27th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
At 22:00 in the evening of Friday, July 25th, Israeli forces injured 15 Palestinians during a protest in the village of Beit Furik, which is located fifteen km southeast of Nablus in the northern half of the West Bank.
Approximately 2000 protesters were marching towards the checkpoint near the village. Roughly 40 Israeli soldiers were waiting for them there, and when they came into view, the soldiers began to shoot tear gas canisters in their direction. Shortly after the protest began, the soldiers changed from firing tear gas, to live ammunition.
23-year-old Yousef Mfeed Mletat was struck by a bullet in his left hip. He recounted the scene tearfully in his bed in Rafidia hospital in Nablus. “They were less than four meters away when they shot me. And then they started to beat me. A soldier was standing on my stomach while some of the others were kicking me. This went on for 15 minutes.” He revealed several welts on his arms and shoulders.
Yousef Mfeed Mletat (photo by ISM).
Yahya Hanay, who is 25-years-old, was trying to escape from the scene, when a stun grenade struck his hand, which was covering his face at the time. As he lay on the ground, another stun grenade hit his knee. Yahya has nerve damage in his left thumb, which is said to be serious.
Yahya Hanay (photo by ISM).
19-year-old Yezen Tala Khatatba, was attempting to help an injured protester, when he was shot in the left knee. The bullet exited his left knee and then entered an exited his right one. He was wearing bandages on both knees as he told his story. “The ambulance was taking me to the hospital, when soldiers twice stopped me for half an hour at a checkpoint. When I told them I had a leg injury, they said it would have been better if I’d been hit in the head.” Yezen also mentioned that another injured protestor had been taken from the ambulance at the checkpoint and beaten by soldiers.
14th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
On Tuesday 7th of May the Israeli army invaded Nablus and the nearby village of Beit Furik and arrested 9 men. The men, between the ages of 18 and 22, are all members of the PLFP. One man from Beit Furik was released a few hours following his detention, the others remain held at the Huwwara military base without charge.
Faris’ grandmother in the home where Faris was seized (Photo by ISM)
In Beit Furik, families describe how Israeli soldiers surrounded their homes at approximately 2am before entering and seizing the men. A neighbor reports he saw the soldiers enter the village in a large group. The soldiers then split off into smaller units so that they could arrest the men simultaneously from their family homes.
The mother of Sadaam Salame Mohammed Hoanni, 19 years-old, says the family had been asleep and did not have time to properly dress when the soldiers began hammering at her door. 14 of the soldiers entered the home and herded her family into the living room so that they could search the house while the others remained outside, surrounding the home.
She describes the soldiers as extremely loud and aggressive as they shouted at her family. They took Sadaam with them to inspect the family home and seized documents and information from the family computer.
When Sadaam’s mother asked the captain why he was arresting her son, the captain assured her that Sadaam was only needed for questioning and that he would be returned to her soon. Sadaam, however, remains in detention four days on and the family has been unable to communicate with him. They still have no idea why he was detained or how he is being treated. They say there was no particular event or action precipitating his arrest.
The family is despairing and they want Sadaam back, but say there is nothing they can do until the Israeli army decides to release him or provide more information on the reasons for his arrest. This is the first time the Israeli army has invaded their home and arrested a member of their family.
A few minutes down the road from Sadaam’s house, Faris Reem Hamad, 22 years-old, was also taken from his family home (at 2am). Faris’ grandmother reports that nearly 50 soldiers surrounded her home in what she describes as a siege. 20 of the soldiers entered and forced the family to gather in their living room as they searched the home.
The soldiers seized a photograph of Faris’ grandfather, who was martyred by the Israeli army in the 1970s when Faris’ grandmother was only 22 and mother to three children, the youngest only 6 months old at the time. They also took Faris and denied his family the chance to say goodbye. Faris remains held at the Huwwara military base. His family still does not know why he was arrested and have not been able to speak with him since his detention.
