Tag: Live Ammunition

Three protests in Gaza: Israeli sniper shoots Palestinian man, leaving him in critical condition

A 20-year-old Palestinian man, Sliman Abu Hanza, is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen with a ‘dum dum’ bullet at a demonstration in Al-Faraheen, Khan Younis, on Sunday.

The injury was inflicted during one of three non-violent demonstrations which took place on Sunday; in Beit Hanoun, Maghazi and Faraheen near Khan Younis – four members of the International Solidarity Movement also attended. The explode-on-impact ‘dum-dum’ bullet which hit Abu Hanza is the same type that was shot into the leg of Ahmed Deeb, 20, during a demonstration in Nahal Oz in April this year – severing his femeral artery and killing him.

All three demonstrations occurred at locations that have seen frequent protests against the Israeli-imposed ‘buffer zone’. This large area of land, along the Gazan side of the border, makes 35% of Gaza’s arable land, inaccessible to farmers because of the dangers of Israeli fire. The devastating effects on farmers and fisherman of these additional restrictions are outlined in a recent United Nations and World Food Programme report: ‘Between the fence and a hard place’ (opens as pdf).

The protests on Sunday targeted Israel’s continuous settlement building, which is in violation of international law and is further used to annex Palestinian land, a key tactic that accompanies the relentless ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs from the region. Organiser and National Committee Secretary A’tah Abu Zarqa said the rallies were organised to show Palestinians’ vehement opposition to the Israeli policies that have expropriated Palestinian land on a continuous basis since Israel was created in 1948 on the ruins of Palestinian refugees. He said that the international community should never accept Israel’s attempts to unilaterally change the geography and demography of Palestine and that in light of this, Abbas should withdraw from negotiations immediately.

At the demonstrations in the Beit Hanoun and Maghazi, although live ammunition was used by Israeli occupation forces in the latter, there were no reported injuries. The demonstration in Maghazi was the first there since three protesters were shot and injured 5 months ago, including the International Solidarity Movement activist Bianca Zammit.

In Faraheen. over 200 people attended the demonstration, which began as a procession towards the border with speeches and chanting, and a large women’s group was also present. A group of young men headed towards the border fence, still on Palestinian land. Sliman and a friend Kamal, also 20, planted flags near to the border fence. Kamal described what happened:

“I was with Sliman and we both put a flag near to the fence – just a flag. When the Israel Jeeps came they opened fired on us and I ran back for cover in a ditch. Suddenly I saw Sliman shot in his abdomen. It was clear it was a single shot intended to hit him. I helped carry him back over the fields with many others. He lives in the area near to the border.”

One of the major concerns for Sliman is the fact that he had to be carried over 500 metres across fields by many of the other demonstrators and then driven off in a ‘Tuk Tuk’ bike trailer to reach medical attention. This way of transporting casualties echoed the horrific scenes during the 3 week Israeli assault on Gaza over the New Year of 2009 when over 1400 people were killed including over 400 children. Because the medical services were so overwhelmed – and were often shot at when approaching the injured – many of the casualties were transported in the boots of cars or on donkey carts. A Press TV team captured the protest on film and interviewed ISM activist Adie Mormech about the shooting.

According to the Doctors at Europa hospital where he was taken, Sliman suffered extensive internal damage to his abdomen, 3 injuries to the small bowel, the left iliac vein, rectum and some intestinal damage. He has had a series of operations been given blood transfusions – the next 24 hours are crucial. Like Ahmed Deeb, the immediate threat to his life was from loss of blood sustained from his injuries. When ISM volunteers left the hospital after visiting Sliman yesterday, he was in a critical but stable condition and was about to be moved to the intensive care unit.

Sliman is another victim of the frequent attacks on civilians near to the border, many of which ended in fatalities such as the three farm workers killed in Beit Hanoun two weeks ago, and last Friday the fisherman Mohamed Bakri killed only 2 miles out at sea by an Israeli Gunship, a month before his wedding.

Besides the crippling and internationally condemned siege, Palestinian life in Gaza is littered with such tragedy, lives ended in a flicker in accordance with the whims of the Israeli sniper on duty and who he or she chooses for execution. If Sliman survives his injuries, he’s sure to join the thousands of Palestinians who must continue the rest of their imprisonment in the Gaza ghetto with permanent debilitating disabilities.

Despite this, people continue to demonstrate in large numbers across Gaza, preferring to face Israeli violence with nothing but flags and a desire to walk on their land, despite the risks that this shooting – all too common a story – exemplifies.

IDF still using banned weapon against civilian protestors

Chaim Levinson | Ha’aretz

19 September 2010

The Israel Defense Forces continues using the Ruger 10/22 rifle to disperse protests even though it has been prohibited by the military advocate general, a hearing at a military court revealed last week. A brigade’s former operations officer told the court he wasn’t even aware of the prohibition.

Last Wednesday, the Judea Military Court convened for the sentencing hearing of protest organizer Abdullah Abu-Rahma from Bil’in, convicted last month of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. The state submitted an expert opinion by Maj. Igor Moiseev, who served as the Binyamin Brigade’s operations officer for two years.

