Tag: Israeli Army - Page 126 - International Solidarity Movement

Urif under attack

26 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine

Over the past three days, the village of Urif, south of Nablus, has been under constant attack from Israeli settlers and soldiers. Soldiers invaded the village twice and numerous people sustained injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters. People in Urif said that settlers attack their village almost daily, especially now that Palestine has been granted observer member status in the UN.

The latest attack started on Monday, 24 December at 10 am when armed settlers attacked a school in Urif with stones. When youth from the village went to defend the school and confront the settlers, the Israeli military arrived and started shooting at people. Clashes continued until late in the evening, with live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs fired at the people of Urif. Two non-violent international activists at the scene of the clashes shouted at the soldiers that these actions by the Israeli army and settlers were completely illegal and inhuman, at which point the army started shooting rubber-coated steel bullets directly at the activists. At sunset the army came running down the hills toward Urif and stopped at the outskirts of the village, from where they continued shooting live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas into the streets of the village.

Early on Tuesday morning, the Israeli soldiers invaded the streets of Urif and started shooting sound bombs and tear gas into the empty streets of the village.

Attacks resumed on Wednesday afternoon when settlers again attacked the school with stones. The same incidents which occurred on Monday were repeated on Wednesday, except that this time soldiers invaded the village at around 5 pm and shot tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets into the middle of the village. One person was hit in the head by a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Urif has a long history of attacks by illegal Israeli settlers. Some years ago a person was shot by Jacob, the guard of the Yizhar settlement, who is notorious for attacks on Palestinians in the area. In May this year Jacob violently attacked a farmer in Urif, tied him up and shot him in the back. In the last few weeks, attacks on Urif have intensified as settlers, with the protection of Israeli soldiers, attacked the village on most days of the past month.

Christmas day in the firing zone

by Team Khalil

25 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The residents of two villages in the Israeli firing zone 918 in the South Hebron Hills experienced a fearful Christmas day as the Israeli soldiers and a tank conducted firing exercises in close proximity to their homes.

From late afternoon on 25 December the villagers were shocked as an Israeli tank fired several practice shots near the villages of Mirkez and Jinba. Shortly afterwards around forty soldiers from the Israeli army fired blanks as they simulated a skirmish. The soldiers staged an attack on a hillside which lasted for around an hour, during which the sound of gunfire echoed around the hillside barely fifty metres away from Mirkez. One Jinba resident remarked that the Israeli army had not held training exercises this close to the villages in twelve years and the villagers shut their doors in fear of another night raid.

The soldiers stayed in the area into the early hours of the morning and sporadic bursts of fire could be seen and heard throughout the night. The Israeli tank fired two rounds late in the evening, the booming noise of the tank fire could be heard throughout the firing zone causing distress to the nearby communities.

Two international activists walking between the villages during the night were stopped by a soldier and were only allowed to pass once he realised they were not Palestinian.

Local and international groups working with the affected communities have started a campaign to raise awareness of the routine infringement of the villagers’ human rights and the harassment they receive from soldiers and settlers alike. Details and a petition to the Israeli government can be found here.

Backgound

The area was declared a ‘firing zone’ for military training in the 1970s. The villagers, many of which have lived in the area for generations, live with the constant threat of eviction and home demolition as well sporadic water shortages and violence from the illegal Israeli settlers surrounding the area.

Earlier this month Israeli soldiers entered Jinba during a nighttime excursion and forced a terrified family to leave their home and stand in the cold for two hours while they destroyed the door to another cave in the village for no apparent reason.

Also in early December Israeli forces demolished the mosque in al Mufaqara which they claim was built illegally despite the fact that the settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law, remain untouched.

Team Khalil is a group of volunteers of International Solidarity Movement based in Hebron (al Khalil)

Palestinian youth attacked in Hebron – 1 man in critical condition

18th Novemeber 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Update: Hamdi Alfalah, 22, shot and killed today in Hebron.