7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
by ISM Nablus
Fouzi, his bandages freshly changed for the day, holds a memento of the day he nearly was killed (photo: ISM)
Two olive farmers from the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, are recovering from head wounds in a near-lethal attack by colonial-settlers. Although both survived, they are in need of daily check-ups at a clinic in Nablus and are afraid to return to work on their land.
In the early afternoon of Monday 29th April, Fouzi Mousa Nasasra (65) and Abad al-Rahman Khatatba (50) went to put out fires started by settlers, from the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar, on their land just a brief walk away from their neighbouring homes. The fire service from Nablus also came to help put out the fire. Afterwards the pair took a rest on their land, which sits on a mountainside. Suddenly three settlers came at them in a surprise attack, with fifteen more in support. They hit them both in the head, with sharp farming tools and stones, repeatedly, causing them to collapse. Fortunately, other villagers saw what was happening and ran to help them, so settlers backed a retreat up the mountainside.
Both men needed hospital treatment for serious injuries to the head. Fouzi received 12 injuries to his head on 3 sides and Abad, 5 injuries to his head as he was able to put his hands up to protect himself. The fire, although it was put out, caused damage to approximately 300 olive trees.
When asked about the attack Fouzi spoke of how the settlers were laughing and ‘proud’ of what they were doing. He added that if there were no villagers about to see what happened he would be dead. He spoke of his concern of going back to his land, where he hasn’t returned even though it begins part-way along his road, after what happened and of past attacks in the last 12 years which have claimed two lives, 88 year-old Abu Odie and his own brother, 33 year-old Farrid Nasasra. Now Fouzi has to visit a clinic in the city of Nablus every day to change his dressings, as his wounds bleed all the time. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery, scars aside, and should have the bandages and stitches completely removed in a month.
The attacks and killings are accompanied by the Israeli Occupation Forces forbidding Beit Furik’s farmers from harvesting olives on the mountain. This attack has been one of several in a recent upsurge in violence by settlers, particularly from Yitzar (in Burin, Huwwara, Urif and Asira), Esh Kodesh (in Jalud) and Elon Moreh (in Azmut), over the last week in the Nablus governorate district.
Abad and Fouzi’s land on the mountainside by their houses (photo: ISM)Fouzi’s bloodstained shirt, with further loss of blood he believes he would have died (photo: ISM)
13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
“We called him Nassr, but I think his real name was Mahmoud,” says Ahmed while we were on the bus from the Beit Furik municipality building. Outside the bus window, the walls of the little town just outside of Nablus are plastered with freshly printed martyr posters. The picture shows a middle aged man photoshopped between the Dome of the Rock and the Palestinian flag.
Ali Hannini, the cousin of Mahmoud Hanin who was kiled by Israeli rocket fire.
It has just been a few days since Mahmoud Hanini was killed by an Israeli rocket while in a car in the Gaza Strip.
“He was suspected of being affiliated with a militant group in the West Bank in 2005 and was forced to flee to Jordan and then on to Egypt and Gaza where he worked with the resistance against the occupation,” Ahmed continues.
In the stairwell leading up to the Hanini residence, one of the landings is cluttered up with shoes and a somber song is playing from the apartment. The family is still in mourning. We are shown to the roof where Mahmoud’s cousin, Ali, serves us coffee and dates.
“Things are going to be hard for this family now,” he said.
Mahmoud only had one brother and eleven sisters. It will be economically difficult for them. Mahmoud also had three children in Beit Furik and two daughters in Gaza.
When Mahmoud was killed on Friday, he was in a car with Zuhair al-Qaissi, the leader of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, the group responsible for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
The body of Mahmoud Hanini will remain in Gaza, and his family will have to face the pain of not being able to visit his grave.
“It would be extremely expensive and difficult for us,” says Ali.
In the midst of military escalation in Gaza and the grief at home, the Hanini family still carry some hope for the future.
“We want to say a message to the people of the outside world: that the only thing we long for is peace. We only resist to win our freedom. This is not an issue of a conflict between religions. The issue is that Israel is occupying our lands in violation of international laws.”