The opinion details the cost of ammunition fired in Bil’in and Nial’in from August 2008 to December 2009; it notes that the army used Ruger bullets that cost a total of NIS 1.3 million. Moiseev described the Ruger as a nonlethal weapon.

When Abu-Rahma’s attorney Gabi Laski inquired if Moiseev knew that the military advocate general had ruled that Ruger rifles are not to be used to disperse protests because they are potentially lethal, Moiseev said he was not aware of such an instruction. The state objected to the question.

In 2001, the military advocate general at the time, Maj. Gen. (res. ) Menachem Finkelstein, prohibited the use of Ruger bullets as nonlethal ammunition.

Nevertheless, the IDF reverted to using the Ruger against protesters in 2009, killing a teenager in Hebron in February and a protester in Nial’in in June. Human rights group B’Tselem asked the military advocate general to make clear that the weapon was not meant for crowd control.

In July, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit wrote that “the Ruger is not defined by the IDF as a means for riot control. The rules for using these means in Judea and Samaria are strict and parallel to the rules of engagement for live fire. If the media or organizations were told anything else regarding the definition, this was an error or misunderstanding.”

He wrote that “recently, the rules were stressed once again to the relevant operations officers in Central Command. The command in fact expects to hold a review headed by a senior commander, examining the lessons drawn from using such means in recent months.”

The IDF Spokesman’s Office said in a statement yesterday that rules for firing 0.22 ammunition are part of the general rules of engagement, “and as such are classified and naturally cannot be elaborated on. In general, it can be noted that the rules applying to 0.22 ammunition are strict and are parallel, in general, to rules applying to ordinary live ammunition.

“The operations officer’s testimony was given at a sentencing hearing of someone convicted of incitement and organizing and participating in violent riots in the village of Bil’in. The quote used is partial and does not reflect all comments by the officer on the means used by the IDF to disperse such riots. The IDF takes care to act in accordance with the rules of engagement.”

Gaza deaths protest comes under heavy live fire from Israeli snipers

15 September 2010 | ISM Gaza

Over 100 rounds of live ammunition were fired at peaceful protesters in a Tuesday demonstration in the Gaza strip. The protest at the Erez border area near Beit Hanoun yesterday included Palestinian activists from the Local Initiative group, local residents and 4 members of the International Solidarity Movement who marched into the site of the recent fatal Israeli incursion. The demonstrators had a view of the area where only a few days earlier, a Grandfather Ibrahim Abu Sayed and his 17 year-old grandson were killed by Israeli tank shelling.

The peaceful demonstration was joined by several young Palestinians, who were also protesting their right to their land, much of which is now lost or out of bounds by the Israeli imposed “buffer-zone.” This buffer-zone is 300 metres wide and stretches along the entire border fence on the frontier with Israel. According to the recent United Nations Report “Between the Fence and a Hard Place” the violence used to restrict Palestinians from accessing their land covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence, meaning that over 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk area causing severe losses of food production and livelihoods.

On a previous demonstration, the activists had managed to partly remove a barbed wire fence, which had prevented them from entering their own farm land. This was met by an Israeli incursion days later, in which tanks and bulldozers unearthed a huge trench in front of the fence, about one kilometre long, three meters deep and two meters wide.

Having marched to the wire fence, 100 metres from the border wall, the demonstrators chanted and waved flags, planting one Palestinian flag beyond the wire fence. They had brought shovels and begun to refill the trench, when the Israel army suddenly opened fire around them. Under heavy shooting with life ammunition, the participants stood their ground, communicating through a megaphone, some crouching low for cover amidst the gunfire that came within 5 metres.

“We attend these demonstration because of the huge border area that takes Palestinian land”, eighteen year-old Hussam told us. “We don’t want it to be separated from our own land, it’s farmland and people are killed for trying to harvest it. Because of that we came to make them feel secure again.”

The shooting created an atmosphere of terror and fear among the demonstrators, as they had no safe place to hide around in the forcibly neglected area. Nevertheless they managed to hold up their message to the world: “Boycott Israel”. The ongoing attacks against civilians in the buffer zone, destroying livelihoods and wiping out land, have continued for too long despite the awareness of the criminally silent international community.

“We call upon the International community not to stay idle any more, but to take their responsibility to stop the ongoing crimes against humanity, and the violation of International law”, Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative stated.

The security situation in the area has been deteriorating. The three innocent civilians were murdered about 700 meters away from the fence while doing their daily check on their land and animals which graze next to the remains of his former home. They were killed instantly, Ibrahim suffered severe shrapnel injuries to his face, chest and stomach and his grandson Hossam had the back of his head blown away.

The Abu Sayed family had been victims of the violent attacks in the “buffer-zone” for decades, culminating in their death. The last decade had been the hardest as their house was destroyed in 2000 by Israeli bulldozers and their rebuilt house destroyed in the 3-week Israeli war on Gaza over the New Year of 2009 that killed a further 1400 Palestinians.

While all the inhabitants of Gaza are victims of Israel’s ‘collective punishment’, a crime against humanity according to article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (of which Israel is a signatory), these people are the latest to be murdered with complete impunity.

