Tag: Military Training

Hebron: Escalation of Israeli army aggression

By Selina Khalil and Hakim Maghrib

Photos by Jonas Ravn, Markus Fitzgerald, and Selina Khalil

27 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

For several days this past week, the Israeli army has assaulted Palestinians and conducted raids in Palestinian residential areas of Hebron. The raids have taken place in both the Israeli-controlled area H2 and the Palestinian-controlled area H1.

A 17 year old boy’s ripped t-shirt after being beaten by Israeli soldiers – click to see more photos

Military training in H1

In the afternoon of July 23, more than 30 Israeli soldiers participated in a half hour training operation in Bab a-Zawiya neighborhood. The neighborhood is located in H1, the supposedly Palestinian-controlled area of Hebron.

Close to a dozen armed Israeli soldiers ran out of Checkpoint 56, advanced 300 meters up the street, and sealed off traffic. There they met with over 20 other soldiers who had taken positions on the rooftops of Palestinian residential homes.

After forcing their way in between the homes, soldiers conducted some closed activities before retreating back into the H2 area. The operation is presumably another military training drill.

Later that evening, 20 Israeli soldiers again entered the H1 area, this time in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. Bringing with them a dog, weapons, and other military equipment, the soldiers proceeded with an hour long training operation.

Combat-like positions were assumed in different locations of the neighborhood. Some soldiers unfolded a compact ladder and climbed an earth mound, despite a parallel road. Other soldiers stopped a young Palestinian man in his car with loud shouting, forced him out at gunpoint, and searched him. A second young Palestinian man was pushed against a wall and body-searched.

When neighborhood residents left the local mosque after Isha, the evening prayer, Israeli soldiers forced them back into the mosque with aggressive shouting. Several houses were raided by soldiers, for reasons unexplained.

When International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers took photos and filmed the behavior, soldiers at several occasions ran or charged against them.

“If you take pictures your camera is mine,” was one of many similar threats made by soldiers.

Another soldier said, “do not take pictures of my soldiers when we are training – I mean, when we are doing our job.”

Raiding and sound-bombing Palestinian homes

Although house owners offered to open locked doors with a key, Israeli soldiers broke their doors during a military raid- click to see more photos

In the night of July 24, ISM volunteers witnessed a second day of assault and raids in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. Approximately 50 armed soldiers, some wearing balaclavas and other with camouflage-painted faces, broke into and raided the home of Khalid Abu Ainsheh. Khalid’s son, Isaq Khattib, was arrested earlier at 8pm as he was about to break fast for Ramadan.

6 soldiers had come to a different home and pulled Isaq Khattib out. Isaq was searched against a wall, handcuffed, blindfolded, then taken to a military base located next to a Tel Rumeida settlement. Isaq was shortly brought back to the checkpoint located outside his parents’ home, and a knife was placed next to him.

Isaq’s mother emerged from her home, demanding Israeli soldiers allow her son who had yet to break fast, to be released.

Meanwhile, children who were playing near the scene had sound bombs thrown at them by Israeli soldiers.

Claiming that Isaq’s parents were hiding someone in their house, soldiers proceeded with raiding the home of Khalib Abu Ainsheh. Sound bombs were thrown inside the house, and men and women inside were detained separately in two rooms. Doors were broken down by soldiers, the household owners offering to open them with keys but being prevented from doing so. The outcome was 4 detained Palestinians, all of whom were later released.

Beatings and aggression

In the evening of July 25, a 17 year old Palestinian boy was dropped off by an Israeli police jeep directly in front of the Israeli military-manned Checkpoint 56. The boy was shaken and visibly injured. He said he had been taken by Israeli soldiers and beaten.

The 17 year old had a swollen nose and eye after having received a beating and head-butts from soldiers, and his shirt was torn. Videos clearly capture soldiers mistreating the boy. In the videos, his face is already bleeding before he is taken away.

Palestinian neighborhoods are used as test areas for future combat situations, but also to demonstrate to the indigenous residents that Israel is in control of their lives. This escalation of harassments has arrived with the first week of Ramadan, when people are keen on spending time with their families, free from disturbance.

As Palestinians in the area and activists at the local organization Youth Against Settlements see the latest events as part of a deliberate escalation by the Israeli army, there are many reasons to keep an eye on the occupied and apartheid-stricken city of Hebron in the near future.

Selina Khalil, Hakim Maghribi, Jonas Ravn, and Markus Fitzgerald are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).

Aqaba: Family of 12 receives home demolition order

By Sunny

28 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday, June 24 in Aqaba, Muhammed and Nassa Al-Jabba received a demolition order by Israeli authorities demanding that they evacuate the premises of their home within the next 3 days. The Al-Jabba family have not evacuated the home as it is the sole residence for their family of 10 children. The Israeli military may arrive at any time to demolish the building in the Area C (Israeli civil and security control) village.

