14 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Friday, July 13, several protesters were injured when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired tear-gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the weekly peaceful demonstration in the Palestinian village of Kufr Qaddoum. One man was shot in the head by a tear-gas grenade and was taken to hospital. Two other men were badly injured by rubber-coated bullets.
A young man shot in the head with a tear-gas grenade is carried to ambulance
A home adjacent to the demonstration was hit by tear-gas grenades and caught fire. One child, 2 men, and 4 women were injured by the fire and smoke. An ambulance arrived but was delayed for 30 minutes because of the IOF attacks on the village.
A hand displays the bullets fired by the Israeli army. Beneath a thin rubber coat is a steel sphere.
The IOF also employed use of the ‘skunk’ truck which pumps out a foul smelling water and released several sound bombs to terrorize the village. Although illegal, most of the tear-gas was fired at body-level rather than in an arch in the air. Often, 10-12 canisters were fired at a time.
The purpose of the weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum focuses on the closure of the main road that connects the village with Nablus. The road, which passes alongside the nearby illegal settlement of Qedumim, was closed to Palestinian access. As a result, the journey to Nablus has increased from 15 minutes to 40 minutes. This has resulted in hardships because many residents travel daily to Nablus for work, studies, or health care.
On Thursday, June 12, the residents of Kufr Qaddoum celebrated the one year anniversary of their Friday demonstrations. During this year, 60 people have been arrested, 65 people have been shot and badly injured by tear-gas canisters, 200 olive trees have been burned, and the town has suffered systemically from nightly raids and harassment by the IOF.
Amina Simonsson is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
7th July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violently suppressed the weekly demonstration at Kafr Qaddum on Friday the 6th of July, injuring one man, and arresting another. Majid Joomaa, 40 years old, was arrested as the IOF stormed the village. Joomaa, who is a father of ten, was unable to flee from the advancing soldiers due to a prior injury in his leg. Another man suffered from overexposure to tear gas, and was carried to an ambulance after he collapsed.
The injured Palestinian man being carried to safety by another peaceful protestor.
Next week marks the one year anniversary of the popular demonstrations against the Israeli Occupation in Kafr Qaddum. In 2003 the IOF closed the main road that connected the small village with Nablus, which lies only 13km away. Palestinians are forced to drive around the illegal settlement of Kedumim, which was erected in 1975, extending their journey by 22 kilometers instead of the usual 10 to reach Nablus.
Marshall Pinkerton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
17 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Prior to the weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum last Friday, June 15, two young Palestinian boys were detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers. At least three others were injured by tear gas canisters during the peaceful protest that ensued.
Shortly after noon on Friday, Israeli soldiers kidnapped two 10 year old Palestinian boys. While being held by the Israeli military, the two boys were repeatedly kicked in their backs by soldiers. They were then released and taken home by adults from the village.
The weekly occurring demonstration began following the Friday noon prayer with speeches and music. The Israeli military immediately began shooting sound bombs and tear gas. Some protesters replied with stone-throwing. At around 2:30 p.m., Israeli soldiers began illegally shooting tear gas canisters at head level and lower. Three men were shot by the canisters. The military evacuated Kufr Qaddoum around 3 p.m..
Prior to the protest some 20 children were playing near the area were the demonstration is held. They were throwing stones in trees and playing. Israeli soldiers arrived a half hour before the demonstration began and abducted two of the boys, aged 11 and 9 years old.
The other children ran back to the village to ask for help. When Palestinians and International Solidarity Movement volunteers arrived on scene, the boys had already been released. The two young boys related that they had been kicked in their backs by the soldiers.
The weekly demonstration began as usual around 1 p.m.. The people of Kufr Qaddoum spoke to the Israeli army through a loudspeaker, stating that they were holding a peaceful demonstration and that the soldiers should go away. The military replied with tear gas and sound bombs.
Before ending the protest, Israeli soldiers shot tear gas canister at head level and into the ground to make the canisters bounce. Ashraf Shtaiwi was hit in his stomach, Mojahid Barham in his shoulder, and Bashar Shtaiwi in his arm. All were treated in an ambulance by medics. Several others suffered tear gas suffocation and were also treated in ambulance.
Kufr Qaddoum is a village 12 kilometres west of Nablus home to almost 3 thousand people. Since 2003, the road which connects the village to Nablus was blocked to Palestinian access by Israel. The inhabitants are thus obliged to take an indirect and much lengthier route. The annexed road prompted the weekly demonstrations but Kufr Qaddoum is also protesting the ongoing land theft by the adjacent Jewish-only illegal settlement of Qedummim. The Friday demonstrations began in July 2011 and continue to today.
Tete Telsen is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
8 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Friday the 6th of April, in celebration of the Day of the Child, the weekly demonstration was held in the village Kufr Qaddoum outside of Nablus. This demonstration was particularly charged as the previous night the IOF (Israeli Occupying Forces) had violently raided houses in the village and arrested 20 men, leaving dozens of children fatherless. So this Friday the children of the village lead the demonstration, sending out a message that the resistance will live on as long as the Israelis keeps on stealing land and oppressing the Palestinian people.
