Israeli soldiers invaded on Sunday the towns of Dir al-Ghsoun, Bal’a and Shewika, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, installed several roadblocks and inspected the ID cards of dozens of residents.
Israeli soldiers invaded on Sunday the towns of Dir al-Ghsoun, Bal’a and Shewika, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, installed several roadblocks and inspected the ID cards of dozens of residents.
Local sources reported that five armored Israeli military vehicles invaded Shewika area and installed a roadblock on its main road before stopping dozens of vehicles, and inspecting the ID cards of the drivers and passengers.
The sources added that four armored military vehicles invaded Bal’a town, east of Tulkarem, and installed a roadblock at its main junction that leads to Nablus and Tulkarem, before stopping vehicles and inspecting the ID cards of the residents.
The army also invaded Dir al-Ghsoun town, and drove around in its streets, before stopping and searching a number of vehicles.
The army is still heavily deployed around the invaded towns, and around several nearby towns, an issue that raises fear among the residents of the possibility of further invasions and attacks.
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Friday evening, an area east of the Al-Boreij Refugee Camp, in central Gaza, firing dozens of rounds of live ammunition, while military choppers flew overhead firing flares.
The motives of the invasion remain unknown as the soldiers just searched the area and withdrew later on; no arrests or injuries were reported.
On Friday at dawn, two Palestinians were wounded after the Israeli Air Force fired missiles in the Car Market area in Gaza; one of them was treated by field medics while the other was moved to a local hospital.
Also on Friday, Israeli troops shot and killed one Palestinian near the central West Bank city of Ramallah during clashes that took place after the Palestinians held a protest against the ongoing settler attacks, and the Friday attack carried out by the soldiers against worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
In its weekly reported for the week of 16 – 22 Feb. 2012, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that 25 civilians were wounded, and 21 were abducted in 74 invasions carried out by the Israeli military into the Palestinian territories.
Ibrahim Omar Serhan, 21 years old, was left to bleed to death by the Israeli Occupation Forces, on July 13, 2011
A 21 year-old student was killed by the Israeli army on July 13th in Al Faraa refugee camp, whilst on his way to prayer.
Around 3:30 am the Israeli military entered the refugee camp with several heavily armed vehicles. Ibrahim Omar Serhan, a student at Al Najah University, was on his way to the mosque when he came across a group of soldiers standing approximately twenty meters away.
The soldiers ordered Ibrahim to stop; frightened, he turned around and tried to run away. As he was fleeing, soldiers shot Ibrahim twice from behind – once in each leg – rupturing an artery. Ibrahim managed to get to a house nearby where a local person gave him some basic first aid. Fearing for his safety, people from the camp moved him to a second house away from the soldiers.
He stayed in this house for around twenty minutes waiting for the ambulance, which was delayed due to the army presence in the camp. Soldiers followed the trail of blood that Ibrahim had left on the ground, and forcibly entered the house to arrest him. The family of the house unsuccessfully tried to prevent the soldiers to take him, pleading with them to wait for the ambulance. When the ambulance eventually reached the house, they were unable to assist as no one knew where Ibrahim had been taken. Ibrahim bled to death whilst in the custody of the army. Soldiers only handed Ibrahim over to the Palestinian medics once he was dead.
Ibrahim’s funeral took place at 1.30pm on the same day in the camp cemetery.
During the invasion, the Israeli army arrested fifteen people from the camp, three of whom are still in custody.
The spot where Ibrahim Omar Serhan was shot.
Ibrahim Omar Serhan, 21 years old, was left to bleed to death by the Israeli Occupation Forces, on July 13, 2011
Background
Army incursion and arbitrary arrests in the camp have been frequent in the last few years. In 2008, Fadi Subuh and Mustafa Zalat, 21 and 25 years-old, were killed by the army whilst sitting with friends in the olive trees near the camp.
Al Faraa refugee camp is located in the Jordan Valley, seventeen kilometers North East of Nablus. The camp was established right after the Nakba in 1949 and comprises 8000 refugees from 80 different villages in Palestine 1948. The support of UNRWA, which has been working in the camp since 1950, has declined drastically in the last few years: food relief is now only being distributed to 50 families. Unemployment in the camp now exceeds 70%.
On Thursday May 19, the Israeli army invaded Madama with many jeeps, and imposed a curfew lasting from 21:30 to 4:00am. During this time a man called Hani Muhammad Nassar was arrested and tortured inside a jeep for 3 hours.
Whilst being interviewed Hani said: “The army came when I was visiting my aunt at her house. When they entered the house and found me they asked about the reason of being at the house. I answered that I was visiting my aunt, but they did not believe me, so they held all of the family outside with Abu Firas’s family, the neighbor of his aunt, for 2 hours, through which they asked me about my ID which I did not have at the moment, so they asked me to call my family to bring it to me which I did.” After two hours Hani was taken alone to an unknown place where he was blind-folded and had his hands tied behind his back, he was interrogated here for half an hour. He adds: “They insulted me with obscene words and kept beating me on my neck with their palms and kicking me all over my body. A soldier raised me suddenly and let my head strike the ceiling of the jeep. At the end they kicked me out the jeep shouting with obscene words.”
In addition, five houses were broken into and checked during the curfew and the army shot bullets in the air to intimidate the villagers.
Nine Israeli soldiers kicked in the door of the ISM media office and demanded the passports of the internationals present. The soldiers confiscated a desktop computer used by ISM volunteers.
Two internationals, Ryan Olander of the U.S. and Nick Brown of the U..K., were awoken from their night’s rest as nine Israeli soldiers barged through the door at 4am brandishing M16 fully-automatic assault rifles. Luckily, the door had not yet been repaired from a previous raid on Sunday morning. This facilitated their entry and reduced the damaged they inflicted upon the apartment.
The internationals were taken to a common room and made to present their passports. Upon entering the common room the two men noticed that the computer had been removed from the desk and placed by the door. After verifying that the two men had valid visas, the soldiers attempted to interrogate the internationals about their planned activities for the upcoming weekend. They also inquired as to the whereabouts of the two internationals, Ariadna Jove-Marti and Bridget Chappell, illegally arrested on Sunday morning from the same location. After holding the men for about 45 minutes, they took their leave and politely informed the gentlemen that they were “taking the computer.”
“When I was taken from my bed to the office, I noticed that they had already removed the computer. Presumably, they didn’t expect anyone to be here and were going to have carte blanche to do what they pleased to our office,” said Olander
“Other than stealing the computer, and spoiling our night’s sleep, they seemed to have no clear reason for coming to the apartment. Certainly, they offered no justification for being inside an area in which the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have both civil and military jurisdiction,” said Bryer.
