Tag: Live Ammunition

Israeli forces fire on Gaza farmers and internationals in Khuza’a [Update: Video Added]

12th December 2012 |  Khuza’a, Besieged Gaza.

Gaza- Israeli forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at unarmed farmers and international activists working in Khuza’a, a small village outside of Khan Younis located near the Israeli border.  At 10:30 AM, the farmers arrived and began to plough approximately 100 meters from the separation fence while internationals lined up in between the border and the farmers. They were quickly met by an Israeli military jeep and transport vehicle. An Israeli soldier issued a warning in Arabic to leave the area and then fired two rounds into the air. The farmers and internationals remained calm and continued their work and the Israeli soldiers left the area.

At around 11 AM, approximately 20 Palestinians and farmers gathered around 300meters back from the fence. Two military jeeps returned to the area.  One soldier exited his vehicle and fired four shots in the direction of the farmers and activists.  The fourth shot crossed the line of the activists and landed in the field being ploughed.  Again, the Palestinians and internationals were not deterred. The Israeli jeeps left and the farmers finished working on this section of land and moved on to an adjacent plot.

Fifteen minutes later, two Israeli jeeps returned, one equipped with an automatic machine gun.  A soldier fired three canisters of tear gas directly in front of the activists.  He proceeded to shoot at the tractor, damaging its engine and bringing the work to a halt.  An international was accompanying the driver aboard the tractor. The accompaniment team included participants from Spain, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Germany and the United States

Gazan farmers successfully ploughed and sowed wheat in adjacent plots, with the presence of internationals, during the two days prior to the incident.  Though they were issued warnings by Israeli forces to stay 100 meters from the fence, they were not fired upon in a similar fashion. “This incident is a prime example of the military harassment and unpredictability of the Israeli occupation forces that farmers routinely face while working their land in Gaza,” said a solidarity activist from Spain.  For a report from the previous days farming, see https://palsolidarity.org/2012/12/gazan-farmers-at-work-in-kuzaa/.

Residents from Khuza’a said they have not planted in this area, declared a closed military zone by Israel, for the past thirteen years.  Formerly an orchard, Israeli forces bulldozed the field multiple times during military incursions and regularly shoots at farmers who attempt to work there.  Farmers were under the impression that this area was now accessible after the November 21st ceasefire’s stipulations that Israeli forces would “refrain from targeting residents in the border areas” and to “stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals.”  This is the optimum season for planting wheat and the Gazan farmers only have a small window of time in which to work before the land will be rendered unusable.

Bullets litter the ground in Ni’lin as soldiers granted more freedom to shoot

11th December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine.

Overnight Israeli soldiers invaded the small village of Ni’lin, population of around 5000 people. The soldiers were attempting to make arrests as part of wave of arrests in the West Bank following protests around the recent bombing in Gaza.

A local Ni’lin resident said: “A very savage invasion to my village Ni’lin today. Hard clashes started after the Israeli occupation army invaded it and try to arrest people. You can hear all the shooting in the village was mostly live bullets. More than 1000 bullet they shot direct at the people.’ According to the same source, one man was shot in the leg with a live bullet, and another in the neck with a rubber coated steal bullet. Many more women and children were exposed to large quantities of tear gas when Israeli soldiers shot at houses in the village.

The invasion was caught on camera by Ni’lin residents, and the following video captures the violence of the attack.

Israeli violence in the West Bank appears to be rising. Last night, whilst the invasion of Ni’lin was underway, Channel 7 Israeli TV reported the comments of a senior Israeli military commander in the West Bank “a soldier operating in the field has the option to make the appropriate decision after evaluating the situation and the amount of danger he and his colleagues are facing, and that based on his personal evaluation, he can resort to the use of live ammunition”.

Following the publication of videos from demonstrations in Kufr Qaddoum in the northern West Bank and from Hebron in southern West Bank, which showed soldiers running away from stone-throwing Palestinian protestors, the army procedures regarding use of live ammunition are under review. Rhetoric from the Israeli army suggests that greater use of live ammunition is now accepted policy. The events in Ni’lin over night are a testament to this.

In a time of an increased ISM presence in Gaza and what looks to be a upsurge of violence in the West Bank, we call on international activists to join the ISM on the streets of Palestine. Volunteers of the ISM are requested to make a minimum of a two week commitment, long term volunteers are always needed.

Israeli Army shoots resident of Nabi Saleh following settler attack

By Paddy Clark

14 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday evening, settlers entered Nabi Saleh village. In clashes that followed Israeli soldiers shot Omar al-Tamini, 25, with live ammunition in the abdomen, and then arrested him and Eyas from inside the ambulance which was taking Omar to Ramallah hospital. On Monday, September 11 at 2:30 a.m., Israeli forces forced entry to homes in Nabi Saleh and arrested Mohammed, and Zeyad, younger brother of martyr, Mustafa Tamini.

