Tag: Live Ammunition - Page 31 - International Solidarity Movement

Violence in Ni’lin

14th June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

A Red Crescent paramedic, present at the Ni’lin demonstration last week, spoke to ISM about the protest last Friday, 6th June. He explained that the demonstration began as the protesters marched towards the apartheid wall, with Israeli soldiers firing tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets.

After just 15 minutes, a 41-year-old Palestinian protester was shot in the leg with a 0.22 live ammunition bullet. The soldiers had been hiding in the olive trees next to the apartheid wall and were unseen by the demonstrators. When a Red Crescent volunteer tried to give the wounded protester medical treatment, after placing a bandage on the bleeding wound, he was attacked by the Israeli soldiers. The soldiers kicked the volunteer and used their guns to beat his face, after the demonstration he was taken to the hospital to receive treatment.

The 41-year-old who was shot by the Israeli military was then arrested and held for two hours, before being ‘handed back’ to the Red Crescent ambulance at the Ni’lin checkpoint. He had received some medical treatment from the Israeli paramedics, but this wasn’t immediate, and he also had wounds, including a cut on his head that required one stitch, where the Israeli forces had beaten him while he was arrested.

The protester is now slowly recovering, the 0.22 bullet fractured his tibia [a bone in his lower leg], and it will be another month before he is healed.

The demonstration yesterday was fortunately less violent, there were no injuries or arrests. However, before the protest could begin, the military moved a long way out from the apartheid wall, pushing the demonstrators deep into their own olive trees. The military fired many tear gas grenades and canisters and some of the protesters suffered from tear gas inhalation, requiring support from Red Crescent paramedics. At least twice during the demonstration, Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters directly at protesters, both highly dangerous and in contravention to Israeli military procedure, which is shooting them up into an arch to lower the impacted velocity.

Ni’lin began demonstrating in 2008, against the apartheid wall’s construction. The protests continued after the wall was completed, and since 2008, five villagers from Ni’lin have been murdered by Israeli forces.

Palestinian murdered by Israeli forces in Huwarra

4th June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

In the late hours of Monday evening, Israeli forces executed 30-year-old, father of two, Alaa’ Mohammed ‘Awadh, at Za’tara checkpoint, in southern Nablus.

The Israeli army claimed that a Palestinian gunman was shot dead after he injured an Israeli police officer in the leg. The villagers of Huwwara stated their amazement at the version released by the border police; Alaa’ was the owner of a phone shop in Huwarra and not politically affiliated.

The taxi driver stated that Alaa was standing next to the taxi, unarmed, when Israeli soldiers opened fire. A relative of the victim said that Alaa’ arrived at the checkpoint to collect material for his shop.

According to multiple sources, the Israeli military prohibited Red Crescent paramedics from reaching Alaa’. The Israeli army seized his body for “security reasons”, loaded him on into a military vehicle for ‘investigation’.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) sent a call for a neutral and impartial investigation into the death of Alaa’.

At dawn, Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Huwwara, ransacking the victim’s home, those of his relatives, and his shop, interrogating his parents, his brother and the taxi driver. After the arrival of the military, youth of Huwwara village tried to drive out Israeli forces by throwing stones while Israeli soldiers fired their weapons. One youth was arrested, though his identity is currently unknown. The shops around the village have closed their doors in protest.

At approximately 19:30 yesterday evening, the body was finally handed back to the family, after a short time, the Alaa’s body was transferred to Rafidiah hospital in Nablus.

According to one of the doctors who conducted the autopsy, the majority of Alaa’s wounds were to his chest, abdomen, and both thighs. Alaa’s body held approximately 14 bullet wounds, including a serious wound to the heart and both lungs. His left arm had multiple fractures and a 10×7 cm wound in his left leg. Two fingers were missing on his right hand, and two toes missing from his right foot. Their was also a large wound on the back of his neck.

The funeral march from Nablus to Huwwara (photo by ISM).

Photo story: Palestinians protest the deaths of two martyrs

17th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Ofer, Occupied Palestine

On the 16th May, Palestinians protest on the road to Ofer prison, following the murder of two Palestinian youths on the same road on the previous day during the Nakba Day protest. The youths, 22-year-old Muhammad Audah Abu al-Thahir and 17-year-old Nadim Siyam Nuwarah, were both shot with live ammunition.

The Israeli army launch another round of tear gas. Several protesters were carried from the scene by medical staff with breathing problems due to the amount of tear gas used.

Some protesters came prepared with gas masks.

A protester is treated for tear gas inhalation.

Another protester is treated for tear gas inhalation.

