Tag: Live Ammunition - Page 28 - International Solidarity Movement

Three shot with live ammunition during Nabi Saleh protest

22nd November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians participating in a weekly Friday demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh. Soldiers fired .22 caliber bullets, a form of live ammunition which has maimed and killed multiple Palestinians, even as Israel continues to claim it as a “less lethal” way of assaulting demonstrators.

Yesterday at noon between forty and fifty Palestinians, Israelis, international activists and journalists marched down from the center of Nabi Saleh towards a water spring stolen by a nearby illegal settlement. The Israeli forces awaited them down the road with two military jeeps and a police jeep. Some youth threw stones towards the military vehicles. Soldiers and police fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstrators as the group walked down the road.

After a brief period of calm, a police jeep equipped with a tear gas dispenser drove up and down the road, firing tear gas at protesters. A few suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation, including a boy under the age
of ten.

In addition to continuing to fire rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas, soldiers also began to shoot .22 live ammunition. Two seventeen-year-old boys were shot while throwing stones, one in the thigh
and one in both the hand and foot. One Israeli soldier fired at a child under the age of twelve as the boy was running away up the hill beside the road.

Nariman Tamimi, a thirty-eight-year-old woman from the village, was shot in the thigh at close range with a .22 bullet. Israeli soldiers shot her in front of her children and family, driving away and leaving her in the
road. She was taken away for medical treatment, where she underwent surgery, and currently remains in hospital.

Israeli forces shot tear gas and live ammunition inside the village of Ni’lin

28th September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

On Friday the 26th of September, Palestinians, Israelis and ISM activists demonstrated against the illegal settlements and apartheid wall that exist on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Ni’lin.

The demonstration started with a peaceful march towards the apartheid wall. However, the unarmed protesters were unable to get further than 300 meters outside of their village before the Israeli border police and military began to shoot excessive amounts of tear gas directly at them.

The soldiers forced the protestors into the village and continued to be very aggressive towards them. Several tear gas canisters were fired towards the village. One tear gas canister landed inside a house forcing a mother and her six-month-old child to flee. An ambulance arrived to treat a second woman from the same house for excessive tear gas inhalation. The tear gas canister that landed inside the house set fire to the TV causing the house to quickly fill with smoke in addition to the tear gas.

The Israeli soldiers and border police advanced further towards the village school. One ISM’er stated, “I was observing an Israeli soldier approximately 50 meters from the school, when two other soldiers suddenly appeared around the corner. We were completely peaceful and our faces were not covered, however, the soldier proceeded to raise and point his gun at us.”

A few local boys went to the school and threw small stones at the intruding soldiers and border police officers. The Israeli military forces fired live ammunition at the group of boys. Shrapnel from a bullet hit one Palestinian in his back and created an open wound. He received treatment from the Red Crescent present at the demonstration, but did not have to go to the hospital.

According to locals the Israeli military are moving closer and closer to the village every week. Villagers expressed their fear to the ISM’ers that the Israeli soldiers will soon enter the village during a future demonstration.

Two Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces lead to clashes with over 30 injured

23rd September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Violence broke out on the streets of Hebron’s university district (al-Khalil) this morning when Israeli soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators who had been protesting the murders of two Palestinians earlier that day.

Protestors took to the streets after Marwan Kawasme, 29, and Amar Abu Aisha, 32, were killed and burned by Israeli soldiers in the very early hours of this morning. The Israeli military alleged that the two men were behind the deaths of the three settler teenagers in June of this year.

The soldiers used tear gas canisters and live ammunition bullets during the clashes, with numerous injuries including a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is now in a critical condition in hospital. A representative of the Red Cross stated to ISM that there were over 30 injuries, though the exact number is still unknown.

The building where the murders took place was also set on fire and destroyed.

Tensions had been high all morning as word of the two dead Palestinians spread throughout the area. By 8 am around 200 Palestinian residents had gathered to show their frustration at the senseless taking of life. Although stones were thrown, the protesters were unarmed and did not pose a threat to the violent occupying military. The Israeli army, still present after the earlier incident, unleashed dozens of canisters of tear gas leaving many people unable to breath and in need of medical help. Hemmed in and with nowhere to escape to, the protestors hid behind what ever they could find.

The situation further deteriorated when the Israeli soldiers, without warning began to fire live bullets at the protestors, hitting one boy in the head and injuring a number of others.

After an hour of further violence by the Israeli soldiers, the protestors cleared and the injured were taken away.

Throughout the earlier afternoon however similar incidents of unrest were reported around Hebron (al-Khalil).

Video: Israeli soldiers celebrate shooting an 18-year-old

12th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On August 9^th in Hebron, Israeli soldiers celebrated shooting an 18-year-old Palestinian youth in the leg with live ammunition.

The Canadian volunteer, Vern, who witnessed the soldier firing, stated, “After the soldiers left the roof, I went to confront them about why they had fired. One of them said to me that he was the one who fired and that he was proud of his actions. He then asked me to take his picture.”

The hospital released a document to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) stating that the injury of the young man was a gunshot wound to the right calf, and that the injury required surgery under general anaesthetic.

“This is not the first time protesters have been seriously injured or killed while not being a threat to the Israeli military. On Friday (8^th August) in Hebron, 40-year-old Nader Mohammad Edrees was shot in the heart by an Israeli sniper. He died several hours later. This murder was caught on video, and it is clear that Nader was no threat whatsoever when he was killed, in clear contradiction of Israeli military policy and international law.” Stated Issa Amro, Human Rights Defender with Youth Against Settlements (YAS), based in Hebron.

According to Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, grave breaches against protected people, such as Palestinians, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, include wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health.

Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem states that, “the army’s open-fire regulations clearly stipulate that live ammunition should not be used against stone-throwers, except in cases of immediate mortal danger.”

Journal: Clashes in Hebron

9th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Vern | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

As ISM volunteers were heading back from al-Masara village yesterday, we were dropped at off at Bab Al-Zawiye, the city center of Hebron. We observed a clash between Palestinian youths and the Israeli army. Youths were throwing rocks and were gunned down with rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition.

We observed a Palestinian demonstrator shot in the leg. He fell down, and others dragged him to the ambulance. A few minutes afterwards, we observed a man being rushed away by his friends; his body was laid on the top of a car. He was shot in the chest. His name was Nader Muhammad Idris. We learned later that he died.

At least 40 people were wounded that day.

The brutality of the Israeli army never ceases to amaze me. When people appeal to the soldiers, they are ignored. When they peacefully march, they are tear-gassed, deafened with stun grenades or arrested. When they throw rocks, they are shot.

Israel cries that it is a victim of “terrorism”. Yet the terrorism of the occupation in Palestine leaves behind it a regular trail of wounded, maimed, and murdered people.