Children sit outside of Al Aqsa Mosque after being denied entry. Photo Credit: ISM
Israeli soldiers and police once again blocked the majority of worshippers from entering Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday, December 15th. Among those excluded were many young children who attempted to enter but were prevented by Israeli soldiers and police. The soldiers and police also pushed and beat many people away from the gates of Al Aqsa, down Via Dolorosa, out Lion’s Gate, and beyond, including shoving some women. At least one journalist was severely beaten as well and required medical attention.
An Israeli soldier violently assaults a Palestinian women attempting to attend the Mosque for prayer. Still from Video Credit: Silwanic.net
Israel has laid siege on Al Aqsa Mosque since October 7th. In multiple locations throughout Al Quds (the Arabic name for the city of Jerusalem meaning “the holy”), groups of people once again got as close as they were able to the Al Aqsa Mosque, laid down their prayer mats and prayed.
Palestinians pray surrounded by soldiers blocking their entrance to Al Aqsa. Photo Credit: ISM
At the same time that police and soldiers are denying worshippers entry to Al Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers, they are desecrating other Mosques, such as the Mosques in Jenin where soldiers have spray painted Mosques, threw trash in them, and sang songs over the loudspeaker used to broadcast the call to prayer.
Graffiti on Mosque in Jenin. Photo Credit: ISM
Attacks on places of worship are against the rules of war, but thus far Israeli army and police have targeted mosques and churches in Gaza and the West Bank and done so without repercussions from international political bodies such as the International Criminal Court or United Nations.
Medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital. Credit: Al Jazeera.
17 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin, Gaza
Through the war riddled lens of Palestinian journalists’ reports and social media posts, we have watched the crossing of an invisible line.
As an American nurse doing human rights monitoring work in the occupied West Bank, I woke today to see the lens focused on a team of outfitted medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital in the night, arms in the air, as occupation bulldozers, drones and operatives draped the community in a spark-lit flash of raining bullets and blasts. Those who died bled in the streets where they have lived, likely discussing ‘the war’ on a daily basis.
For a foreign medical worker, it is hard to intimate this occurrence unfolding in the West. The same law limping through the fog of bomb blasts in Gaza would forbid it.
The law is plain. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, not only demands that the wounded and sick be cared for but it is made wholly clear that medical units must be respected and protected at all times, and must not be the object of attack as announced in Additional Protocol II.
The law goes on to state that “under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and the wounded are collected… in conformity with international law constitutes a war crime.”
An investigation into violations of these laws of armed conflict by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza was birthed amid the aftermath of ‘Operation Protective Edge’ during which countless instances of proportionality and discernment violations were committed. Israeli authorities refused participation and forbade an official Gazan body to take part, blunting the teeth of the query.
But to date through the courageous reporting of Palestinians on the ground, the grinding documentation of daily atrocities must continue to be spotlit in both humanitarian and legal contexts and given the breath that millions worldwide have thus far provided through ceaseless acts of resistance and blockade actions.
An outcry to adopt universal jurisdiction through domestic courts may be another avenue to introduce justice into an area justice-deprived.
According to the International Rescue Committee, “Prosecutions can also take place in some domestic courts that have adopted “universal jurisdiction.” That refers to courts deciding to prosecute a crime committed outside its country by people who are not its nationals–but where the crime is serious enough to warrant prosecution anywhere.”
If we are committed to action, not only to halt the atrocities animated for the world through a stop-motion flood of images, videos and audio from on the ground in Gaza City to Jenin and Masafer Yatta to Khan Younis, let us also relentlessly pursue the avenues where barriers can be torn down to allow the long delayed, long deprived justice that Palestinians running from occupation bombs and bullets at this moment deserve.
The Hague awaits the ‘moral army’ flying flags over Shifa Hospital in their brave defeat of an illegally targeted medical facility where injured children and civilians were robbed of the last bastion of security in the warzone that has been made of their home.
A Palestinian woman walking down a small street in Jenin
10 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin
By Diana Khwaelid
On Thursday morning Nov. 10th 2023, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
A military operation that lasted 24 hours was carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Jenin camp with the aim of arresting some Palestinian militants. Huge military vehicles stormed the camp in the early hours of Thursday morning, around 9:30 AM.
Israeli occupation vehicles, including D9 bulldozers, bulldozed the main streets of the camp, destroyed the camp’s infrastructure, and caused very serious material and human damage.
A child leaning on destroyed pieces of furniture on a damaged street in Jenin
It is noteworthy that during the aggression on Jenin and its camp, the occupation forces detained 4,500 school and kindergarten students in their schools, until the evening hours. They fired shots at Red Crescent ambulances, which led to a paramedic being injured by a bullet in the back. They raided the emergency department at the Jenin Government Hospital, arresting the wounded Mohammed Abu Saraya from inside an ambulance, and destroyed the infrastructure of streets, water, and electricity, in addition to the Martyrs Monument.
