Tag: Bethlehem

*Injury Update* Army Fire on Funeral Procession, Invade Beit Ummar

*Update* One of the injured, a man shot in the leg with live ammunition, has had to have his leg amputated.

Today, February 1st, 2008, the Israeli Army fired rubber-coated and live ammunition, tear gas and sound grenades at villagers from Beit Ummar as they participated in a funeral procession.

This morning, the bodies of the two young men who carried out last week’s attack in Kfar Etzion settlement were returned to their families for burial. At around 12.30pm, after Friday prayers, hundreds of mourners left the mosque to take the bodies to the cemetery, about two kilometres away. The army had already closed the road gate at the entrance of the village, thus blocking the main road to the cemetery.

As the procession approached the gate, soldiers fired on them from the military tower which sits beside it. There was no warning or instruction to stop, and no stones had been thrown when the first shots were fired. At this time one man was taken away in an ambulance with rubber-bullet injuries, and a Human Rights Worker (HRW) was also hit in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Young men from the village responded by throwing stones towards the army.

The army continued to shoot tear gas, live and rubber-coated ammunition towards the crowd, which was retreating towards the village. A smaller group of mourners entered the cemetery via another road, and were able to bury the two men.

By 1.50pm at least four people had been injured by rubber-coated bullets, one of them in the head.

A few minutes later, the army began to invade the village, driving jeeps up the main street while soldiers on foot moved between the houses chasing young men, some of whom threw stones. They continued to use live ammunition as well as tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, at one time firing a sound grenade at a greenhouse.

At 3.30pm, the army were still inside the village. By this time, at least eight people had been injured, one of them by live ammunition, whose condition was said to be serious.

Al-Khader Residents Demonstrate Against the Apartheid Wall

For the second Friday, over 1000 al-Khader residents, together with Israeli and international activists, joined together to protest against the Apartheid Wall and Israeli colonization of Palestinian land. This demonstration demanded: lift the siege from Palestinian people and Palestine.

The people of Al-Khader and friends gathered for Friday prayers on the main road near the construction site of the Wall, before attempting to reach the nearby Israeli settler bypass road (Route 60). However, Israeli soldiers blocked their way.

The Israeli soldiers shot tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets towards the protesters which made nine different people suffer difficulties in breathing. Also two kids aged 11 and 13 years old were injured by rubber bullets.

If the Israeli occupation continues in construction of the Apartheid Wall and Israeli colonization on al-Khader land this will cut the Khaderian people from 20000 dunums (5000 acres) – more than 90% – of their land, and make them lose their major source of income. The construction of this section of the Wall will cut the south of the West Bank into two ghettos – Hebron and Bethlehem, and will segregate more than 73 000 dunums (18 250 acres) into the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Al-Khader Popular Committee Against the Wall with the support of al-Khader institutions and local and international friends will keep struggling to achieve justice in Palestine.

It is worth mentioning that we (the Mithaq – Cultural Forum for Development) are involved in the organizing committee of this nonviolent civilian struggle. It is our mission to work at a grassroots level to support the rights of different sectors of Palestinian society including farmers, women, youth and children. We are fully in agreement with the popular non-violent protests against the Wall and Israeli colonization of Palestinian Land, and are actively participating in this weekly event.

Student murdered by Israeli army, Palestinian activist Mousa Abu Maria wounded

On January 25th, an 18 year old youth was shot and killed in the village of Beit Ummar in retaliation for the recent attack on settlers in Kfar Etzion.

The army entered the village around 11:30am, a day after two men from the village were killed after stabbing three settlers in Kfar Etzion. The army served demolition orders to the homes of the dead men but the houses were not destroyed. The army shot off tear gas, sound grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live bullets at villagers. People responded by throwing stones at the heavily armored jeeps.

The army fired tear gas inside the homes of one of the dead men, and ordered the women of the houses to leave, physically assaulting some of them, and using them as human shields in front of their jeeps. Some of the women were consequently wounded by stones. At least three people were arrested, and five injured, one person was hit in the neck with live ammunition.

