16th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On the 15th of July in the afternoon, the people of Kafr Kaddum took part in a demonstration against the Israeli Army’s continuing theft of their road. The soldiers checked cars going in and out of the village, and stationed snipers in the bushes and on top of the hill. The Israeli Army also brought men in dark uniforms, a special unit that is used to quell prison disturbances. They had a jeep that was loaded with teargas. Clearly, their main goal was to intimidate the demonstrators and stop the protest from happening.
Palestinian demonstrators march towards the road
Palestinians, Israelis and internationals alike were in the crowd. After some chanting, the people tried to do a march but as soon as they got close to the hill where soldiers were stationed, stun grenades were thrown at them. The Israeli soldiers also fired rubber coated steel bullets at the Palestinian youth, as well as several volleys of teargas towards both them and the rest of the crowd. Although no one was hit by their ammunition, many people suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Before leaving the Israeli Army made sure to destroy the main water pipe of the village, which will cost some 3000 NIS to repair. An overwhelming use of force was employed against a people who are simply fighting for the return of their road, which was illegally stolen from them in 2003.
1st July 2016 | IWPS | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
The 1st July 2016, the last Friday in Ramadan, marked the fifth anniversary of Kafr Qaddum’s demonstrations. The Israeli military were present in the village and firing rubber coated steel bullets prior to the start of the demonstration. The soldiers continued to use full force against protestors, using high velocity barricade penetrating tear gas grenades, and live ammunition. Two young men were injured with live ammunition. One 15-year-old boy took a .22 caliber bullet to the stomach. He entered surgery in Nablus at approximately 3 PM to remove the bullet. In addition, a 19-year-old was hit in the lower leg. The injury is not serious, but still a cause for concern: the young man in question had been released from jail less than a month ago, after he was arrested for his participation in the weekly protests.
15-year old shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces loaded into ambulance
Every week the villagers, accompanied by international and Israeli activists, have marched down the road that once connected the village to Nablus. The road was shut down due to expansions in the nearby illegal settlement of Kedumim, and is now accessible only to settlers. The road closure has been an economic burden for Kafr Qaddum, and well as a public health and safety issue, as ambulances and fire trucks face restricted access to the village. Murad Shtawi, the head of the Popular Resistance Committee in Kafr Qaddum, says that the village does its best to keep the demonstrations nonviolent – shebab will throw stones at the soldiers, but only if they are attacked first, or the soldiers enter the town limits.
Israeli forces enter Kafr Qaddum village
Today’s protest followed a familiar pattern, soldiers entered the village prior to the protest, armed with tear gas, stun grenades, rubber coated steel bullets, and live ammunition. While most of the village took part in the midday Dhuhr prayer, a few shebab monitored the soldiers, risking injury from rubber coated steel bullets. After the prayer, approximately one hundred protestors marched up the road, but were repelled before even reaching the end of the village by more rubber coated metal bullets, and interior barricade penetrating tear gas. When the protest regrouped, undeterred, the military opened fire with .22 calibre ammunition. The military also employed a bulldozer during the protests, in an attempt to block off the road at the entrance to the village. The bulldozer struck the main water pipe to Kafr Qaddum, flooding the street, and ensuring it would be a dry day for many families.
Kafr Qaddum has paid a high price for its protests. According to Murad Shtawi, there have been up to 84 injuries from live ammunition. In 2014, a 75-year-old man in the village died from tear gas suffocation, and countless others have passed out from inhalation. There have been over 200 injuries from rubber coated metal bullets, including one young man who lost an eye, and another who can no longer speak due to brain damage. 120 villagers have been arrested, and their families have paid a collective 250,000 NIS in fines. Today was the 7th time the water pipe has been damaged.
Protestor throws back tear gas canister
Still, the villagers remain optimistic that their protest will be effective someday, in opening the road, and pushing out the settlers of Kedumim. They’ve held 330 marches and actions against the settlement and road closure in the past five years, and will keep going, as long as it takes.
“We see the victory in our children’s eyes” Shtawi proclaimed at the end of the day, “the strangers [settlers] who came later must be the ones who will leave earlier.”
5th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On two consecutive days, Israeli forces in Kafr Qaddum village, near Nablus, have shot three Palestinian youth with live ammunition in their hip.
The Friday demonstration under the slogan of the ‘Naksa’, remembering the 6-day ‘war’ and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Sinai, started as every Friday after the noon-prayer. Right after the beginning of the demo, the army started firing tear gas canisters not only at the protestors, but at all directions. Additionally, they sprayed foul-smelling skunk-water, a mix of sewage and chemicals, directly inside the houses in an act of collective punishment of the civilian population of the village. Towards the end of the demonstration, Israeli forces shot two brothers, 19-year old Asaf Hikmat and 20-year old Omran, both were hit with live ammunition in their thigh. Asaf had to be evacuated to hospital and undergo surgery to remove the bullet-pieces from his thigh and is now recovering.
Demonstrators carrying one of the brothers to an ambulance after he was shot by Israeli forces Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration
On Saturday, Israeli forces attacked the demonstration with endless rounds of tear gas canisters, both shot from their guns and from the ‘venom’ mounted on the army jeep shooting 10 rounds at a time, as well as stun grenades. They additionally shot rubber coated metal bullets at the demonstrators, as well as live ammunition – injuring 16-year old Wael Abdallah with live ammunition in his thigh.