Ibrahim Abu Eisheh, a Palestinian youth was hit in the head by a tear gas canister at around six in the afternoon. He is in critical condition at a hospital and is currently undergoing surgery.
For the third consecutive day in Hebron there has been a large amount of Palestinian resistance in the old city against the Israeli occupying forces. Two streets in particular were hardest hit by the conflict.
One being one of the main streets in the souq where most of the fresh produce is sold in the city. The other road intersects the market street and runs north of the military gate that is used for entry during Saturday settler tours. This area is known as Bab Baladia and was the main fighting ground for the shabab; which is the name for young Palestinian males.
Today not only were multiple tires burned but a couch was set aflame. Firecrackers are also a favorite for these demonstrations, which briefly give the tiring struggle a whimsical edge.
Though rocks are obviously dangerous when used as projectiles it’s extremely rare that one gets close enough to the soldiers to be considered dangerous, plus they have armor and padding.
The Israeli army responds to the relatively symbolic acts with rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters that are shot at high speeds from their machine guns. Yet apparently this isn’t enough to combat untrained civilians that are predominantly in their teens. A skunk water truck came out of the Israeli installation and went into H1, which according to the Oslo accords is supposed to be in full Palestinian control.
The disgusting material was sprayed into the food market and the Palestinian homes that reside above it. Israeli army personnel have also been trying to break into private residences so as to gain access to the roof for tactical advantage. At one point six border police raided a building, as they shut the front entrance door other border on the outside broke off the handle so nobody else could enter. There have also been several detainments of Palestinian youth that are given no reason as to why they are held while they are blindfolded and cuffed.
All of this activity inevitably ends up in injuries, today was certainly no exception.

By Team Khalil

Israeli army raid four Palestinian villages inside firing area 918, South Hebron hills

3rd November 2012 | Operation Dove, West Bank

By Operation Dove www.operationdove.org

FRIGHTENING NIGHT FOR PALESTINIAN FAMILIES

On the 1st of November Israeli soldiers irrupted in Al-Fakheit, Al-Majaz, At-Tabban and Al-Mirkez, villages of the ‘Firing Area’ 918 in the West Bank. The soldiers surrounded the villages, and internationals’ phones started to ring continuously. One by one the first news from the Palestinians arrived to the internationals and pushed them to move quickly toward the area.
All the roads to reach them were closed by military jeeps and DCO (District Coordination Office, the section of the Israeli military that works for the civil administration in the Occupied Palestinian Territories), as was seen. They called some frightened inhabitants from the villages who told them what happened. The only way to reach the area was to arrive in Jinba and to check from a distance. A lot of military jeeps were also seen moving among the hills.
According to testimonies of Al-Fakheit, Al-Majaz and At-Tabban, collected on the field, around 7:00 pm in every village almost 30 soldiers got off helicopters, pushed the people out from their houses, even children and babies inside the cradles. The soldiers took pictures of each family and each building. They checked also the IDs. The Israeli army gave them a document which accuses the local inhabitants to help illegal workers who travel toward Israel, drugs and arms dealers. They asked a lot of questions about the number of the people in each village, their names, who the owners of cars and tractors are. They also checked in their houses and tents, looking for something. In every village the inhabitants witnessed how the children were scared by the Army behaviour. During the raid, Israeli soldiers threatened the Palestinian inhabitants, urging them to leave their land and ordering them to “shut up” when the Palestinians tried to ask the reason of the night raid.
A woman of Al-Fakheit said that the soldiers surrounded all the houses scaring children and women. At the moment the majority of the men were working in Yatta, the nearby Palestinian city situated in area A. Soldiers asked a Palestinian to show his ID, but he had it in another tent, when he offered to get it the soldiers forbade it to him. While his wife was going to take their ID’s, a soldier drew his weapon on her.
The Palestinian villages of A-Tabban, Al- Majaz, Al-Fakheit and Al-Mirkez are located a few kilometres away from the Green Line. Since the 1970’s a large portion of the area around the villages is used by the Israeli army for military training and it is called ‘Firing Area 918’. On November 1999 all the villages in the area were evacuated and the people deported north past the bypass road 317. They obtained the right to return back to their homes but since then they have continued to receive military aggression and harrassment.
Since 22nd July 2012, after several delays, the State Attorney submitted a response to the Court, based on a position formulated by the Minister of Defense, according to which “permanent residence will be prohibited” in most of the area declared as a firing zone. The result of this decision will be the evacuation of 8 villages and the expulsion of almost 1500 people from their homes. On the 8th of August the High Court of Justice allowed the Palestinian inhabitants to keep on living in this area until the 1st of November, then postponed on the 16th of December.
Some cases of military activities were registered this year in the villages inside the ‘Firing Area’: on January 20th 2012, two children of 11 and 13 years old, were injured by an unexploded device, while they were grazing their flocks on Palestinian land near Jinba.
On August 7th, 2012 at 10:00 am a group of 70 Israeli soldiers raided the Palestinian village of Jinba. The Israeli army reached the place by logistical support of two military helicopters and 6 military vehicles. The battalion entered in Jinba village and threatened the Palestinian inhabitants for one hour and half ransacked their homes, that were found damaged.
On the morning of September 16th, around 8:00 am nearby the Palestinian village of Majaz, a 38 years old man was attacked and injured while travelling on his car. According to Palestinian witnesses, 4 soldiers stopped him on the road and started to beat him and to damage his vehicle. The soldiers detained him for one hour near their hummer.

