Tag: Arrests - Page 30 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli soldiers delay medical treatment to arrested Palestinian

1st October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Khirbet Al-Tawil, Occupied Palestine

On Monday morning, the 29^th of September, settlers and the Israeli army invaded the village of Khirbet Al-Tawil east of Aqraba. They destroyed the village’s main electrical cable and water pipe. The inhabitants of the village have been without electricity and running water since then.

At noon, Wednesday October 1^st, a Palestinian man accused of repairing the electrical cable destroyed by settlers and Israeli soldiers was arrested by Israeli forces in Khirbet Al-Tawil. Asked for the reason for the arrest, an Israeli soldier replied that the electrical cable, placed on Palestinian land, was illegal due to the village not paying for the use of the electricity.

The Israeli soldiers took the Palestinian’s ID from him and forced him to drive his motorbike in front of the military jeep to the Alhamra checkpoint for interrogation. During the drive, a car with one Palestinian, one international and three ISM activists stopped to give the man some water. The Israeli soldiers stepped out of the jeep and yelled orders to the group, trying to prevent them from giving the man water. The man was shaking and while drinking the water he collapsed on the road, suffering from an epileptic seizure.

The Israeli soldiers came closer and interrupted the group that was trying to give the Palestinian first aid. Even though his condition was serious the soldiers did not call for help until the group started working on getting an ambulance. Then the Israeli solders called for backup and medical help. At that time the man was still cramping and fighting to catch his breath. One soldier stayed with the man to prevent him from escaping and the other soldiers stood by and laughed.

After about forty minutes a military ambulance followed by a group of more soldiers arrived. The man was stable at that time, but still suffering from the aftereffects of the seizure. A woman dressed as a soldier, identifying herself as a doctor took a quick look at the patient where he was sitting on the road after denying taking him inside the ambulance, even though the sun was very strong at that moment and not helping his condition.

An Israeli military commander arrived at the same time as the ambulance. He commanded the group of Palestinian, civilian and ISM activist who were taking care of the man to back off. One ISM activist refused to leave the patient and was immediately surrounded by armed soldiers. The Israeli commander became aggressive and forced the patient to stand up and walk to the military jeep and get in between two soldiers. Right before they drove away, on ISMe activist noticed the soldiers handcuffing the Palestinian. The man was released later that day.

Two young Palestinians arrested and abused

24th September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

20140922_204351 — Muhammed (Photo supplied by family)

Monday afternoon in Hebron, two young Palestinian men were arrested and abused north of Qeitun after being falsely accused of stone throwing.

21-year-old Muhammad Ghaleb Abu Sbeih was walking home from work when soldiers from the Israeli military force arrested him. Six boys had been throwing stones in the area and Muhammad was accused of taking part even though the soldiers had no evidence. A local Palestinian stated that Muhammad had been beaten while walking up to the checkpoint where he was held for two hours along with 19-year old Shadi Abdel Hamed Al-Atras.

When the boys’ families arrived the soldiers were rude to the mothers and Muhammad’s sister. Muhammad’s mother heard her son’s screams from inside the army jeep in which he was being held captive and beaten. Initially, the soldiers denied that anyone by that name was in the jeep but then changed their tactics and started mocking the family, saying bad words to the women in both Arabic and Hebrew.

The soldiers kept laughing and joking around and at one point they wanted the password for Muhammad’s iPhone to access it. After being held inside the jeep for two hours, Muhammad and Shadi were finally driven away and the soldiers shouted, “with love Muhammad“ and clapped.

The young men were driven to Kiryat Arba police station and are still being held. According to the DCO (District Coordination Office) Muhammad is being transferred to Ofer court and Shadi has been moved to a checkpoint in Hebron where he will hopefully soon be released.

Tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and arrests

19th September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine

Every week, several villages across the West Bank demonstrate against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This week, ISM activists attended protests in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin, and Nabi Saleh.

During the demonstration in Bil’in, Israeli soldiers shot mass amounts of tear gas at peaceful protesters. Many Palestinians and internationals suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation. An Israeli activist, and a Labour Party Councillor traveling withChi Onwurah, the British Member of Parliament for Newcastle, were arrested.

In Ni’lin, north of Ramallah, the Israeli military shot tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters. The army began shooting unprovoked at Palestinians and internationals as soon as the Friday prayer had finished and people and children as young as five year olds were walking in the area. Several Palestinians were still praying when the military attacked.

The Israeli military shot approximately ten tear gas canisters at a time and also fired rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades. No one was injured in the demonstration today. For the past weeks the military has moved closer to the residential area of the village, locals have raised concerns that the army will soon enter the village during a demonstration.

During the Nabi Saleh demonstration protesters attempted to reach the gate at the entrance to the village which Israeli forces use to close the village off from the rest of the West Bank. Israeli forces fired many rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstrators and used excessive amounts of tear gas. Several people were injured by rubber coated steel bullets. Many protesters also suffered from the effects of the tear gas, which resulted in a Palestinian women being taken to hospital for tear gas inhalation, she was later released.