The murder of Mahmoud Hanini, Zuhair al-Qaissi, and their driver set ablaze the region as groups throughout the Gaza strip responded by firing nearly a hundred rockets into Israeli territory. Most of these were intercepted by Israeli air defence, but one Israeli was killed by the rockets. Israel in turn responded with attacks against Gaza that since Friday have taken the lives of dozens of Palestinians.
Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
21 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The Palestinian family El Jobor was unsuccessful in their attempt to harvest olives today as they met resistance from Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers originating out of the Itamar settlement. Accompanied by ISM volunteers the family climbed the hillside above Beit Furik and marched through the olive groves to within roughly 400 meters of the Jewish settlement, which sits atop the hill’s mount, before being confronted and forced back down towards their home.
International observers and volunteers met with the father of the El Jobor family, in Nablus at 7:30 this morning, and rode with him to his home in Beit Furik where they met his wife, children, and neighbors. Carrying the usual tools of olive harvest, the buckets and small hand saw, the group began climbing the hillside towards the olive trees on the ridge, passing another Palestinian family about halfway up. Once the lookout towers and settlement buildings became visible, the group advanced in short segments, pausing for a few seconds each time, checking for movements out of the settlement, and measuring the risk of continuing on. The settlers were visible, but seemed to be going about their daily lives without paying much notice to the volunteers, until they came to about 400 meters of the nearest building. Everyone halted and began to watch as soldiers amassed in a group of about five or six.
Zionists attack Beit Furik – For more images click here
“We all stood our ground as they approached but began to take a few steps back when we saw how aggressive they were, and realized they were not about to negotiate or explain themselves,” said an ISM volunteer from France.
“Among the soldiers were two settlers who seemed to have some understanding with the army and managed to reach William and I even before the soldiers did. They were both furious, began shouting as they approached, and then when they came up to us began physically pushing us across the chest and shoulders,” said the French national.
The Palestinian family was already turning around and climbing back down the hillside as the two internationals asked the soldiers for some explanation, but realizing it was no use, they too began their descent.
“At this point we heard a shift in the soldier’s yelling and turned to see an additional group of Itamar settlers racing through the army rank towards us, brandishing stones and beginning to hurl them at us. At this point I turned tail and ran,” described another ISM volunteer.
The volunteers shouted to the settlers and soldiers “shame on you” and that they we were being peaceful. The soldiers were trying to head off the settlers and prevent them from throwing the stones but without much luck.
About two thirds of the way back down the hill they were clear of the settlers and slowed up. A new detachment of three soldiers appeared and stopped one of the older Palestinian men, asking for his papers. Two of the soldiers broke off and headed down the hillside asking the other men to come back, but without luck.
An officer arrived shortly, along with two attending soldiers and spoke to the Palestinian man, as well as to the volunteers. He explained that the farmers had been given a two week window in which to harvest but that this window had expired. He mentioned that hundreds of IDF soldiers had been present during that time to protect the harvest but no picking seemed to have taken place. He added that he will book and arrest any Palestinians who, after today, cross the road at the base of the hill and enter into what is considered IDF security-controlled territory.
“After this we reconvened with the rest of our party which was waiting for us a little further down the ridge and returned to the El Jobor home in Beit Furik, before returning to Nablus at about 10 AM. It’s likely that the family will continue trying to harvest the trees,” said the volunteer.
Itamar was founded in 1984 and has grown in that time from just over 300 settlers to now more than 1,000. It is situated on the hill mount above Beit Furik, southeast of Nablus, and occupies roughly 7,000 dunams of land, much of it believed to be land privately owned by Palestinians. Tensions are high right now after the Fogel family murders in Itamar last March for which two Palestinian teenagers from Awarta were arrested in April. The Itamar settlers have become very critical of the IDF, demanding that they stop providing protection to Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest, and that they prevent any further Palestinian incursion into the area surrounding the settlement. Threats have been leveled and the risk of violence seems to be very high.