Muhammed Al-Jabbar holds a demolition order for his family’s home

Upon arriving in the village of Aqaba, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers spoke with the mayor, Haj Sami, an older man left wheelchair bound after suffering 3 gunshots from Israeli soldiers while working on his farm in 1971. He was only 16 years old at the time and fortunate to survive.

Haj Sami introduced ISM volunteers to Nassa Al-Jabbar, the mother of 10 who has been faced with a demolition order, giving her only 3 days to abandon the premises before the Israeli army is able to arrive with bulldozers and raze her home.

Nassa and her husband Muhammed have spent 10 years building their home. When asked why it took them so long, Nassa replied that because a permit to build on their own land is impossible to attain from Israel, the house was built in 7 different stages in order to avoid the soldiers attention.

Nassa says that if Israeli forces demolish her home, she, her husband, and her 10 young sons and daughters will have no other place to go. They do not have the funds to build another home.

Muhammed states that regardless of the outcome, he will not leave his home. If demolished, their house will join the over 24,000 Palestinian homes that have been demolished since 1967.

Nassa and Muhammed’s home is not the only building that faces demolition. Four other shelters and a concrete factory have received orders as well.

The village of Aqaba has suffered extensively from the Israeli occupation. Of a population of 1000, 700 residents are internal refugees. The villagers live in constant threat of home demolition.

On September 15, 2011, two animal shelters and a home were demolished. There was no advance warning, not even a demolition order. The roads that provide easy access into the village was also destroyed by Israeli forces. On a weekly basis, Israeli forces hold military training near the village, subjecting Aqaba to the sound of gun shots. On Tuesday morning however, the Israeli military began also training with tanks. The explosions are resulting in stress and trauma for the villagers.

If allowed to happen, Nassa and Muhammed’s home will join the list of thousands of demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation.

Sunny is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Farmland exploited for Israeli military exercises

By Alex

22 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Monday the 21 of May is the third day in a row of Israeli military exercises in and around the small Palestinian village of Khirbet Atwayel outside Nablus. These exercises prevent the farmers from working on their lands and force the villagers to sleep under the sound of heavy shelling with the constant presence of soldiers.

Khirbet Atweyel is a village located on the slopes West of the Jordan valley. The 18 families that reside there are almost exclusively farmers and have been victims to the actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for a long time.

Every month, Israeli soldiers arrive, erect tents, and stay for a few days while they receive various kinds of military training. These include the shooting of live rounds, rocket missiles, and other heavy artillery. During these days, the farmers are denied entry to their own lands and can only stand aside and watch while soldiers drive their jeeps and other vehicles over the fields.

Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), together with members of the municipality of the nearby town of Aqraba, approached the village on Monday, May 21.

“As usual, the soldiers stop their activities when they see internationals in the village. Only ten minutes ago they were shooting rockets on the hills a couple of hundred meters from the town’s houses,” Basem, the mayor of Khirbet Atwayel says.

Tents erected by the Israeli military to house soldiers during military training.

Later, whilst two ISM activists attempted to approach the field in order to better photograph the military tents, Israeli soldiers opened fire nearby. The activists were forced to turn around and flee the way they came. A rocket was fired on an adjacent hill, creating an ear piercing bang.

“These rockets are the kind of weapons they usually shoot at night. If you come here between 10-11 p.m. you will find they shoot dozens, making it impossible to sleep,” Basem says.

The military training, however, is only one of many aspects of oppression that the people of Khirbet Atwayel suffer on a daily basis. Like many other villages in the Jordan valley, Khirbet Atwayel is in Area C. It is under full Israeli civil and military control. One result is that the villagers are not allowed to have wells or water cisterns. Instead, they are forced to buy water from Aqraba and transport it in tanks to their houses. This makes the basic necessity of water enormously expensive. Irrigation of crops has become impossible and farmers are left to hope that the winter will bring enough rain.

When asked for his thoughts about the future of his village, Basem replied, “the occupiers are obviously trying to get rid of us, but we were born in this village and this land has been within our families for generations. We will never leave and give up what is rightfully ours.”

Alex is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Nablus: 2 youth arrested during night raids into Burin

by Lydia

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Monday, 12 March at 9pm, the soldiers were making themselves comfortable yet again in the village of Burin.  Around 6 jeeps entered  and 10 jeeps surrounded the village.

It seemed for a while it was just another evening of playground antics with the soldiers occupying the village and enjoying an evening of military training,  as this often happens and is expected throughout the nights when the village no longer belongs to the residents but instead becomes the soldiers training field.

