Ahmed Abu Artema, who lives in Gaza, describes Israel’s relentless bombing as it continues to wipe out entire neighborhoods around him. Since Saturday, Israel has been bombing Gaza—a 25-mile strip of land, where half of the residents are children—non-stop. #PalestineUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/C4ifhVIKTr
— The Top Secrets (@TheTopSecrets6) October 11, 2023
Gaza Under Attack: ISM statement and call to action
In these days, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing “mighty vengeance” following Saturday’s offensive by the Palestinian resistance, European governments are releasing statements essentially greenlighting Israel’s bombing campaign, which has already killed more than 400 Palestinians in Gaza and that might soon be followed by a ferocious ground invasion. For its part, the United States government has pledged a swift additional package of military aid to Israel. Once again deciding to directly participate in the crimes of the Israeli government.
Colonial violence is rising in the West Bank, as Israeli soldiers and settlers seek reprisals against Palestinian communities. The Israeli government now feels it has additional clearance from the West to escalate its project of ethnic cleansing.
The International Solidarity Movement maintains its presence on the ground in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, provide protective presence and report on human rights abuses.
Given the dire situation, more volunteers are needed. We are calling for all those who stand in solidarity with Palestine to join ISM’s efforts on the ground in the West Bank.
https://palsolidarity.org/join/
The ISM also calls on everyone in solidarity with Palestine to act immediately to stop Israeli massacres by organising demonstrations, and pickets and direct actions, organising boycott campaigns in line with the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid. We also call for people to contact their representatives, and lobby them to condemn the colonial policies of the Israeli state.
Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation, settler colonialism and racist military dictatorship for decades. In particular, for 16 years Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to an inhuman military blockade, under which the Israeli government calculatedly deprives two million Palestinians of the most basic necessities, such as access to essential goods, medical treatment, electricity and water. Recurrent bombing campaigns by the Israeli military killed more than 6400 Palestinians between 2008 and 2022, and deliberately targeted critical civilian infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and water plants.
Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem face killings, torture, beatings, night raids, settler pogroms, tear-gas, house and school demolitions, collective punishments, ethnic cleansing, expulsions, land seizure, arbitrary arrests, humiliations at check-points, and systematic racial discrimination on a daily basis.
No Palestinian is a stranger to the war that Israel has been waging on them for decades, a war that has only escalated under the current Israeli government, the most far-right the country has ever seen.
On Saturday Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was at war. What this really means is that for the first time in decades, Palestinians are not the only ones facing the consequences of Israel’s colonial apartheid state.
The International Solidarity Movement joins Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists and organisations all around the world in restating that the root cause of the current violence is Israeli occupation and settler colonialism. Until the oppression of Palestinians comes to an end, Israel is responsible for the death and misery of Palestinians and Israelis. Governments and companies that directly support Israeli apartheid and military occupation, and the international community that fails to react to constrain Israeli terror, also share responsibility for the continuing violence.
ISM activists will maintain their presence on the ground in the West Bank and continue their efforts outside of Palestine to stand in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli oppression, until freedom, justice and equality is achieved. We invite you to contact your local ISM support group and join us in Palestine.
Please email at ISMtraining@riseup.net.
Weekly demonstration in Der Istya – 6th October
On Fridays 6th, people in Deir Istya protested against a new outpost that was built three months ago close to the village.
After the prayer almost 70 protesters, among them members of the local Popular Resistance Committee, residents from the surrounding villages, ISM internationals and Israeli activists went down from the hill and, waving their flags, tried, peacefully, to reach the outpost.
Blocked by the army, there was a long confrontation between protesters, soldiers and Border Police.
The protesters were making clear their reasons for demonstrating while the soldiers were trying – shouting and pushing violently – to repel them.
Finally the Border Police started to launch a lot of sound bombs and gas canisters. 10 people suffered for the gas and one needed assistance from the Red Crescent volunteer. The soldiers arrested a journalist and the Minister of the Commission of Resistance to the Wall and Colonies: handcuffed and blindfolded them and violently pushed them into their military jeep.
A sniper held a group of boys in his sight, preventing them from continuing the protest.
Flags, voices and the absolute awareness of being right against sound bombs and gas canisters of one of the strongest army in the world… this is Palestine.
