08 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
The Israeli occupation is not only committing crimes in Gaza, it continues to commit crimes in the West Bank.
A quick military operation was carried out by Israeli special forces in broad daylight, as they planned an ambush for three young men from the Tulkarm refugee camp, near the eastern neighborhood – the roundabout of the slaughterhouse in the city of Tulkarm.
On Monday evening (6th of October), around 4: 38 PM, Israeli special forces assassinated 3 Palestinian youths inside their car in the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarm city. Another Palestinian was killed later, bringing the number to 4 Palestinians who were in the area.
At least 70-80 live bullets were fired.
The Israeli special forces opened fire at point-blank range on the three young men, and continued firing on the corpses even after the three Palestinians had been killed. 5 other Palestinian civilians who were in the area were also shot, including a 14-year-old boy, whose injury was described as serious.
The Israeli occupation forces were not satisfied with this brutal assassination, and on Tuesday night (7th of November) at 03.00 AM the occupation forces invaded and stormed the Tulkarem refugee camp, with the presence of huge military vehicles, including a D9 type crawler, to bulldoze and sabotage the main roads and streets in the camp, especially in the Balawneh neighborhood.
During a difficult night in the shadow of tension and fear, the occupation forces vandalized the camp’s infrastructure, the main streets and roads leading to the camp, and also targeted the power transformer and the electricity grid. The Israeli occupation forces and its military vehicles shelled two Palestinian homes, the first belonging to the Al-Banna family, and the other belonging to the martyr Azzedine Awad, one of the young men who was assassinated inside by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) the day before.
Two shops belonging to family members of the martyr Azzedine Awad were destroyed, and his mother was hit by an Israeli bullet in the face area, although her wound was described as superficial.
Hundreds of Palestinians in Tulkarm camp and the city mourned the four martyrs to their final resting place: Jihad Shehada, 24 years old; Ezzedine Awad, 27 years old; Mo’min Belaoui, 20 years old; Qasem Rogby, 20 years old.
Their parents, friends, and camp residents took a last farewell look at them, and chanted words of anger and national unity as they transported the corpeses of the martyrs to the Al-Salam mosque in the camp to pray for them, and later to the the Nabi cemetery, on the other side of Tulkarm camp. A state of sadness prevails in the Tulkarm refugee camp after the killing of 4 of its young men.
The occupation forces continue to brutally kill Palestinian youth, in the West Bank and Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of health, 29 Palestinians have been killed in the city of Tulkarem since October 7th, while in the whole of the West Bank there have been more than 160 martyrs during the same period.
22 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Zawata
by Diana Khwaelid
Zawata town-Nablus.
On the evening of Sunday, 22-10-2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the town of Zawata, northwest of the city of Nablus. The residents of the town initially spotted Israeli special forces near the town’s cemetery.
The Israeli occupation forces carried out a campaign of arrests against Palestinian youths in the village. Young palestinians of the town came out to confront the occupation forces. Jihad Mazen Sobhi Saleh (29 years old) and Muhammad Qasim Abu Zar (17 years old), were martyred after being exposed to direct fire by the IOF. The two young men were transferred to the nearest hospital. One of them was admitted to the operating room but did not survive. The two martyrs were killed in cold blood.
Ahmad Zawatiah, an eyewitness to the Israeli occupation’s crime against the Palestinian youths, said that the Israeli soldiers stormed the town and started shooting directly at the youths without there being an armed clash between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.
The raid also resulted in the arrest of two Palestinian youths, Dia Abu Amsha and Amir Abu Amsha, both from the town of Zawata.
Hundreds of Palestinians in the town participated in the funeral of the bodies of the two martyrs, who were given one last farewell by their families and friends.
The crowd chanted phrases expressing Palestinian patriotism, in a state of anger and sadness, at the continuation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.
As Gaza suffers from the criminal bombing campaign of the IOF, Palestinians in the West Bank are facing continuous Israeli colonial crimes, with IOF raids and settler pogroms intensifying in frequency and severity. Since the start of the war on Gaza, more than 90 Palestinians have been martyred, and more than 1,200 have been arrested in the West Bank.
