Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the complete closure of the West Bank on Friday, sealing all entrances to Jerusalem and Israel.
According to the Defense Ministry, the closure will last at least until next Sunday, giving the Israeli security services time to re-evaluate the situation after the attack on a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
Immediately after the attack on the school, to the north of Bethlehem, Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered Bethlehem, surrounded the home of Islamic Jihad activist Muhammad Shahada and began to demolish the house.
The invading forces fired a missile at the two-storey house before bulldozers began demolishing it. They also demolished the house of Shahada’s father and seized his brother.
Local sources said that the Israeli forces closed the area surrounding Shahada’s house and searched in the neighbor’s houses looking for Shahada. Bethlehem resident Hasan Abu Sadud was shot in the foot.
Ma’an’s reporter said that the Israeli soldiers forced all the residents of the neighborhood out into the street and ordered them to undress. Not knowing wether Shahada was present, the soldiers called Shahada through loudspeakers, demanding to emerge from the house.
Earlier on Thursday, 20-year-old Osama ‘Eed from the village of Jurat Ash-Sham’a, near Bethlehem, was seriously injured after confrontations broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian young people.
The forces withdrew on Friday morning.
The Israeli police announced a state of alert in all Israeli cities, especially Jerusalem where thousands of soldiers and police officers deployed preventing Muslims from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Meanwhile, extremist Jews threatened to take revenge, shouting “death to Arabs”.
Barak said the attack represented the failure of the Palestinian Authority to fight “terrorism.”
Three days ago the city of Hebron awoke to the sound of shooting and shouting. The Army cleared the checkpoint area with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets and then occupied a house overhead to watch and shoot at the boys who threw stones. A few minutes later the army and the border police arrived with four or five jeeps. They began to move the boys back from the settlements using rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas. The fighting kept going all day, merging with various demonstrations that brought the numbers up to 3000 in the city centre.
The violence escalated throughout the day with the boys making barricades and throwing Molotov cocktails. The Army responded with live ammunition and many were injured throughout the day. Some reports estimate 40 injured, although other say more.
The next day the fighting started again, although to a lesser extent. Most Hebronites simply watched the Army and the boys fighting. The number of boys fell to between fifty and one hundred. Most of the stones were were well out of range of the army but Human Rights Workers witnessed the use of rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition.
Yesterday the Army took no chances and called in the PA authorities. The centre of Hebron was occupied by dozens of PA officers armed with AK-47’s. The fighting was little and sporadic with only one real incident which was quickly cleared by the IOF.
The Army made many arrests throughout the day, trying to track down ringleaders or those whom had committed the most violence. Human Rights Workers witnessed six boys being held in the Tel Rumeida checkpoint. They were all cuffed and blindfolded. Most were between 17 and 22 but there were two boys as young as 14 and 15. After being held for two hours four of the older boys were taken by the Border Police. But the two youngest boys stayed in the checkpoint all night, for a total of 14 hours. HRW’s ensured that water and bathroom breaks were given but the soldiers insisted that no blankets should be given to the boys even though they were in short T-shirts and it was a cold night. One soldier insisted that they “are criminals and deserve to be punished”, another said that they should “suffer all night to teach them a lesson”. However other HRW’s noticed that one blanket had been given as the evening went on. The next day three more boys were arrested and taken to the checkpoint, they were not blindfolded however and HRW’s were able to get their names and ages. They were taken by the Army into the miltary base in Tel Rumeida.
The village of Beit Ummar did not escape the demonstrations and violence of the past few days. Before the Gaza incidents Beit Ummar held a spate of non-violent protests which were quickly dissipated by the Army. In one incident the settlers came out of Karmet Sour and began firing on the crowd with live ammunition, though luckily no one was hurt. However in response to the Gaza crisis the students held several demonstrations against the military tower that watches over the village. Unfortunately one boy was injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the leg and another boy was shot through the head with live ammunition. He remains in a critical condition in a Hebron hospital.
Yesterday the Old City was thoroughly searched by the Army. Many shops were shut, the Army made improvised checkpoints and banned many people from entering at all. Most shops were searched and the Army cordoned areas as no-go zones. Palestinians here hope that the Army does not find an excuse to shut down the Old City
The fighting seems to have ended in Hebron for the moment. Yesterday the children’s municipality called a meeting in conjunction with the Red Crescent as to the city’s response to the fighting and the Gaza crisis. Many suggestions were put forward including the use of international help, boycotts of Israeli products and better use of the media. Hopefully this will be the first of many meetings to decide the cities response to this situation.
Today roughly fifteen hundred people, including Palestinian and Israeli activists, international Human Rights Workers and journalists, gathered in the village of Al Khader, in the Bethlehem region, as part of a weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall. Once the demonstration was gathered, the Israeli Army gave a five minute period in which to leave or else they would begin shooting.
The demonstration began with a speech and the noon time prayer. Some young boys were without prayer mats and were using banners which read “Free Palestine,””End the Occupation,”and “Feed The Gaza Children” to kneel on.
After praying the procession was lead by a group carrying a banner of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which today celebrated it’s thirty-ninth birthday.
There was singing and clapping and waving of flags all along the road leading up to Route 60, where the Israeli Army had made a road block of barbed wire and about thirty soldiers. For about five minutes the crowds gathered in front and below the soldiers in the road and on the embankment. A group of women with young daughters and toddlers stood at the front of the march.
