Tag: Balata Refugee Camp

The escalation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank

Balata Refugee Camp
By. Diana Khwaelid
Israel is escalating and expanding its crimes in the West Bank, as well as in Gaza.
On the evening of Friday, November 17th, the Israeli occupation forces, in cooperation and partnership
with the Israeli Shin Bet, carried out an aerial bombardment on the Fatah headquarters in the
Balata refugee camp, targeting 4 Palestinian men wanted by the Israeli occupation forces.
The youngest of them was the martyr Mohammed Massimi, age 16.
An Israeli warplane fired an air missile at the Fatah headquarters in the Balata refugee camp
when it received information that the wanted men were inside. Israel has not
fired such kind of missiles through the Airplane since the AlAqsa agreement during the Second Intifada.
According to sources from the Red Crescent Society and eyewitnesses who were in the camp,
the four young men were found in horrible circumstances.
They are the martyr Mohammed Abbas, 20 years old, Mahmoud Zahed zoufi , 39 years old, Mohammed Hashash 18 years old and Mohammed Massimi, 16 years old.

The camp woke up to the sound of an explosion, around 11 o’clock at midnight, to be surprised
by the shelling of the Fatah movement headquarters in the camp, and they found 4 bodies
belonging to the four young men, and dismbeberd body limbs because of the intensity of the explosion.
The Red Crescent crews, with the presence of members of the Palestinian civil defense,
removed the four young men and the remaining body parts, and they were transferred to
Rafidia government hospital in Nablus.

But the Israeli occupation not only killed and targeted the 4 of them; Israeli snipers targeted
the young martyr Ali Faraj shoothing him on the neck. The number of martyrs of the Balata refugee camp increased to 5 martyrs in less than 4 hours.
The bodies of the martyrs were given to their families for a final farewell. A state of fear, horror and sadness prevailed in the Balata camp, until the day after the funeral of the 5 martyrs took place. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funerals, chanting words of anger and resistance, condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the percentage of martyrs in the West Bank has
reached more than 120 martyrs since October 7th.

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.

Weaponry recovered from Occupation forces in Tulkarem

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

More young men and teenagers arrested by the Israeli military

9th December 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

On December 8th in Nablus, the Israeli army broke into the homes of two families in Balata refugee camp and arrested two young Palestinians, 19-year-old Mujahed al Shekhalil and 17-year-old Yazan Hta.

In both cases, their homes were raised by the military in the middle of the night (3am and 3:30am) damaging doors and property inside the houses. At the time of the incursions, all family members were sleeping. The military forced all family members into one room whilst they arrested the teenagers. Both families state that between 15 and 20 soldiers broke into their homes, and they were given no reason for either the intrusions or the arrests.

In the village of Madama, on the same night, the Israeli army also entered the home of the Wajeihqut family and arrested 23-year-old Assad Allah. The army spent an hour inside the house between 2:20am and 3:20am, again forcing all family members inside one room. The family reported to ISM that the soldiers told Assad’s 9-year-old brother that if he did not stop speaking they would take him with his brother. Another brother was told that if he did not go into the room with the family then they would cut his head off.

The army confiscated every family members phone and stole the sim cards from them and the hard drive from the family computer. They also smashed the apartments heating system.

This was the fifth time Assad has been arrested and the family home has been raided by the army on numerous occasions.

In all cases, the families were not given a reason for the arrests or for the damage done to their homes, and do not have any information as to where their sons have been taken.

Israeli settlers and soldiers invade Balata refugee camp

20th September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Occupied Palestine

On the 17^th of September, under heavy Israeli army protection, Israeli settlers from nearby illegal settlements entered Nablus with the aim of praying at Joseph’s tomb in Balata refugee camp.

Just after midnight, the Israeli army closed the district that surrounds the monument, blocking all the streets leading to the tomb and preventing anyone from passing nearby, either by foot or by car.

Around 1am, between eight and 10 buses full with hundreds of settlers invaded the area.

Clashes began in the area, particularly in the junction just in front of the entry to Balata refugee camp.