15 Palestinians were killed in Jenin during the Storming of the camp, including the child, Mohammed Zayed, 15 years.
The Israeli occupation forces also bombed three Palestinian houses with drones. One of the houses had only women inside. In another house, 8 Palestinians were inside, five of them died and four of them are in a serious health condition.
Burnt pieces of paper and photos in the street
The funeral ceremony of the martyrs began in front of the Jenin government hospital, with a funeral attended by tens of thousands of citizens. The bodies of the martyrs were lifted on the shoulders, while the mourners toured the streets of the city and its camp to their family homes, before praying for them and their health in the mosque of the Jenin camp.
The participants in the funeral chanted slogans condemning the crimes of the occupation and the massacres committed by it in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as some calling for national unity. They also called on the international community to intervene and stand by the defenceless people who are being subjected to constant Israeli aggression, violence, executions and massacres.
A crowd of people in Jenin carrying the body of a martyr
They delivered several speeches condemning the crimes of the occupation and its continuous aggression against the people of Jenin, its camp, villages and towns of the governorate, while stressing that these massacres and terrorism will not dissuade the Palestinian people from resisting and confronting the occupation and the colonialists.
1 November 2023 | Jenin | International Solidarity Movement
By Diana Khwaelid
On Sunday, October 29, a huge column of military vehicles stormed the city of Jenin in an overnight raid, killing four Palestinians, and destroying a monument for Jenin’s martyrs.
Israeli soldiers invaded the city’s Jenin camp at 12.30am, accompanied by an armed Caterpiller bulldozer (D), as part of the occupation army’s ongoing campaign of arrests of young Palestinians in the camp.
After failing to make arrests, the occupation forces destroyed and demolished the memorial monument of the camp, bearing photos and names of Palestinian martyrs killed by Israeli soldiers in Jenin.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, four Palestinians were killed during the invasion of the camp, and five other young people were injured. Two are in serious and unstable conditions.
We report the name of three of the martyrs: Amir Shabrawi, 25, Nourse Bejawi, 27, Musa Jabarna, 23.
During the raid, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) also bulldozed and destroyed all the main roads leading to the camp.
The floor of a residential building was blown to pieces and set on fire. The Grand Mosque in Jenin camp was also invaded and vandalised.
Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces, especially Israeli snipers, were firing indiscriminately at civilian cars in the camp and at buildings, residential houses, and the mosque.
Mahmoud Abu Issam – one of the camp residents – said that the destruction witnessed by the residents of the Jenin camp is only a fraction of that experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. “No matter what happens, we will remain strong and steadfast and we will not give up,” he said.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been burying the bodies of the four Palestinian martyrs since Sunday morning.
The death toll of martyrs in the West Bank keeps rising, and it has now reached more than 120 since the start of the war on Gaza.
The body of a martyr being carried through the street by a group of residents.
27 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin
By Diana Khwaelid
The Israeli occupation has not only targeted unarmed young people, children, and women in Gaza. The Israeli occupation’s crimes also continue in the West Bank, especially targeting young people and children alike.
On Friday night Oct 27th around 1.30AM, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jenin and the Jenin camp with military vehicles Jeeps and a D9 bulldozer.
Palestinian youths came out to confront the occupation forces after they learned of the Israeli occupation forces storming both the city of Jenin and the camp.
3 Palestinians were killed, including the 17-year-old Palestinian child, Jawad Turki, from the city of Jenin. An Israeli bullet pierced his chest, after which he was taken to the hospital for treatment but did not survive his injuries.
The 25-year-old Palestinian youth Acer Awaad from Jenin camp and the young man Abdullah Abu Al-Haija from al-Yamoun village, one of the villages near Jenin City, were also killed, leaving 3 martyrs in less than 12 hours.
Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funeral of the three martyrs. Palestinians chanted expressions of anger and national unity during the funeral, and the families of the martyrs took a last farewell look before they were to be buried later in the Martyrs Cemetery in the camp.
A crowd of people walking through the street, as a part of the funeral procession.
The body of the young man, Mohammed Qabha, from the village Tora, one of the villages near the city of Jenin, was buried, after he died as a result of his injuries from about a week ago. He was injured during a sit-in for the people of Jenin which was organized a solidarity demonstration with Gaza. The martyr Muhammad Qabha was a person with special needs, as he was deaf and non-verbal.
The occupation did not stop at the killing of Palestinian-American journalist, Shirin Abu Aqleh. The Israeli occupation forces also destroyed and bulldozed the Main Street of the camp, which was the site of her murder and damaged the memorial symbol of her.
The location of the Shireen Abu Akleh memorial on the street where she was killed. The road has been torned up by D9 Caterpilla bulldozers.
The crimes of the Israeli occupation continue both in Gaza and the West Bank, and the Palestinians have no power in the face of the occupation. The situation is tense everywhere in Palestine and the occupation opens fire on Palestinian youth and children without warning.
During the 20 days since the start of the Palestinian / Israeli war on Gaza, more than 110 Palestinians, including children and young people, have been killed in cities and areas in the West Bank.