19 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
The Israeli occupation forces launched a major military assault on the city of Tulkarm, especially on the Nur Shams refugee camp. A curfew was imposed throughout the city for at least 30 continuous hours, and Israeli snipers were deployed in more locations within the city, as well as in villages adjacent to the city and camps, especially the Nur Shams camp.
On 19-10-2023, at 3:00 in the morning, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the Nur Shams refugee camp in huge numbers, with dozens of military jeeps, bulldozers and a D9 caterpillar. The camp’s sirens were activated, as camp residents woke up to the sound of gunfire and exploding bombs. Residents of the camp, especially children, were woken up by huge explosions that shook the camp.
There were strong clashes between Palestinian fighters who tried to defend the camp and the occupation soldiers, which lasted for around 30 hours, after which the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the camp completely, on Friday morning at about 7:00 AM.
The Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed the main entrance to the camp and the infrastructure of the camp using one of its military vehicles, the armoured bulldozertype D9. The IOF also destroyed dozens of civilian cars belonging to the camp’s residents, 7 Palestinian houses were bombed using drones, some of which were destroyed and part of them were partially damaged.
The IOF also destroyed water networks and sewage pipes, and electricity and communication lines were completely cut off on the camp since the first hours of the invasion. There was no good communication between the camp residents and the outside, which exacerbated the problem of calling ambulances to enter the camp and transfer the wounded.
According to medical sources , 13 Palestinians were killed. 2 of them were not residents of the camp. 7 of them under the age of 18 and 2 of them were 10 years old. According to the Red Crescent, at least 40 people were injured, including by live bullets and shrapnels produced during the firing of missiles by Israeli drones, which targeted homes belonging to Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli occupation forces also obstructed the movement of medical personnel and ambulances, and hindered them from moving and entering the camp to transport the wounded to the hospital. The IOF identified members of the medical staff and obstructed the movement of journalists attempting to report on the raid. At least one injured Palestinian who was inside the ambulance was arrested on his way to the hospital.
7 Palestinians were killed while they were near a house targeted by a drone. 5 of them were children. The Israeli occupation claims that it was targeting Palestinian militants, but all those reported killed were unarmed civilians.
Hundreds of Palestinians from the camp and from nearby towns participated in the funerals of the Palestinian martyrs who were killed in cold blood during this assault launched by the Israeli occupation forces on the camp. Funeral attendees raised the Palestinian flag, and chanted patriotic words expressing national unity, anger and condemnation of the IOF’s continuing bloody crimes against the Palestinian people, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Nur Shams camp.
After the assault, the number of martyrs of the city of Tulkarm rises to 22 since the start of the war on Gaza on 7-10-2023. 81 Palestinians were martyred in the West Bank during this period.
This is the fifth invasion on the camp in recent months, but the inhabitants of Nur Shams are still ready to sacrifice their lives to defend their homes.
5th October | Wafa Aludaini | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
A Palestinian protester identified as Alaa Nizar Hamdan, 28, was shot dead yesterday by Israeli Occupation soldiers in Jabalia, northern Gaza during the 77th week of the “Great March of Return” protests.
As thousands of Palestinians gathered near the Israeli barrier fence surrounding Gaza to participate in the marches, Israeli forces, who were positioned on sandy hills near the separation fence, opened fire, using live ammunition and tear gas canisters against the unarmed protesters. At least 50 were injured, 22 of them from live ammunition.
Alaa Nizar Hamdan was a husband and father with a 3 year-old daughter, Layan. On Saturday, the day after Alaa was killed, I spoke with his wife and family.
“Layan was everything to her father, since his death she has asked me hundreds of time about him, and I just keep crying… he always dreamed to have kids, and to bring them up in a beautiful home of their own,” his wife recalled. Layan was conceived through in vitro fertilization, an extremely costly process anywhere in the world but especially for Gazans. “He was working on his new flat, it just needed a few more things to be ready for us, but he died before achieving his dream”.
Alaa Nizar Hamdan, 28, killed by Israeli live ammunition on October 4th, 2019
Layan, Alaa’s only daughter, sat beside me while I spoke with her mother, playing with the new toys her father brought her for her 3rd birthday, blissfully unaware that her father would not be coming back, that she is now fatherless. “Last month, he celebrated his daughter’s birthday for the first time. He saved money from his salary for 6 months for the celebrations and gifts.”
