Tag: Demonstration

A Dozen Weeks of Restriction: Muslim Worshipers Blocked from Al-Aqsa Mosque

29 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | East Jerusalem

On Friday, December 29th, streets surrounding the Al Aqsa Mosque compound were filled with the sight of Muslim worshipers prostrate in prayer. Arbitrary access restrictions by occupation forces were amplified through the erecting of barricades to the Old City, allowing only some elders to trickle through the makeshift checkpoint to access their holy site. Enduring violence and Israeli army blockades to the Mosque, Palestinians knelt in the streets for prayer, surrounded by heavily armed occupation soldiers and Israeli police.

Occupation forces block Muslim worshipers from accessing Al Aqsa Mosque. Photo Credit: Ahram online photos

In the nearby Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, faithful Muslims were attacked through the use of putrid pressurized “skunk truck” water by occupation forces who regularly brutally beat Palestinians as they make their way to the holy site for Friday prayers. Projectile rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas were also fired indiscriminately at unarmed Palestinians with dozens of injuries reported including many in respiratory distress from tear gas exposure.

Brutal crackdowns on Palestinian Muslims attempting to access the Holy site to pray has resulted in the Mosque only having a fraction of the worshippers it usually has for going on three months. Impromptu, ever-widening checkpoints around the Mosque have exposed the faithful, week after week, to interrogation, ID checks, verbal abuse and physical violence.

Despite knowing they will in all likelihood experience physical assault, tear-gas, being charged by police on horses, sewage water sprayed at them, or some combination of the above, the Al Aqsa’s faithful have not been deterred from returning as close to the original qibla (holy site Muslims pray towards) week after week. Their bodies folded in prayerful defiance, surrounded by armed guards, are a living testament to the Palestinian’s perseverance, determination, and conviction that (in the words of a Palestinian artist on the apartheid wall) “the rockets may be above us, but they have forgotten that Allah is above them.”

Tulkarm Bids Farewell to 5 Palestinians Killed in an Israeli Military Operation.

18 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Nour Shams refugee camp

By Diana Khwaelid

An Israeli military operation lasted for more than 10 hours in the Nour Shams refugee camp.

Destruction of infrastructure

Dozens of military vehicles stormed the city of Tulkarem on the evening of Sunday, December 16, as they targeted the Nour Shams camp east of the city. The Israeli occupation forces bulldozed the main entrance in Tulkarem and destroyed the infrastructure using one of their D9 military vehicles, as they had previously done with previous incursions. It also destroyed the water network and sewage pipes and cut off electricity and the internet.

Palestinian resistance fighters defended the camp.

There were strong clashes between Palestinian Resisters and Israeli occupation soldiers, who confronted the occupation forces after they stormed the camp, for more than 10 continuous hours. The occupation forces also bombed two houses one with drones and the other with an anti-armor missile.

A state of fear

A state of fear and terror prevailed in the homes and neighborhoods of the camp’s people, both children and women, a long and bloody night described by the camp’s residents, following the Storming of the camp. The sound of explosions and fire was enough to bring terror to the hearts of Palestinians.

Obstructing the movement of medical crews and ambulances.

The Israeli occupation forces obstructed the movement of medical personnel, whether the medical teams of the Red Cross or the Palestinian medical relief and volunteer teams to move easily inside the camp to transport the injured, and the occupation forces obstructed the movement of ambulances and arrested a 16 year-old boy from inside an ambulance on its way to the hospital.

5 Palestinians killed, dozens injured.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 5 Palestinians were killed in the Nur Shams refugee camp, and more than 10 injuries reached the (Thabit Thabit) government hospital in the city, whether by shrapnel due to drone, or fire live bullets .

The five martyrs are: Walid Zahra, Asaad Zahra, Ghaith Shehadeh, Mahmoud Jaber and Jihad Amarna.

A state of sadness and shock of loss.

Hundreds of Palestinians mourned the bodies of the five martyrs, and their families took a last farewell look at them, in a state of great sadness and shock women, men, and children participated in the funeral and chanted words of patience and patience to them and chanted patriotic words in the form of the Camp people in the face of the occupation until the liberation of Palestine.

Photo credit: ISM/Diana Khwaelid

Weekly demonstration in Der Istya – 6th October

On Fridays 6th, people in Deir Istya protested against a new outpost that was built three months ago close to the village.

After the prayer almost 70 protesters, among them members of the local Popular Resistance Committee, residents from the surrounding villages, ISM internationals and Israeli activists went down from the hill and, waving their flags, tried, peacefully, to reach the outpost.

Blocked by the army, there was a long confrontation between protesters, soldiers and Border Police.

The protesters were making clear their reasons for demonstrating while the soldiers were trying – shouting and pushing violently – to repel them.

Finally the Border Police started to launch a lot of sound bombs and gas canisters. 10 people suffered for the gas and one needed assistance from the Red Crescent volunteer. The soldiers arrested a journalist and the Minister of the Commission of Resistance to the Wall and Colonies: handcuffed and blindfolded them and violently pushed them into their military jeep.

A sniper held a group of boys in his sight, preventing them from continuing the protest.

Flags, voices and the absolute awareness of being right against sound bombs and gas canisters of one of the strongest army in the world… this is Palestine.

Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Teenager in Umsafa

Mohammed Fouad Atta Bayyed’ sister standing next to a banner of her late brother

On Friday 23rd July, Israeli occupation forces fatally shot Mohammed Fouad Atta Bayyed, 17, at a demonstration in Um Safa, a village north of Ramallah which, for the past few months, has been marked by increased settler violence and encroachment.

With at least hundreds of Dunams of land confiscated by the Israelis for the purpose of settlement construction, the village faces similar threats to many rural Palestinian communities. With the vast majority of the village located inside area C—under full Israeli civil and military control—both formal and informal incursions by occupation forces are common.

However, marked by the establishment of a new outpost in late June, the village has seen violence escalate. Settler violence and encroachment has increased, with houses and fields being burned, rocks thrown, and shooting: the outpost was only dismantled on July 14th, after demonstrations were met with violence, and ultimately the killing of Abdul Jawad Hamdan Saleh, 24.

It is in this context that Mohammed Fouad Atta Bayyed, just two weeks after Abdul Jawad Hamdan Saleh, was killed at a peaceful demonstration against settlement expansion. After Friday prayers, an orderly march was held that led out of town, before being stopped by the Israeli army and Border Police. Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists chanted ‘Settlers out’, and ‘Umsafa is Arab’. Soldiers, some in balaclavas, pointed their guns at demonstrators: as the crowd returned to the village, they started firing rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at demonstrators.

As the crowd dispersed, young Palestinians responded to this aggression with the throwing of rocks, and the creation of small road blocks. After the army called in reinforcements, the mood remained relatively calm: despite the rock throwing and tear gas, there were no physical confrontations between the army, police, and Palestinians, nor were there arrests.

This changed when the military began to use live fire against demonstrators and journalists, culminating with a sniper shooting Fouad Atta Bayyed in the back of the head at a distance of forty metres from an occupied house. A second Palestinian youth was shot in the stomach who, while in hospital, is out of critical condition. The situation was such that an ambulance did not take either of the boys to hospital, and they had to be driven by car.

Israeli occupation army stopping Palestinians during the Friday peaceful demonstration

After the shootings, and the pronouncement of Fouad Atta Bayyed’s death, the Israeli army stayed in Um Safa for several hours, blocking traffic in and out of town, and preventing the movement of individuals and mourners down the main road through the village.

The death of Fouad Atta Bayyed comes only 25 days after the death of his grandfather, who despite an autopsy not being performed for religious reasons, died in hospital after exposure to teargas, and three years after the death of his father. Born in Jalazone refugee camp, where he is buried next to his father, Mohammed, who worked on a farm and hoped to return to education, is survived by his sisters and mother, the latter of whom told ISM interviewers that she calls for “increased protective presence” in Palestinian communities, and for “the violence to end so that children can live in peace”, and cases such as Mohammed’s are not repeated.

Israeli army violently represses peaceful Friday demonstration

Israeli army attack protestors at Friday demo

On Friday, August 4, a peaceful demonstration was violently attacked by the Israeli army around the West Bank village of Deir Istyia, Salfit governorate.

About 30 Palestinians from Deir Istiya, including women, the elderly and children were on their way to the land north of the village, accompanied by a number of Israeli and international observers, to peacefully protest a new illegal Israeli outpost, when they were stopped in a gorge a few kilometers from the village by about 20 armed Israeli soldiers, who prevented the peaceful demonstration from continuing further.
The demonstrators then held Friday prayers within walking distance of the soldiers, after which they began chanting slogans in Arabic and English such as “Ihtilal Barra Barra” (“Out with the occupation”) and “Israel is a fascist state”.

After a few minutes, a Palestinian woman managed to get past the line of Israeli soldiers while waving a Palestinian flag. In response, Israeli soldiers, who were on the road and on the high ground surrounding the gorge, began firing stun grenades into the crowd, followed by tear gas fired at eye level and rubber-coated steel bullets. The mayor of Deir Istyia was wounded by a rubber bullet to the stomach fired at point-blank range, and received assistance from paramedics on the scene.

Citizens of Deir Istyia have been protesting every Friday for two months against a new illegal Israeli outpost that was built in May on Palestinian farmers’ land near the village.

Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, some 300 settlements and outposts have been built in the occupied Palestinian territories (source OHCHR). These settlements, where between 600,000 and 700,000 settlers live, are illegal under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from moving part of its civilian population into the territories it occupies. The illegality of the colonies has been confirmed by various Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions. Outposts are illegal even under Israeli domestic law (source OHCHR).

Palestinians perform prayers at Friday demo

Illegal settlements are often intentionally built on Palestinian agricultural land and pastures, or in close proximity to a Palestinian village. The illegal occupation of land for settlement construction involves multiple arbitrary violations of Palestinians’ human rights, including restrictions on freedom of movement, house demolitions, expropriation, and diversion of water resources from Palestinian-owned agricultural land to settlements.

Illegal Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinian civilians are also a daily reality. OCHA reported an increase in settler violence, with almost 600 incidents registered in the first six months of 2023, while 2022 was condemned for a “record year” of Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank.
“Armed and masked Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in their homes, attacking children on their way to school, destroying property and burning olive groves, and terrorising entire communities with complete impunity,” the experts reported.