Villagers gathered outside the meeting house on Friday morning accompanied by the International Solidarity Movement, where a children’s party had been arranged to mark the occasion. Twenty five children enjoyed face painting, horns and balloons in the sunshine and prepared to open the demonstration, demanding the return of their fathers and brothers.
Signs reading “You took our fathers so today we lead the demonstration” and “Return our fathers” were held by the group of children following the Muslim noon prayers with adults close behind. The protest followed the familiar route towards the road block Israel said it would remove almost a year ago. As they approached the road block they were met by the usual sight of soldiers, jeeps, a tractor and the “skunk water” truck, and this day the IOF had also invaded one of the houses on the outer part of the village where they stationed approximately 5 soldiers on the roof.
After a time of chanting, the children returned back to the village and the adults took over. The demonstration soon turned violent as the soldiers sprayed the crowd with the foul smelling “skunk water” and shot tear gas at Palestinian youth who threw stones as a symbolic resistance to the oppressive occupation.
The demonstration became calm after approximately one and a half hours and the soldiers withdrew, followed by the crowd of demonstrators. Together, villagers and internationals walked close to the nearby illegal Zionist settlement, singing and chanting reminding the watching settlers of the great injustice they have cast upon the village of Kufr Qaddoum.
Jennifer is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
8 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Houses overturned during night raids – For more pictures click here
April 5th marked a day to celebrate the children of Palestine. This year the Israeli military decided to contribute to the special day of the children of Kufr Qaddoum by invading the village and kidnapping 20 fathers and brothers. Boys and men were taken from their homes in a series of overly aggressive and destructive raids.
At 2 AM approximately 200 soldiers stormed the center of the village and split up in to groups of around 30 soldiers. Efficiency was key in the military’s plan to cause as much destruction and intimidation before the sun rose. The soldiers did not come alone, all teams were accompanied by dogs, and intelligence showed up later on in the morning to assist with interrogations.
The Israeli military has seen escalating its intimidation of members of the village, and the soldiers’ main goal is to stop the Friday demonstrations that the villagers host. These have grown in strength and popularity.
Since June 2011, Kufr Qaddoum has been subjected to many night raids but nothing of this scale. Murad Ishtawi, the lead organizer of the weekly demonstrations, said, “I have never seen anything like this in the village before, I have never seen them storm in like that.”
Bashar Ishtawi, brother of Riad who was arrested, likened the raids to “a video game. Very aggressive and American style.”
Out of the 20 arrests made, five of the homes entered by the soldiers were overturned and vandalized. Upon entering the house of Bashar Ishtewi, husband and father of three children under the ages of 11, soldiers demanded that Ishtewi “give them the men.” Ishtawi tried to tell them all he had were his children and his wife, but this answer was not sufficient. The soldiers herded the family into one room and carried on destroying the house. Their daughter, Zainab, who is 6 years old, was vomiting from stress and has not uttered a word since the raids on her house.
In the house of Iman Ishtawi, father of two children under the age of three, is where the story is most disturbing. Ishtawi informed the soldiers that he had no son to arrest and was told “we know this, we are here simply to destroy your house, nothing else.” Ishtawi with his wife and children were made to stand outside and listen to there home being destroyed. After twenty minutes the children became sick and started to cough. Iman tried to to reason with the soldiers, to show the commander that his babies need warmth. The soldiers simply replied, “That is the business of a doctor, not the business of a soldier.” The family was finally allowed in but were forced to stay in the small kitchen until the soldiers were finished.
The nightmare continued until 5am. The homes were turned upside down, in another house they even removed the windows from the entire house, showing the transparency of this operation. For the Israeli military, they will convince themselves that this operation was in search of rms and young men unlawfully defending their land, but in reality this was an act of intimidation, an operation to try and put an end to the peaceful, popular resistance carried out lawfully every Friday. It fits in an agenda of ethnically cleansing Palestine.
The fate of the following names is still not known, they are currently in interogation centers:
Rihad Mohammad Ishtawi – 38
Thaer Baseem Ishtawi – 38, Ibrahim Mohammad Amer – 38
Hekmat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 35
Harib Mashur Jumaq – 18
Alkamia Mahmoud Jumaq – 18
Mohammad Majid Jumaq – 17
Mujahed Hassan Habas – 24
Ahmad Abdelkadar Abdullah 17
Salam Teyseer Bayram – 20
Yousef Mustafa Ishtawi – 17
Kais Chaher Jamaq – 16
Roslan Abdulkhalid Ishtawi -25
Awis Abdulrizik Amer – 24
Mujahed Sabeh Darwish – 22
Sabir Atta – 22
Tarik Mahmoud Taha – 18
Mahmoud Manjur Ishtawi – 18
Nisfat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 26
Wassim Abdulkhalid Ishtawi – 25
Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