Endless Israeli military campaigns in Tulkarem
By. Diana Khwaelid
Tulkarm – 5-10-2023
A rapid military operation carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarem camp at dawn today, around 5 a.m. Dozens of Israeli military vehicles stormed Tulkarem camp in the centre of the city, in the northern West Bank.
Strong confrontations and clashes broke out between Palestinian militants who tried to confront the occupation forces and defend the camp. Between the Israeli occupying forces, it lasted almost two hours.
At the same time, the occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus, in particular the Balata camp, to secure the way for settlers to reach the Tomb of the Prophet Joseph near the camp, to perform Talmudic prayer ahead of the occasion of Jewish Throne Day. Three youths were injured by live bullets, another was injured while trying to escape. Dozens of youths suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Eyewitnesses from the camp said that they noticed the presence of Israeli special forces from the Al-Yamam battalion, so alarm sirens were activated in the camp later and armed confrontations broke out between the two parties. It lasted about 15 minutes, during which explosive bombs were thrown, and one of the occupation soldiers was shot in the head, according to eyewitnesses.
The Israeli occupation forces stormed the family home of the hunted young man (Amir Balawneh) and arrested his father (Saad Mahmoud Balawneh), 45 years old. As a means of pressure for his son to surrender to the Israeli occupation forces. On the morning of 5th September the Israeli occupation forces arrested the freed prisoner Ahmed Abu Khadra (35) from Tulkarem while he was passing through one of the military checkpoints.
Israeli media sources confirmed that the Tulkarm Battalion mounted a rapid response in the camp, and emphasized the continuous resistance to the occupation in defence of the camp. The continued resistance pays tribute to its martyrs, who were killed in an assassination carried out by the occupation forces near the village of Shufa southeast of the city.
There were injuries and deaths in the ranks of the Israeli army during its storming of the Tulkarm camp at dawn on the 5th October.
Approximately at 7: 15 a.m. today – after the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the camp, with heavy material and human losses – local and Israeli media broadcast news about the assassination of two young
Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces, near the Shufa checkpoint, in Tulkarm. Hebrew language Israeli sources claimed that Palestinian youths had carried out an attack by shooting at an Israeli settler on the 20th August of this year near the illegal settlement of Avni Hefetz.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Palestinian Liaison Directorate confirmed the martyrdom of the two young men – Huthayfa Adnan Fares, (27), and Abdul Rahman Fares Atta (23).
5th September was a sad day of mourning in the city of Tulkarm, its villages and camps, the National Action factions in the city declared public mourning and a strike in honour of the spirit of the martyrs
Ten people from the city of Tulkarem have been martyred by occupying forces since the beginning of the year.
Screenshots have been taken from Quds News Network
Resisting the expulsions in Wadi Siq
Wadi Siq is a Bedouin community East of Ramallah, under threat of forced displacement.
Some families have already been chased away. The combined pressure from the Occupation authorities and the fanatical settlers has been increasing dramatically in recent months. Four nearby communities – Ein Samiya, Al-Qabun, Ras al-Tin and a community close to Taybeh Junction – have been forced to evacuate since 2019. Settler violence is on the increase, and the communities off Wadi Siq and Ein Rashash are facing an existential threat.
Even where families are still in their living spaces, there are ruined buildings that the frequency of settler attacks has discouraged people from rebuilding. The small primary school is now bearing the brunt of the attacks. It is under threat of demolition and it is unlikely that the plaques proclaiming the EU’s pious policy of opposition to forced transfer will offer much protection. When we spoke to the Headmistress, her fear of demolition was far less than her terror of settler violence. An outpost has been set up opposite the school gate, only a couple of hundred meters away. The young hooligans who live there use their vehicles to harass children and teachers on a daily basis, blocking the road and provoking minor collisions whenever the children’s school bus or the teachers minibus enter or exit the school.
The constant feeling of insecurity has forced many children to abandon their education. Numbers have declined from 120 students to 65, since the erection of the settlers tents last year.
A day before we were there, a settler had pointed his gun through the window of a classroom, terrifying children and teachers. They break and steal when possible: the school is equipped with impressive solar panels, but the batteries have been stolen, meaning that the classrooms have no digital technology any more, and the lack of air conditioning makes it difficult to work and study under the tin roofs.
Currently, different activists and organisations are working together to set up a protective presence and to raise awareness in the hope of preventing another episode of ethnic cleansing.