Most of the local residents were at home on Monday as a result of the Palestinian general strike. Settlers entered the village in an attempted attack which was reported on PSCC. Residents of Nabi Saleh resisted the intrusion, and then clashes broke out between local youth and the military. Omar al-Tamimi was shot with live ammo during clashes which continued in to the night.

Later that night around 2.30 a.m, Israeli military invaded again (see video here.) They raided the family home of martyr, Mustafa Tamini, who suffered a fatal injury on December 9, 2011, after being shot in the face with a tear gas grenade from a distance of less than 10 meters (see photo here and video here.) Heavily armed soldiers once again, stood in the hall of their home, this time demanding another family member to be taken away to an Israeli jail.

I blog on Palestine and Resistance blogged;

“i feel so so angry that they had the nerve to go into that house once again, that they dared to harrass this family once more. its not even been a month since they released loai (20) from ofer military prison – and already when they had arrested him, in the middle of the night, from inside their home, barely two months after they had shot dead mustafa in cold blood in their own village, i (like so many others) could almost not believe it, felt so so enraged that they would enter their home again with their guns. it still makes me furious that they actually imprisoned loai – FROM INSIDE THEIR HOME – only two months after he saw his eldest brother bleed into the street in their village, before friends carried him into a car and away from him forever. (watch this video: loai, wearing a grey/black checkered jacket, can be first seen at 0:22). I still feel a mixture of rage and pain and i struggle to grasp that they not only murdered mustafa in the way they did, but that they did storm the house of the bereft family so shortly after and violently arrested the brother who actually saw mustafa dying, when they had only released his twin odai from military jail the day of mustafa’s funeral – AFTER the funeral. i still can’t grasp that odai heard in jail that someone in his village was severely injured, heard in jail that the injured young man was his eldest brother, heard in jail that it was a serious injury and that he might lose his eye, heard in jail that he might be fine after all, and heard in jail the next day that his brother was martyred. and that he was denied the right to spend that terrible day with his family and friends, with his twin brother.”

The legal office of Gabi Lasky said yesterday that Zayed and Mohammed were being detained at Ofer prison but was still unaware where Omar and his friend were being held.

For background information about the struggle and further information in Nabi Saleh see blog here

Paddy Clark is an activist and writer living in the West Bank (name has been changed).

Live ammunition in Nabi Saleh

By Paddy Clark

31 August 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West bank

click to see more photos

Three Palestinians were injured and 5 arrested today during Nabi Saleh’s weekly demonstration. Israeli military set up road blocks surrounding the village early this morning in order to prevent people and journalists from participating.

At 4.30 p.m., Malek Tamini was shot with a live bullet which went through his hand and the side of his body. He has undergone surgery for his injuries. One Palestinian suffered an open wound after being shot with a tear gas canister during protests. Soldiers were firing tears gas canisters directly in to the crowd with the intent of causing serious injury and then prevented the ambulance from entering the village for one hour . One local resident received stitches in Ramallah hospital after suffering a head wound from a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Five Palestinians protestors including Mohammad Khatib and Bilal Tamimi of the popular committees, a student journalist, and two young women activists were arrested in the morning while walking towards the village spring which was annexed by the nearby illegal Israeli settlement, Halamish. All have  has since been released.

Nabi Saleh is a small village of approximately 550 people, twenty kilometres north west of Ramallah in the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Israeli colony of Halamish (also known as Neveh Tzuf) was established on lands belonging to the villages of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham in 1976. In response to the illegal colony being established on their land, the residents of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham began holding demonstrations in opposition to the theft of their land and the establishment of the colony (whose establishment violates international law). The residents of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham lodged a court case against the colony in Israel’s high court, but were unable to stop the construction the illegal settlement.

Since its establishment in 1977, Halamish colony has continued to expand and steal more Palestinian land. In 2008, the residents of An Nabi Saleh challenged the building of a fence by the colony on private Palestinian land, which prevented Palestinians from accessing their land.  The Israeli courts ruled that the fence was to be dismantled  Despite the Israeli court ruling, the colony continued to illegally annex more Palestinian land.  In the summer of 2008, Israeli settlers from Halamish seized control of a number springs, all of which were located on private Palestinian land belonging to residents of An Nabi Saleh.

In December 2009, the village began weekly non-violent demonstrations in opposition to the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish annexing of the  fresh water springs and stealing of more of the village’s land.  Since An Nabi Saleh began its demonstrations, the Israeli military has brutally sought to repress the non-violent protests, arresting more than 13% of the village, including children. In total, as of 31 March 2011, 64 village residents have been arrested. All but 3 were tried for participating in the non-violent demonstrations. Of those imprisoned, 29 have been minors under the age of 18 years and 4 have been women.

For more information see Nabi Saleh Solidarity.

Paddy Clark is a volunteer with Jordan Valley solidarity.