The tear gas canisters are hot. When they land on something flammable it will ignite. Here, the fire brigade try to extinguish a fire that had taken hold in a grassy field next to the protesters.

To protect themselves from being shot, the protesters use a metal skip. Israeli soldiers and border police were using live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets throughout the protest.

As the Israeli army use more tear gas canisters, another protester is carried away for treatment.

Protesters retreat following yet another round of tear gas.

A photojournalist makes his way back through the tear gas.

Protesters take cover as the Israeli army fires more rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition.

A protester fixes flags to a scaffold. The black flag represents the Palestinian refugees’ right to return following their expulsion in the Nakba of 1948.

Israeli soldiers take position on a nearby hill. The soldier in the middle is lining up to shoot rubber-coated steel bullets at the protesters.

A protester is shot in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Wounds from these bullets, if taken to the head or from shorter range to other parts of the body can be fatal.

Another protester is taken away for treatment after being shot in the foot with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

In all, four protesters were shot yesterday with rubber-coated steel bullets, one protester was hit with a tear gas canister in the face, another protester was shot in the face at close range with a foam-tipped projectile and one 16-year-old boy was shot in the leg with live ammunition.

Two more martyrs as the Nakba continues

16th May 2014 | International Women’s Peace Service | Occupied Palestine

Excessive use of tear gas (photo by IWPS).

In commemoration of the 66th annual Nakba day, hundreds of Palestinian youth from the Ramallah district moved against Israeli soldiers outside of Ofer prison in Beitunya. Soldiers retaliated with tear gas, live ammunition and rubber coated steel bullets. During the clashes, soldiers killed two demonstraters, aged seventeen and twenty two.

The first, who was shot in the chest, died in hospital, while the second, who was shot in the abdomen, died in the ambulance. An additional twenty four Palestinian protesters were shot with live ammunition and rubber bullets during the confrontation, and two victims are currently hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit at Ramallah Public Hospital. Over ten youth have also recieved medical attention for excessive tear gas inhalation.

Nakba day is the annual commemoration of the eight hundred thousand Palestinians who were forced out of their homes in Historic Palestine during the War of 1948. Nakba, which is the arabic word for catastrophe, is also used to describe the situation of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli occupiers. At the heart of the catastrophe are the five million Palestinians currently living as refugees, the largest refugee population in the world.

Demonstrators chose Ofer prison as the site of their demonstration today, because five hundred Palestinian political prisoners are currently jailed there. Forty detainees in Ofer are currently on hunger strike to protest the Israeli practice of administrative detention, or imprisonment without formal charges.

Medics evacuate a young boy who passed out from tear gas inhalation (photo by IWPS).

What will Gaza’s Ark face from the Israeli navy as it challenges the blockade?

17th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

An Israeli gunship cruises near the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

The heavy bang is heard clearly, and I have to resist the impulse to climb over the breakwater to try to get a view of the attack in the haze. And a new round of bangs is heard. It can’t be far off the port of Gaza. Instead, I look up at the sky, squinting, and there it is, the drone that been circling around all morning. And I return to my work to completing Gaza ‘s Ark.

Shall I write about this, I wonder to myself? That thought pops up every time I hear machine-gun fire, or even heavier bombardments, from the sea. We expect some influential people to sail with us to break Israel’s naval blockade, and I do not want to scare them off. It is important that they are on board. It’s one thing to know about the abuse from a report, but another when you it happening a few nautical miles away, in the same water we will sail in a few months. I am afraid of painting too vivid a picture of what awaits us.

What is it that awaits us? Will we be boarded, have the ship ransacked by heavily armed and masked marines searching for Palestinians? Will they seize the Ark? Or will they let us pass, allow us to break the blockade only to close it behind us, and then continue shelling fishermen as if nothing happened?

And what responsibility do I have to inform our prospective passengers about the various potential scenarios and what the risks are? Stun guns. Blows with rifle butts. Gunshot wounds. I do not want to scare anyone away from participating, but I cannot lie, pretending everything will necessarily go well.

It should be fine. There is no legitimate reason to stop us. But that does not mean they will let us pass. They can claim that one of the Palestinians on board is wanted, that no Palestinian can leave without permission from them, the occupying power, accuse us of trafficking. Perhaps we will hear machine gun fire at a very close range. Perhaps the Ark will be hit. It has been shot at before. I carved through the wood for bullets earlier, and have given two of them away, as Israeli souvenirs from Gaza. Will there be more?

I do not want to scare anyone, but how will they react when they hear the heavy shelling as they get on board? They can’t say they did not know anything – then they would not come here! – but it is quite different when you hear and see what happens, rather than reading a report. And above, the annoying drone is heard.