Youths threw stones for more then two hours against the army vehicles, that were moving up on the hill and back, seemingly in order to keep them busy and far from the large groups of Zionist settlers. Military trucks also tried several times to run over the Palestinian youths while they were throwing stones.

The Israeli army fired many stun grenades, and the road blockades were kept in place until the settlers left the area.

Clashes around Balata occur almost weekly, any time that the settlers decide to invade the area for praying. The settlers claim this monument belongs to the Biblical patriarch Joseph, while most of the Palestinians believe that the religious guide Sheikh Yusef Dweikat was buried there, according to Islamic tradition. Though Joseph is a sacred figure as well in Muslim, Christian and Samaritan religion, Muslims are not allowed to pray there.

Labeling their own actions as “security measures”, the army can easily shoot down a whole neighborhood and guarantee the Israeli settlers the freedom to move and pray wherever they wish, even in a site which is deeply inside Area A, which is supposed under Palestinian civil and security control. On the other side, most of the Palestinian living in the West Bank are not allowed to pray in their holy places, starting from this Joseph´s tomb to the biggest example of Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem.

These evidently different treatments intensify the inequality in rights between Palestinians and illegal Israeli settlers and make the life under occupation more and more unbearable.

A story from Balata refugee camp

22nd July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Balata, Occupied Palestine

The Abu Leel family are refugees, who fled from Haifa to Balata refugee camp in Nablus in 1948.

Asma Alshmeer gave birth to 10 healthy children, five of whom have been killed by the Israeli military. The first was killed when he was a child during the first intifada. A soldier came to the family home and knocked on the door. When the family did not open the door, he threw a tear gas grenade inside the house, and child died from gas suffocation. The second son was killed during the second intifada. A soldier stopped his car and ordered him to pick up a stone. When he bent down to pick it up, the soldier executed him. The third son was killed by an Israeli rocket attack during the second intifada when he was praying in the souq (market) during a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners. Asma was unable to fully speak about the last two stories, due to devastating pain of the loss.

Of the remaining five children, four have spent considerable time in prison; one for two years, three of them for five and a half years and the last one is still in prison serving a life sentence. This story is a typical experience of Palestinian refugees living in Palestine. Almost every family living in the refugee camps has had family members killed, imprisoned or badly injured by soldiers, and many have had their homes damaged or destroyed.

There are many refugee camps both inside and outside of Palestine. The refugee camps were built following the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948 when Palestinians were forced from their homes. In the beginning all the refugee camps were build in small areas made of tents as people initially believed this to be a temporary situation. However, as time progressed, the number of refugees living in the camps has only increased, particularly following the 1967 war and Israel’s subsequent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Due to land confiscation and the oppression of the occupation, more and more Palestinians have been forced into the camps, which have been ill prepared to deal with this influx.

Refugee camps all around Palestine therefore suffer from difficult conditions, including lack of adequate infrastructure and severe overcrowding. 30,000 residents live in an area no bigger than 0.25 square kilometers in Balata. Streets are narrow, and daylight limited. These difficult conditions and trauma of the occupation have caused social problems including unemployment, drug abuse, domestic violence, and lack of formal education.

However community organizations are working hard to respond to these difficulties. For example the Children Center in Balata Camp arranges activities with the children to help them deal with the trauma of domestic violence. The center is also planning to conduct interviews with young boys who have been in prison, to write about their experience and to offer support as they attempt to recover.

Askar refugee camp, which is also in Nablus, has a population of 31,629 people. There the local Women’s Center provides support to women to support their independence both economically and in terms of education.

Some members of the Women's Center in Askar refugee camp (photo by ISM). — Some members of the Women’s Center in Askar refugee camp (photo by ISM).

They cover issues of gender equality and provide support in the context of domestic and marital difficulties. The center also offers a kindergarten and a fitness room and provides vocational adult education. Courses include cookery, cosmetology, sewing and embroidery. Due to their lack of funding, the two centers are in search of organizations that are able to provide support.