The arrest of Burin activist Ghassan Najjar

10th September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Burin, Occupied Palestine

The prominent activist from the West Bank village of Burin, and member of Solidarity Movement for Free Palestine, Ghassan Najjar, was taken by the Israeli army from his home in the early hours of the morning on the 27th August. He was transferred to the notorious interrogation facility, Petah Tikva.

The before he was arrested, Ghassan, alongside a group of a villagers from Burin, tried to prevent Israeli soldiers from entering the girls’ classroom of the local school.

Staff from the Israeli Human Rights organisation BT’selem, who was filming the attempted school incursion, was also detained, but released shortly after.

Ghassan was arrested for allegedly throwing stones and hitting a soldier.

On 31th August he appeared briefly before a secret court and a Military Judge agreed to his detention for a further seven days. The second court hearing, which took place on 7th September, was also brief because the soldier witness did not turn up and Ghassan’s detention was extended for eight more days.

Ghassan’s friends and family showed ISM, during a recent visit to Burin, a video of the army attack on the school and saw no evidence that Ghassan did anything other than peacefully protest with the others against the school raid.

When asked if the video would be useful for Ghassan’s defense, a friend of Ghassan said, “It would be in a democratic country, but all the Israelis care about is their security.”

Another of Ghassan’s friends told ISM he had received many threats at different checkpoints, preceding his recent arrest. “Once a soldier told Ghassan that they did not want to arrest him directly at the checkpoint, because they wanted to come to his house, destroy everything and make his mother suffer.”

When the occupying army came to arrest Ghassan, the unit captain instructed the soldiers to “destroy everything,” a soldier turned to Ghassan’s mother and stated, “we will wreck your house.”

They did as promised. Everything that could be broken was broken and slashed. They even broke pots with houseplants, and cut bottoms from the armchairs. The vandalism lasted from 2am to 4.30am.

Ghassan was taken away, handcuffed and blindfolded. Only after the soldiers left, did his mother allow herself to cry.

“Our resistance is peaceful. Ghassan never did anything violent, but we worry because we know Israeli military justice. To give you an example, to this day both Ghassan’s lawyer and the International Committee of Red Cross have been denied access to him,” A friend of the family stated.

For a number of years, the Palestinian West Bank village of Burin, located seven kilometers south of Nablus, has been under constant attack by both the Israeli occupying army, and the zionist settlers from some of the most extreme illegal settlement colonies, such as Yitzhar and Bracha, covering the hilltops around it.

A villager told ISM that the army invades the village almost nightly. Soldiers enter houses and the whole families with children and older people are forced to stay outside in the middle of the night, for long periods of time.

Frequently the army erects checkpoints at the entrance and in the center of the village, near to the boys’ school and the Mosque.

“Things are going to get even worse,” Another villager stated, “The olive harvest is around the corner and that is when settler attacks intensify. Olive harvest used to be a festival, a time of joy, and now it is a nightmare.”

Since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, much of Burin’s land and water has been taken away and handed over to the Zionist settlers or to the occupying Israeli army, for military bases.

“About 25 to 30 dunums (one dunum is 1000m²) of land belong to our village and we have free access only to seven dunums and even that is limited to some parts of the year,” said a local man.

Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization, reports that in 2013, Burin lost more olive trees due to settler vandalism than any other West Bank village. In the first months of the last year alone, 7714 Palestinian owned trees were damaged.

VIDEO: Seven-year-old violently detained, one child and two adults arrested

8th September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

This morning in al-Khalil (Hebron), through the Salaymeh checkpoint, a seven-year-old was forcefully detained and three more were arrested, including another child.

At 07:40, approximately six young children started throwing small stones towards the checkpoint. A few minutes later a group of Israeli border police emerged running from a road close to the schools, and more border police ran down from the checkpoint.

Israeli forces threw two stun grenades and fired approximately three tear gas canisters towards the children standing outside their schools.

Two border police officers grabbed 12-year-old Yousef Hajajreh by the neck and walked him to the checkpoint where he was later arrested and driven away in a police car.

Two more border police officers forcefully dragged and carried Oday Rajabi, a seven-year-old boy, who was also on his way to school, and detained him for approximately 40 minutes.

Border police officers aggressively pushed Palestinian men, including teachers from the nearby schools, whilst they were trying to protect the children.

A teacher, Abd al-Aziz Hmad Rjob, from the UN school was forced into a headlock as he was trying to intervene with the crying seven-year old. He was also dragged up the road where he was arrested.

Palestinians and internationals then gathered at the Salaymeh checkpoint where an 18-year old man, Malak Salaymeh, working at the same school was also arrested as he confronted the soldiers. Another man was also briefly detained.

Palestinian children threw several more stones, and Israeli forces fired three more tear gas canisters.

An ISM volunteer who was present stated, “The situation was terrible, I felt like it was a planned operation where the aim was clearly to terrify schoolchildren and the soldiers were out to arrest.”

Yousef, Abd, and Malak were released at noon, roughly three hours after they were arrested.

Israeli forces have previously targeted extremely young children as they wait for school in al-Khalil; ISM has documented a number of these incidents while monitoring Salaymeh checkpoint as children pass through to go to school.