The army left around noon and came back around one, they entered the homes of the dead men again and shot live and rubber-coated steel ammunition as well as tear gas and sound grenades at groups of villagers. Israeli army snipers were moving between the houses and around 1:30pm an 18 year old youth was killed.

Mahmoud Awwad was a student in his final year of High School when he was shot in the torso with a live bullet and taken by the Palestinian Red Crescent to Al Ahli hospital in Hebron. An hour later the hospital confirmed he had died.

Residents of the village took the dead man to the cemetery around 4:30pm. The funeral march had around 4-5000 attendants, and blocked highway 60 on its return. The army fired on the mourners to disperse the funeral procession, continuing afterwards to shoot tear gas inside the village. One car of settlers hit two of the mourners during the procession, one of them is still in serious condition.

At the end of the day a man laid dead, at least 10 people were injured, some in critical condition. One of the injured was Palestinian activist Mousa Abu Maria, co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project.

There is a demonstration planned in Beit Ummar tomorrow,
for more information contact:
Yousef (arabic): 0522307672
Yonatan (Hebrew, english): 0543338046

Scores protest the illegal Israeli Wall near Bethlehem

Al-Khader- Bethlehem

About 200 Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters protested the illegal Israeli Wall being built on the lands of Al Khader village south of Bethlehem city in the southern part of the West Bank.

The protest started with the Friday prayers that were conducted at the nearby Al Nashahs Israeli army checkpoint just outside the village. Later the protesters marched towards the checkpoint carrying flags and banners demanding the halt of the construction of the illegal wall that Israel is building on their land and the immediate end to the attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli troops stopped the march from going through the checkpoint and prevented journalists from taking photos.

Short speeches in Arabic and English were delivered by the organizers of the protest and the protest ended shortly thereafter. No confrontation with the soldiers was reported.

For more information:
Samer Jaber : sam_2056@yahoo.com

IMC: Weekly Friday Demonstrations

Edited from: https://israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8310/index.php
Original text by: Ilan Sharif

The Friday demonstration at the 443 apartheid highway

About 150 Israelis started their way to the demonstration before noon from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other parts of the country – less than half succeeded to arrive to the site of the demonstration because of roadblocks setup by Israeli police.

At the meeting point in Tel Aviv, two cars of police and intelligence were present from the beginning of the convergence. They followed the bus most of the demonstrators were on, and at the Rantis road block in the occupied territories, they blocked its way together with the forces present there, without even bothering to show any document authorizing them to do it. (The document was shown to other comrades when their car was blocked on another road block.)


The demonstrators got down from the bus and demonstrated near the road block. During this demonstration the traffic on the road continued, but the police pushed and hit demonstrators and even detained three of them for hours – releasing them after interrogation.

The joint demonstration of the Palestinian villagers and the Israeli participants did take place, and was subject to vicious violence by the Israeli state forces. The army attacked the protest with sound bombs, tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets and injured seven people – two were taken to the hospital.


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Bil’in

The Friday demonstration – the 151st since 22d February 2005 was as it’s usually been these last few months. We marched from the center of the village towards the gate of the separation fence under a drifting sky. We had a short presence at the foot of the hill the gate is on – as the Israeli state force forbade the approach towards the gate. After a while they showered us with tear gas, the commander of the state forces claimed we were not complying to his whims. A prolonged confrontation followed this between stone throwers and the state forces.

This week no one was detained or seriously wounded. The heavy rain started at the end of the confrontation and made riding home a challenge.
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Um Salamona

At the Bethlehem region, 200 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, marched against the illegal wall being built on land stolen by the Israeli army from the villagers of Um Salamona, located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The protesters marched from the village towards the nearby settlers’ road (known as Road 60) that cuts the village of Um Salamona off from its land. A year ago Israel started to build the annexation wall on village land.

The protest marked the one year anniversary of nonviolent resistance to the annexation wall in that village. Local villagers held Friday prayers on the settlers’ road then speeches were delivered. Israeli troops arrived in the area but did not attack protesters. The action finished shortly thereafter.