One of Alaa’s sisters, Hanaa, 22, told me, “We are seven sisters and six brothers, Alaa was the middle brother, and the kindest among us…He was always so helpful and smart,” she added.
Alaa’s sisters mourn their brother’s death.
Alaa was previously shot and injured in the leg a month ago by Israeli snipers during the Great March protests. Alaa’s brother Mohammad recalled that “even after his injury, he would go with his crutches, to keep protesting for our rights. He enjoyed life, he liked swimming and travelling…his only fault was being a Palestinian who dreamed of liberation.”
Mohammad was there the day Alaa was killed and saw it happen in front of him. “He posed no threat to the Israeli soldiers, he was not even holding anything in his hands. He was more than 100 hundred meter away from the soldiers.” According to PRCS ambulance medics, who took him to the Indonesian Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Alaa was shot in front of the main gate of Abu Safiyah area while he was about 80 – 100 meters west of the Israeli barrier fence.
Alaa’s brothers mourn his death in Jabalia, Gaza.
Alaa used to work in a stone factory but the factory closed several years ago due to the Israeli economic and military blockade imposed on Gaza.
Medics say the slain father was shot in his chest by an explosive bullet, banned under international law, fired by an Israeli soldier enforcing an illegal occupation. Since the commencement of the Great March of Return in Gaza, in March 2018, 313 Palestinian protesters have been killed by Israeli forces, among them 2 journalists, 3 paramedics, 3 women and over 90 children. Thousands more have been wounded.
Palestinians in Gaza are calling for an end to the longstanding Israeli siege, which blocks the shipment to Gaza of everything from medical supplies, food and fuel, to materials to rebuild their homes, and the right of return to lands they were forcibly expelled from inside Occupied Palestine.
Wafa Aludaini is a journalist and activist in Gaza who writes a weekly column for ISM on the Great March of Return.
Translated by Badee Dueik and interpreted for written article by ISM members
Abdullah and Saleh live with their families in the Tel Rumeida area of occupied Hebron, under Israeli control. They are both twelve, and have been best friends for around four years. They are the youngest members of Human Rights Defenders (HRD), a collective of Palestinian activists who use journalism and video to expose the daily crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces and Zionist settlers in Al-Khalil. We talked to them about their work, their motivation and their experiences on the job.
Saleh and Abdullah, both 12
How did you become involved with Human Rights Defenders?
Abdullah: I love doing this. I had my camera with me most of the time anyway to film my friends, but I started filming for HRD about a year ago. Our dads [Badee Dueik and Imad Abu-Shamsiya, both prominent members of Human Rights Defenders and local activists] taught us how to catch violence from the army and humiliation of Palestinians by soldiers and settlers on video.
Saleh: I’ve been documenting the crimes of the occupation since I was about eight. Step by step, I learnt how to use the camera by filming the soldiers. Our dads helped with the technical side like editing, gave us ideas about how to make films or where to film from, and taught us how to protect each other.
And how do you protect each other?
Saleh: One of us is always filming the other. In February, we were filming soldiers detaining Palestinians by the Ibrahimi Mosque, taunting and humiliating them. Then they arrested Abdullah, but I managed to get away and made sure to film the whole thing. This helped with the arrest because we knew where they took Abdullah, and it was proof that he hadn’t done anything wrong. There was no media around – I was the only one there, so if I hadn’t filmed it we don’t know what might have happened.
Abdullah: Before that, in October, I was arrested and kept for a day by the soldiers, and Saleh filmed that too. I was on the way to visit my grandparents, when they arrested 18 kids including me because they said we had been throwing stones. My dad was in Ireland at the time, and only found out when he saw the video of me being taken on our facebook page.
Saleh: We use the videos as evidence – proof that it’s the soldiers who are committing the crimes, not us. We film to expose the violations of international law by the occupation.
Have you had to deal with any other problems when you’ve been filming?
Abdullah: In December, my uncle was sick and needed to get treatment at the hospital, so my other uncle went with him. At the Zaher roundabout, the army wouldn’t let them pass and began to beat my sick uncle. When my other uncle tried to protect him, the soldiers beat him too but he managed to get away. Then they took my sick uncle to the military checkpoint, and I went to film the situation. They told me to leave but I refused – I was not doing anything illegal. So they arrested me and kept me for seven hours.