There is a military compound very close to Huwarra which makes Burin and surrounding villages, such as Madama  and Assira al Qablia, very convenient places for the soldiers to embark on such antics.

This evening however, the tactics took a turn for the worse when the soldiers began to raid the homes of residents. It started with the homes of Ahmad Samir Najjar, 16, and Mahmoud Nasser Asasus  also 16. They are both now being held in Peta Tikva interrogation center.

After the completion of the interrogation they will either be released or moved to a prison.

Later raids were made into three more homes, with all three receiving threats from the soldiers that they would be the next to be arrested.

The raids consisted of the soldiers evacuating the families outside while they searched their home thoroughly, turning cupboards, bedrooms, and living areas upside down.  Leaving a family outside, with their young waiting for the soldiers to finish in order to be allowed back into their homes, leaves the next day spent on  putting their homes back together.

Members of the village went to visit the families of the young men arrested to offer their support and solidarity. Despite the problems the morale is high within the families.

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Mapping a pattern of Israeli violence in Burin

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The pattern of settler and military invasion of Burin, a village near Nablus, is what locals and internationals are mapping to brace themselves for more property damage, violence, and threats by nearby illegal settlements and hardcore adherents to the volatile “Price Tag Campaign.”

If the pattern continues, the next attack will be settlers, according to local ISM coordinator, Lydia. “Within a few days after that, Burin should be due a visit from the soldiers.”

Burin Violence Pattern
Burin Violence Pattern

According to notes and statistics prepared by Lydia, a British volunteer stationed in Burin, it is predicted that soldiers will enter the village with approximately 8 to 12 jeeps, which has been the range of jeeps the military bring to raid the village in a three week span. This comes following today’s settler attack and military incursion into the village, which resulted in the confirmed arrest of two 16-year-old boys. Lydia has been barred from entering the village at times when ISM has been notified of these attacks through the use of a makeshift checkpoint, and she notes that the same did happen today at the entrance of Burin. Typically military remains present for around 4 hours, which has been a consistent amount of time stayed during each of these invasions.

The time of an Israeli attack cannot be predicted since they have been so random, adding to the psychological games that the Israeli military enjoys playing to keep the villagers vulnerable. The residents of Burin know it is always coming, but when is the mystery.

Ghassan Najjar, Director of the Bilal Najjar Youth Center, named after the martyr, stated that despite the patterns, “We know in the village that from 9 PM until the early morning that the village is no longer ours, it is the military playground.”

The military uses tear gas and sound bombs frequently, using these during both attacks and when the military uses Burin as a venue for military training. Ghassan Najjar, awoken by these activities notes that soldiers have stated, “Don’t worry, we are only training, go back to sleep.” They are on roofs, shooting gas at no one, and throwing sound bombs near peoples houses and even raiding houses during these drills.

When the settlers and soldiers are together and enter Burin, the illegal settlers remain in the village fields and hills, never entering the heart of the village. Yet the Israeli military will advance to protect these settlers, with the weapons they train with and even live ammunition to disperse peaceful protesters.

The settlers have all come from the same direction, from the stolen land now referred to as a settlement named Bracha. They have come in numbers between 10 and 25 and they come armed, weapons ranging from handguns to M-16s.

These three attacks have been focused on the Sofan household. They are not new to the suffering, having had their house set on fire twice. The second arson attack resulted in the death of Atallah Sofan, husband of Hanan Sofan who currently lives in their home. Her husband died after he had a heart attack due to the sight of his home in flames. They have had their chickens, sheep, horse and donkey killed and their house stoned and paint bombed.

“Our house is the only thing stopping the settlers from taking this area,” said Sofan.

The nearby settlement of Yitzhar is home to some of the most violent Price Tag Campaign settlers

This is what happened on the latest occasions; bottles and stones were thrown at their home and their sheep were also under attack. As usual, the youth of Burin came down to protect their land by throwing stones. On March 9th this was  soon met by Israeli soldiers who protected the settlers, contrary to what they claimed about wanting to provide security for the Palestinian residents. There were clashes between all three parties, which is typical for Burin, each time lasting between 30 to 90 minutes.

While patterns in the behavior of illegal and violent settlers are being mapped, and the relationship between the occupying forces and these rogue bands of settler gangs becomes clearer, the pattern itself does not change the inability of Palestinians to prepare for Israeli violence.

“Although patterns are made, the [Israelis] also can come whenever they like and do whatever they like,” said Lydia. “For me all I can do is document. Even if clearer patterns are made, what can the Palestinians do, leave their houses for those hours? If they do begin to leave, the soldiers win as people change the way they live to avoid the army.”