Today’s demonstration, met with the same violence, was a message to the world which shows the unbreakable public resistance. “We will keep supporting the farmers here, who are suffering from ongoing attacks on their land, olive trees, thyme and lives, despite the terrorist power we are facing”, announced Saber Al Za’ain.

“We are going to return back to our farms and hold on to our rights on this land.”

Armed settler guards attack mosque in Wadi Hilweh, shots fired at Palestinian residents

26 August 2010 | Wadi Hilweh Information Center

Israeli forces invade Silwan during the clashes
Israeli forces invade Silwan during the clashes

Violence has swept through Wadi Hilweh again as Israeli settler security guards attempted to storm the neighborhood mosque last night, in what marks the third time such an attack has been launched on the local religious site. Settler guards fired live ammunition at Palestinian residents in the ensuing clashes that erupted.

Police claim that stones were thrown at the occupied home of Khader al-Qaq in Wadi Hilweh last night. Three hours later a group of armed Elad settler guards attempted to storm the Wadi Hilweh mosque, using a fire extinguisher to try and break through the door. As the mosque’s emergency call sounded out from the minarets, the guards attempted to flee the scene. Palestinians of Wadi Hilweh flocked to the site of the attack to defend their mosque, where skirmishes soon broke out between residents and settler guards. Shots were fired by armed settler guards at Palestinian residents during the clashes.

Wadi Hilweh resident Mohammad Qaraeen stated that when he tried to alert the police to the attack, the police officer on duty hung up on him. When he tried to call a second time, the police did not arrive until several hours afterwards.

The area was invaded soon after by a large force of Israeli military and Border Police, stationed in the nearby suburb of Baten el-Hawa. The invading forces immediately began firing rounds of tear gas projectiles at crowds of Palestinian residents, causing widespread suffocation as a result of gas inhalation. A fire was started by a group of angry youths at the entrance to Aid el-Hamra, an area under control of the Elad tourism-settlement project “City of David”, in response to the secondary invasion of their community. Residents and journalists were then prevented from accessing the area by Israeli forces, who began firing rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas projectiles and sound bombs at the crowd, only adding to the widespread panic and confusion of the night.

Eyewitnesses report that Israeli soldiers attempted to arrest a Palestinian child during the clashes. The entire area of Wadi Hilweh was then cordoned off by the Israeli military, blocking all entrances to the neighborhood.

UN report: IDF barring Gazans’ access to farms, fishing zones

19 August 2010 | Haaretz

Humanitarian affairs office: Israel restricts entry to 17% of Gaza lands, 85% of beachfront zone, enforces restrictions with live fire.

Over the last ten years, the Israel Defense Forces have increasingly restricted Palestinian access to farmland on the Gazan side of the Israeli-Gaza border as well as to fishing zones along the Gaza beach, a United Nations report (link opens as pdf) revealed Thursday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wrote in the report, complied in cooperation with the World Food Program (WFP), that Israel’s justification for these restrictions was the prevention of attacks on Israel, including the firing of rockets.

The report was compiled in an effort to understand the extent of the restrictions as well as their effect on the Palestinians’ sense of personal security, their ability to make a living and their ability to access services. The report was based on more than 100 interviews and focus group meetings, as well as the analysis of data gathered from other sources.

According to the report, since 2008 the IDF has prevented access to land up to 1,500 meters outside the Green Line, and to naval zones up to 4.5 kilometers from the shore. All in all the IDF restricts access to 17 percent of Gaza’s territory. At sea, the fishermen are completely barred from 85 percent of the naval territory to which they are entitled under the Oslo Accords.

The report estimates that some 178,000 individuals are directly affected by these access restrictions.

According to OCHA, the IDF enforces uses life fire on individuals who enter restricted zones. Though in most cases the troops fire warning shots, 22 people have been killed and 146 have been wounded in such incidents since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. The report further argues that this method of enforcement violates international humanitarian law, and that the local Palestinian population was never informed by Israel of the exact nature of the restrictions.

The research conducted by OCHA also suggested that the IDF has leveled farmland and destroyed personal property situated in restricted areas in efforts to keep Palestinians out. The farmers who own the lands have tried to make up the lost income with alternate forms of farming, the report argues, but their ability to harvest their crops is limited and the profits from the alternate methods comprise a fraction of the income generated on the original land. OCHA estimated some $308 million in losses as a direct result of the Israeli restrictions.

Most of the farmers interviewed for the report said that since the expansion of the restricted zone they have lost more than two thirds of their income. Others reported that their income has been entirely eliminated. The same was true for Gaza fishermen, who have lost an estimated $26.5 million over the last five years.

Other effects of the restrictions include the deterioration in the quality of food consumed by Gazans, gradual changes in diet (from fresh produce and meat to carbohydrate-rich cheap items), decrease in school attendance and a decrease in the age of marriage for girls, the report maintained.

The IDF policy also affects access to schools, seven of which are inside restricted areas, the students’ and teachers’ security, the quality of education and academic achievements, the report argued.

OCHA called on Israel to lift the restrictions immediately and fulfill it international humanitarian obligation. The organization especially stressed its call on Israel to refrain from opening fire at civilians and destroying their personal property.