Saleh: The last time they detained Abdullah was in February when he was taken for three hours. All the adults went to march through the souq to the Ibrahimi mosque, and Abdullah and I went to represent HRD. We were filming people being humiliated, body searched and stopped. The soldiers told us to leave but we stayed to carry on filming, so they followed us and arrested Abdullah, which I filmed.
Abdullah: My dad asked the soldiers why they had arrested me. They told him it was because I was filming them, and my dad said, ‘I taught him to do that’.
Saleh: We use these small Panasonic video cameras, like all the HDR members, because they are less obvious. But the soldiers and police often confiscate or break them, which is another problem we have to face.
Saleh shows us the video cameras that HRD use
Your job can be dangerous. We’ve witnessed both of you suffering from tear gas inhalation during demonstrations at different points in the past, for instance. How do you cope with that?
Abdullah: It’s scary. Yes, I do get scared when they fire tear gas, which makes us cry, and throw stun grenades as well as firing rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition at the Palestinian people who have nothing to protect themselves with.
Saleh: It’s dangerous but we try to protect ourselves by keeping a distance between us and the soldiers, and using the zoom on the cameras. We also try to protect the ISM volunteers by filming them.
Tell us more about what you have seen and caught on camera.
Saleh: One day the soldiers were humiliating students on their way to school in the Jaber neighbourhood by the Mafia checkpoint. Amir [another young member of Human Rights Defenders whose father, Aref Jaber, is also a local activist and part of HRD] was filming the evidence at a distance. When the soldiers saw they were being recorded they released the boy who was being searched and detained.
Abdullah: The culture of of kids being able to document the crimes of the Israeli Occupation Forces really scares them. The new law [the Knesset is currently considering a law banning the photographing or filming of soldiers, punishable with up to 10 years of prison] proves what we’re doing is working, that it’s making a difference. A kid can break Israel’s image with just a camera.
Saleh: The camera is our peaceful weapon.
Abdullah uses his camera outside his house in Tel Rumeida
What do you want to do when you’re older?
Saleh: We both want to be journalists, so we can continue to expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation. I want to work with international media, like Al-Jazeera, because it reaches more people.
Abdullah: Me too. We want to show the whole world – Arabs, Israelis and the international community – the evils of the occupation.
Saleh: I still want to work for HRD too.
Abdullah: But HRD isn’t international, remember.
Saleh: I’ll do both!
How do you get the best shots?
Saleh: Hold your filming wrist with your other hand and keep your arm holding the camera close to your body, to keep it from shaking.
Abdullah: Remember the rule of thirds – use the grid on the camera to balance what’s in the frame and leave space above the head of the person you’re filming to show where the incident is happening. We can also climb up walls and onto roofs to get a better view because we’re smaller than the others – so it can be an advantage!
Saleh: The main thing to remember is to stay safe: keep away from the soldiers and the violence.
The boys show us how to keep the camera steady
You are some of the youngest activists in the whole of Palestine! Can you tell us more about that?
Abdullah: We feel like it is our responsibility to show the international community the reality here, and one day we hope to go abroad to tell the world what is happening. I love doing this.
Saleh: Me too. It is an important message that we want to tell the world – there are kids here who are trying to show you what is happening. The occupation is not only an issue for the adults but also something the children have to suffer from right when they are born. We are documenting the daily injustices committed by Israeli forces, and this proves that even kids can use non-violent resistance to fight the occupation.
Abdullah: We record examples of what kids have to go through under this military occupation from our own point of view, like child imprisonment. Our videos can be used in the international criminal court. We upload our material to YouTube and then we can make documentaries, which many media platforms use.
Is there anything else you want to tell the people who will read your interview?
Saleh: We would like to encourage more children in Palestine to get involved by learning how to document the brutal occupation and expose the violence happening every day.
Abdullah: We want to ask international kids around the world to pick up a camera as a peaceful weapon to use against any injustice, however small.
A bemused neighbour watches as the boys enjoy being in front of the camera for once
All videos featured were filmed by Abdullah or Saleh for Human Rights Defenders.
View more of Human Rights Defenders’ work and follow here.
Sign the petition calling on Israel’s parliament to oppose the bill criminalizing the documentation of soldiers here.