On the 30th of September two Palestinian shepherds from Halaweh village were detained and threatened by the Israeli army while grazing their flock in the area of Massafer Yatta, West Bank.
The two shepherds claimed that soldiers beat one of them, sequestered their mobile-phones and pushed them away from their own land maintaining to be a military zone. Moreover the soldiers ordered to the Palestinians not to come back there, threatening that otherwise they would have killed all the flock.

The Israeli Army keeps persecuting its isolation policy aimed to restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement in that area.

Nevertheless the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resisting to the Israeli occupation choosing a nonviolent way.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the villages: http://snipurl.com/25hogy8

al-Mufaqarah Resists

09 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At one in the afternoon on Monday, the 8^th of October, we received a call in Arabic:

“We have big problems. Can you come?”

Two calls later and we were on our way. We reached al-Tawani in a service taxi. Along with two volunteers from Operation Dove, we walked up the hill to al-Mufaqarah.

Al-Mufaqarah is a beautiful village with about a dozen families, some brick houses, some tents, and some prefabricated dwellings provided by the United Nations. On the hill in front of us we saw a series of entrances to caves with stone walls that complement the houses. They were once inhabited, but it seems that since the evacuation of the village in 1999 they have not been used.

As soon as it got dark, we realized that there is no electricity. We heard a generator supplying power for the evening, and we remember that just a year ago they were putting poles up with the purpose to bring electricity here from the grid. The army demolished these poles however, and now this village is again a target. This time, the occupation forces are setting their sites on the construction of a mosque and a school.

On Monday morning, a jeep from the Israeli occupation forces arrived with an order to stop any construction work. “We will check if you continue,” they said. “And we will proceed to arrest those responsible.”

When we arrived, we found a group assembled in a tent. The decisions about what actions to take had already been made, and now they explained their plan of action to the internationals that had been called to help.

The villagers explained that the Israeli laws are unjust. How is it possible that in the illegal settlements there are all facilities available: running water, light, schools, but the Palestinians are not permitted these services? How can they not even have their own place of worship?

“We do not accept Israeli law,” they said. “So tonight we will continue the work on the mosque.”

They would continue laying the concrete slabs on the construction site.

Meanwhile, they organized their efforts. Officially, when the army was there, all the equipment was removed from the construction site: the pile of rubble and cement was covered and hidden. But they also prepared two tractors with attached trailers that would move into the town from two different directions: one with a hoist and planks to walk on the slabs, the other with sand and a mixer. The tractors would converge at the construction site later.

We received information that there was a checkpoint at the exit of Yatta, but fortunately the tractors laden with the building materials were already on their way. The hoist was assembled and put into place, and we all took a quick pause for dinner. As we ate, a cold wind rose up and cleared the clouds of the day from the sky, giving way to a great starry sky. When it was dark, we started our work.

The sand and the mixer arrived, along with the building team from Yatta. Four people were there to load sand and gravel into the mixer. Another added water and put in the bags of cement. Another worker maneuvered the mixer and elevator, and four more worked to level the concrete.

Anytime we saw lights of a car passing on the road, the work slowed down and our lights for work were extinguished. Finally, the work was done without intervention from the army. By half past ten in the evening, everybody was enjoying tea.

Perhaps in the future, Israeli occupation forces will demolish the mosque; it has happened before in this village. But for now, al-Mufaraqah has a victory. The village shows great determination and will not give up!

Team Khalil