A Palestinian ambulance covered in tear gas shot by Israeli forces Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration
After these two days, the number of injuries with live ammunition in Kafr Qaddum reached 81.
The village of Kafr Qaddum thus, in fear of this number rising even more, calls for international presence and media pressure to stop the Israeli forces’ violence against protestors and the collective punishment of the Palestinian village.
17th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, Nabi Saleh & Ofer, occupied Palestine
On 15th April, weekly demonstrations against the Israeli occupation were held throughout the occupied West Bank commemorating ‘Prisoner’s Day’.
Kafr Qaddum village has been separated from their main access road to the Palestinian city of Nablus for 13 years. They hold weekly demonstrations against the closure of this road, which was initially closed in order to allow free movement for settlers from the nearby illegal Qedumim settlement. This Friday Israeli forces inundated the demonstrators and part of the village with tear gas, resulting in dozens of people receiving emergency medical treatment for excessive tear gas inhalation. In an all too common act of collective punishment, Israeli forces did not only target the demonstrators with tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets, but also sprayed civilian homes in the village with foul smelling ‘skunk water’. Early in the morning, before the start of the demonstration, Israeli forces closed the village entrance, arbitrarily (and illegally) declaring it a ‘closed military zone’ in order to prevent international and Israeli activists from participating in the demonstration.
Israeli forces ready to shoot at demonstration in Kafr Qaddum
In the village of Nabi Saleh, villagers, international solidarity activists and journalists demonstrating the Israeli occupation and theft of land, were attacked not only by the Israeli forces, but additionally by settlers from the illegal settlement of Halamish. Israeli forces inundated the protest with tear gas, causing several cases of excessive tear gas inhalation.
Israeli forces equipped with tear gas grenades and foam bullets in Nabi Saleh
Israeli forces at the Ofer military prison complex fired stun grenades, tear gas, rubber coated metal bullets as well as live fire at unarmed protestors. They arrested four protestors and, in an act of collective punishment, entered the village of Beitunia arbitrarily shooting tear gas into the streets causing civilians to suffer from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Streets filled with tear gas in the village of Beitunia
Palestinians and supporters world-wide commemorate Prisoner Day on 17th April each year, in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. There are at least 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, 750 of whom are held under ‘administrative detention’ without charge or trial. This includes 1400 minors under the age of 18 since October 2015. Under Israeli military law – which is effect throughout the West Bank – Palestinian children as young as 12 years old can be arrested by Israeli forces. In many of these cases the children are denied access to family, lawyers and their most basic human rights. They are often interrogated, intimidated and physically and psychologically threatened without a family member or lawyer present. As a result these children can be forced to sign confessions in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Most Palestinian prisoners are transferred to prisons within the Israeli territories. This act is illegal under international law that prohibits the transfer of prisoners from the occupied Palestinian territories into an area where they can only receive family visits after applying and receiving permission from the Israeli government. This is a permission, of course, that is very rarely granted.
15th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On Friday the 4th or March, Palestinians and international activists alike joined together to march against Israel’s illegal occupation in Kafr Quaddum. During this march, the boy identified as Khaled, 11 years of age was shot with live ammunition and suffered complicated fractures to the bones in his right thigh which have since needed titanium plates to assist in recovery.
The march began as usual and had progressed about 200 meters without seeing any soldiers. Since not being able to see any soldiers the children felt safe and decided to walk in front of the rest of the group.
Shortly after the children had progressed to the front of the march there was the sudden sound of live ammunition being fired. Khaled was hit almost immediately and fell to the ground whilst waving for help.
During the time that Khaled was on the ground the Israeli forces repeatedly threw sound bombs on the ground near him to deter Palestinians from helping whist they tried to arrest him.
A Palestinian man who saw Khaled in trouble ran to the young boys aid through the heavy shooting of live ammunition.
A man shields Khaled
Whilst he was pulling Khaled away an Israeli sniper shot him in his thigh also. However he managed to continue and successfully pull Khaled to a safer point where two other Palestinians were then able to help.
From here Khaled was taken by the red crescent ambulance service to RAFIDIA Hospital in Nablus.
An x-ray scan showed that Khaled had suffered a complete fracture in his right thigh which would require surgery. Khaled was hospitalised for the following seven days.
What is important to note in the case of Khaled is that there were no immediate clashes when the snipers fired on him, he was shot from a strategic ambush by the occupying forces. What danger did these soldiers or snipers face from an 11 year old boy? Why did they throw sound bombs around an already injured and scared Khaled? Why did they shoot the man who also helped Khaled?
Khaled is the first in his class in the 5th grade and now faces an uncertain future through this school year as he is unable to walk for 6 weeks from the injuries that he has sustained plus ongoing rehabilitation after this period.
Whilst the illegal occupation of Palestinian land continues and the continued use of excessive force and inhumane treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli forces continues, so will the marches in defiance of the occupation until the international community acknowledges the Palestinians for the people that they are and the criminal zionist state of Israel is brought to justice for it’s heinous crimes against humanity.