After a peaceful start, activists were fired upon consistently with sound bombs and tear gas. Nearly everyone turned and stampeded as quickly as possible to get away from the gas, which fell from all directions. Not just once or twice as expected, but enough to cause an immediate and panicked retreat. There were women and children on the floor as people passed out from the gas. When the smoke cleared the Red Crescent were busy handing out alcohol wipes and gauze soaked in ethanol.
In the following minutes people were united in trying to stem tears and nurse bruises where some had been hit by canisters. The Army took this opportunity to once again fire four or five more gas canisters, trying to break up the gathering. This happened twice if not three times more and was deliberately aimed at the paramedics on site who had no choice but to stay with the injured near the ambulances. By the time the roadblock had been cleared there were still rows of people on stretchers waiting to be put in an ambulance. Around 70 people were injured, 13 of them women and children.
Ma’an News reports:
Dr. Mohamed Odeh from the Palestinian Medical Relief and two other ambulance staff were also injured as they tried to evacuate the injured from the scene.
Medical Relief condemned the Israeli soldiers’ attack on their staff, saying that it is not the first time that members of their medical crews have come under Israeli attack, which is “a flagrant violation of international law, that guarantees medical crews neutrality.”
HEBRON Since 1 am on 13 February, the Israeli military placed the village of Beit Ummar under curfew and arrested approximately forty men between the ages of 18 and 25. Since early morning, Israeli soldiers have been entering homes. The military has closed four different areas inside the village. Soldiers are stationed around the local mosque area and throughout the village, with two bulldozers and DCO jeeps. The military are denying travel to people in cars or on foot, restricting the freedom of movement for goods and medicine. The military denied entry to an ambulance attempting to enter the village.
Israeli police showed members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in the area an order and a map for Beit Ummar as a closed military zone. Israeli authorities stopped CPTers and informed them they needed to leave immediately.
The Israeli military denied entry to the press and has detained them for an hour and a half.
Spent live ammunition shells found after weekly Bil’in protest
On the 8th of February, around 70 Palestinian, Israeli, and international gathered in the village of Bil’in to demonstrate against the Annexation Wall. The illegal wall steals more than 60% of Bil’in village land. People marched peacefully to the gate in the wall, able to see their stolen land but not access it. On the 4th of September there was a Supreme Court decision which said the wall must move back, and give back half the land it took. This has yet to be implemented, and people are left at the gate to hold signs and chant.
Activists opened the two gates before soldiers, unprovoked, began to shoot rubber-coated steel bullets nearby. Demonstrators were forced back down the hill, where they continued their demonstration. The army continued to fire volley after volley of rubber bullets. Later, as the demonstration wore on, the army came inside the wall and position themselves on the hill, then the tear gas began.
It was not long after that they began to chase activists up the hill, still firing rubber-coated steel bullets dangerously close. Sometime after, people moved back to the village, but one person found spent live ammunition shells nearby where the soldiers were, after they had retreated up the hill. They were not only firing rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstration, but sometimes live.
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Six injured at mass demonstration against Israeli separation wall near Bethlehem
Bethlehem – Ma’an – About 500 Palestinian demonstrators, joined by a handful of Israeli and international supporters, marched towards the construction site of Israel’s separation wall in the village of Al-Khadr on Friday, in what organizers say is one of the largest weekly demonstrations in the West Bank.
At least 30 heavily armed Israeli soldiers and riot police in six jeeps had already blocked the road with barbed wire. At the conclusion of the Friday prayer and just two minutes into the demonstration, the soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades, dispersing the vast majority of the protesters and injuring six people.
Among the injured was 60-year-old Khalil Salah, who was hospitalized after a sound grenade exploded next to him. Abdullah Khalil was also injured by a sound grenade. Witnesses said three young children were hit by teargas canisters. Their names could not be confirmed at the time of writing.
Organizer Samer Jaber said that his intention was to keep the march peaceful, so as to avoid a confrontation with the Israeli military, but, he said, “[the soldiers] don’t even need an excuse,” to start shooting.
The Israeli government says the wall is intended to keep Palestinians out of Israel for security reasons, but in many cases, the 8-meter concrete barrier keeps Palestinians from other Palestinians, and from their own land. In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled the wall illegal under international law.
Al-Khadr’s mayor, Ramzi Salah said that the completion of the Israeli wall will be devastating, resulting in the confiscation of 90% of the village’s land. Salah said 65% of Al-Khadr residents rely on farming for their livelihood. The wall will also cut off the main road linking Bethlehem to Hebron, affecting a half million Palestinians in both cities, by Salah’s estimate.
Salah said he is proud of the people of his village for “defending our land. Land represents something major for us—something sacred.”
The mayor estimates that the barrier is about one month away from completion in Al-Khadr.
Asked whether he thinks peaceful demonstrations will succeed in stopping the wall, organizer Jaber paused for a second, then answered, “We will do whatever we can—it is a duty.”
Earlier, men and boys from Al-Kadr attended the Friday Muslim prayer on the road leading to the construction site. In a passionate sermon, the Imam denounced Israeli occupation, and also called on the Palestinian Authority leadership, who are currently engaged in peace negotiations with Israel, to visit the village and witness the confiscation of their land. He also chided Arab leaders for “staying silent” in the face of the oppression of Palestinians.
Dany, a 27-year old Jewish Israeli from Tel Aviv said that he and 10 other Israelis attended the protest because “we feel that what is happening in the Occupied Territories is cruel and wrong.”
