. He had an operation, but fragments are still left. Kamal hospital reported thirteen injures, from both gunshot wounds in the legs and tear-gas canisters.
Israeli forces struck a Palestinian protester in the head with a tear-gas canister in Jabaliya, in the northeastern Gaza Strip.
Friday’s demonstration on the hillside east of Jabaliya gathered about 400 people, mostly young men in their late teens. Protests against land seizure, mixed with dissent at the consequences of the occupation such as a broken economy, soaring unemployment and loss of hope for the future, were met by tear gas and live ammunition, with ambulances shuttling back and forth .
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Over the slope an Israeli drone hovered at a low altitude, but at an even lower altitude two Palestinian kites floated close over the fence. Cheers and applause broke out when one tore and three Israeli soldiers rushed after it. But it was also the only thing protesters had over which to rejoice. The protests will probably not change the occupying power’s policy towards the Palestinian people. According to figures from OCHA, 17 percent of the Gaza Strip, including 35 percent of its farmland, is unavailable due to the Israeli-established “buffer zone.” More than 100,000 people are directly affected, and the protests against the occupying power, as well as its military response to them, are likely to continue.
An Israeli drone is hovering over Palestinian protesters by the separation barrier in Jabaliya, in the northeastern Gaza Strip.
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20th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
On Thursday the 20th of February, the violent arrests of seven villagers occurred early in the morning in the village of Kafr Qaddum. Four of those arrested, including the coordinator of the weekly demonstration, were released after six hours. The three others are still under detention. One of them suffered a head injury during his arrest.
Between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., hundreds of Israeli soldiers surrounded then entered the village of Kafr Qaddum. The soldiers went to several houses and violently arrested seven villagers, including the coordinator of the weekly march. They handcuffed and blindfolded the villagers and physically and verbally abused them. One of those arrested, Faris Nidal, was injured in the head in the process.
The coordinator of the march has been pressured to put an end to the weekly demonstration taking place each friday in the village for more than four years. The goal of the demonstration is to pressure the army to open the road linking Kafr Qaddum and the whole Qalqiliya district to Nablus. The Supreme Court of Israel officially agreed to this demand in 2010, with no visible effect on the ground.
Later in the morning, around 8:00 a.m., four of the villagers, including the coordinator, were released. The three other villagers, including Faris Nidal, remain in detention in an uncertain location.
21st February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
The fifth annual “Open Shuhada Street” campaign took place on Friday the 21st of February in Hebron. Five people were arrested and 13 treated after being shot by rubber-coated steel bullets during a peaceful demonstration to open Shuhada Street for Palestinians.
Photo by ISM
On the 21st of February about two thousand Palestinians and international human rights activists took part in the “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration in Hebron, Occupied West Bank. The demonstration, organised by Palestinian activist group Youth Against Settlements and Hebron Defence Committee, started at the Ali Al-Baka mosque and then went towards Bab Al-Baladiya. Bab Al-Baladiya is a small square in front of the gate leading to Al-Shuhada Street at the illegal settlement Beit Romano.
Shortly after arriving at Bab Al-Baladiya the Israeli Forces threw a large amount of stun grenades right into the crowd of peaceful demonstrators and shot teargas at the part of the demonstration that had not yet gotten close to Bab Al-Baladiya. Several Palestinians were arrested following the chaos caused by more than ten stun grenades being thrown in a short time span. This dispersed the demonstration into several smaller groups.
Following the demobilization of the peaceful demonstration by the Israeli forces, clashes erupted near Bab Al-Zawiye.
According to medical sources thirteen were treated for injuries caused by rubber-coated steel bullets and a large number was treated at the hospital or on the spot for excessive teargas inhalation. A total of five were arrested.
Al-Shuhada Street, once the main market street in Hebron, was made off-limits to Palestinians following the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994, when American-born Israeli Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 and wounded 125 Palestinians that had been praying inside the mosque.
The street was partially reopened to Palestinians following the Hebron Protocols in 1997 but was closed again to Palestinians after the outbreak of the Second Intifada. February the 25th, 2014 marks the 20thanniversary of the massacre.
Photo by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISM
23rd February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On Sunday the 23th of February at around 9:30 a.m. more than ten settlers forced a Palestinian shop owner to stop renovating his shop. The settlers did this by sitting at tables and chairs they had brought from the nearby Gutnick Center in Hebron, an Israeli visitors center close to the Ibrahimi mosque, eating breakfast right in front of the shop while harassing the men at work.
Photo by ISM
The shop owner had gotten permission to do the renovation by the Israeli Civil Administration but this was not satisfactory to the settlers, who forced the Palestinians to stop working. When the Palestinians tried to continue their work the settlers became aggressive towards them, making them stop.
The Palestinian workers from the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, an organization which rebuilds Palestinians houses and helps improve living standards in the Old City in Hebron, asked the settlers to move the table and have their breakfast on the other side of the road but they refused.
The Israeli police, border police and soldiers were all present but did not interfere with the settlers’ harassment of the Palestinian workers. The stated reason for not interfering was that the settlers were on a public road and therefore were allowed to be there, ignoring the fact that the settlers confronted the workers each time they tried working.
The Israeli Civil Administration called the shop owner and ordered him to stop working for an hour until the settlers had gone away. As a result, the settlers managed to postpone the work of restoring the shop for about three hours.
Hebron was with the Oslo Protocol in 1997 divided in two parts, H1 and H2. H1 is area A and controlled by the Palestinian Authority, while H2 is under full Israeli control even though it is inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians and about 500 Israeli settlers.
It is not rare that Israeli settlers from the Tel Rumeida or the Kiryat Arba settlements harass or even attack the Palestinians living in H2 in Hebron.
