Tag: Nablus

by Michael
Yesterday, August 2nd, hundreds of people waited for hours at Huwarra checkpoint, which is the main entrance to Nablus from the south and one of the most restrictive in all of the West Bank. Everyone was packed into the terminal, while soldiers allowed one to pass at a time, after undergoing humiliating searches and questioning. Yesterday, the average waiting time at Huwarra was over two hours.

Over the course of six hours, international activists working with ISM were able to escort many people through the illegal barriers, and facilitate the release of men detained without charge. Through physical accompaniment, negotiation and other non-violent means, the ISM was able to pressure Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) soldiers into allowing the passage of many Palestinians. Using this tactic, they were able to allow many pregnant women, small children and people with medical issues to pass. Without international accompaniment, the soldiers do not have any interests in treating Palestinians as humans and often force them to wait the entire day in the hot sun.

In response to the international presence, the soldiers brought an additional 15 soldiers, and threatened the ISM activists with arrest, while the soldiers pushed, screamed and physically attempted to stop the internationals from documenting the closure with cameras. The internationals witnessed IOF soldiers pushing Palestinians, grabbing some by the throat, and continuously touching Palestinian women after being asked not to do so. The internationals were also threatened violently by soldiers with M-16 machine guns. On one occasion, a female soldier told a female activist, “Fuck you, I will shoot you with my big gun,” after the international asked why the Palestinians were being delayed.

In the end, activists were able facilitate the crossing of about 20 people, forcing the IOF to create a “humanitarian line,” where women, children and the elderly were allowed to pass with more efficiency. After exhausting the patience of the soldiers at Huwara, the activists moved to Beit Iba checkpoint on the road to Tulkarem.

At Beit Iba, activists found eight young men in detention, one of whom was in isolation in a metal cell not much larger than the width of his shoulders. The man, named Bashir, had been in detention for over 8 hours, and when asked why, the soldiers told the activists that he was a “wanted, dangerous, terrorist.” After investigation, it turned out that the man had been detained that morning after he intervened in the case of an IOF soldier sexually harassing a Palestinian women. Once again, when the activists attempted to remain in the checkpoint to speak with the detained men, activists were physically assaulted, and threatened with arrest.

The other seven men were detained in a metal pen, surrounded by razor wire. Many had been there for close to six hours. The ISM activists brought them food, water and phones to call their families. Most of those detained were university students from al-Najah in Nablus, one was a Palestinian Authority policeman, and one was a taxi driver. The students had final exams the next day and most reported being stopped every day. When asked, the soldiers said they were detained because the Israeli intelligence had flagged their names.

After over one and a half hours of negotiation, the activists were able to pursuade the soldiers to let Bashir out of isolation and put with the other men. After an additional 30 minutes, all the men were released. As the ISM was leaving Beit Iba, a man of approximately 16 years of age was pulled from the crowd of waiting Palestinians and the IOF attempted to detain him. The man’s ID was not cross referenced with the list of “wanted persons,” and the soldiers gave no justification for singling him out. In response, ISM activists physically prevented the man from being taken by surrounding him with their bodies, and after de-esculating the situation, they accompanied the man to the front of the checkpoint. ISM activists remained with the man during his “interrogation,” in which the soldiers asked him very little. When this was over, the soldiers attempted to detain him again, but the activists were able to successfully accompany him out of the checkpoint. Although he was unable to pass into Tulkarem to visit his mother he was at least not arrested.

by W.B.

Asira Al Shamaliyeh, a town of about 12,000 located a few kilometers north of the mountains from Nablus, has come to suffer under a new aspect of occupation. Asira has in recent months been effectively cut off from Nablus by increasing restrictions at the Sabatosh checkpoint. In addition to the weekly incursions by the occupation forces located in the mountains next to the town, which Israel claims are of the highest security importance, soldiers at the checkpoint are now distributing a form of personal abuse to the Palestinians attempting to pass.

Villagers, most of whom can only cross the checkpoint by taxi or service (shared taxi), are being turned away unless they make personal purchases for the soldiers at the checkpoint. Demands for hummous, cigarettes, cola, candy, and the like are made by soldiers under threat of restriction of movement. Furthermore, the soldiers are demanding the drivers pay for the purchases themselves, with a false promise of reimbursement when they return to the checkpoint. This humiliating behavior is enforced on the drivers whose livelihood depends on fares between Asira and Nablus, often taking their profits for the day. Soldiers even selfishly take food, drinks, and candy bought by Palestinians while in Nablus for their families back in Asira.

This stealing and lying from the soldiers continues as another humiliating form of daily harrassment in the Nablus region.

AP photo: Ewijan after he was taken to the morgue

by Michael

Last night, in the Ash Sheikh Musallem district of Nablus’s Old city, undercover agents of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) carried out two extra-judicial assassinations.

According to eyewitness accounts, the IOF undercover soldiers entered the area in civilian clothing, in a civilian car, and shot Hani Ewijan, 29 and Ameid al Masri, 26. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) press release, Ewijan was a member of the Al-Quds brigades (a militant wing of Islamic Jihad), and al Masri was a civilian not involved in any political activity. During the assassination, al Masri was killed and Ewijan was seriously wounded, and transported to a hospital where he died from injuries sustained. The two men were unarmed shot while playing soccer with their friends and realatives.

In respose to these attacks, there is an almost total strike in Nablus’s Old City, and there were at least two non-violent protests. One involved school boys who marched from the Old City, down the main street towards Balata Camp before turning around and marching back up, past the demolished Muqtada. The other involved mostly adults, and numbered almost 2,000 people.

These attacks are a continuation of Israel’s policy of extra-judicial “targeted assassinations.” Those who are killed are denied the ability to see the evidence against them, or to defend themselves in a court of law. Israel is obliged under article 3 of the First Geneva Convention to the provision prohibiting “passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.” The PCHR reports that “the failure of the international community and the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to take effective steps to stop Israeli war crimes has served to encourage Israel to commit more war crimes against Palestinian civilians.”

by Micheal and Lina

Last night, July 28th, at approximately 3:00 am, Saeed Haettalla, 53, from Balata refugee camp, was arrested and interrogated for the second time in two day, aparently without reason.

In the middle of the night, Saeed was awoken by over 30 soldiers of the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF), backed by six armored jeeps and one armored bulldozer. These forces arrived at his home in Balata camp, and the soldiers entered his home in search of Saeed’s son, Hathyem.

Saeed and his son run the small internet café inside Balata camp, which is why the IOF keeps harassing them. Hathyem is not suspected of doing anything illegal, but according to the arresting officers, someone has used one of the computers in his café for “illegal activity” related to the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon. After the IOF searched Saaed’s home on the 28th, they forced him to open the cafe at approximately 4:00am. He was coerced to agree to the search. The soldiers entered the café, searched the premises, and photographed the interior. After finishing in the café, the soldiers told Saeed that he had to be transported to Huwarra camp for further questioning. Once again Saeed agreed, as he had no choice. He was transported to the camp to face interrogation from an IOF “commander,” and spent an additional nine hours in questioning.

This is the second time in two days that Saeed was interrogated about his son’s whereabouts. The day prior, a similarly sized force of soldiers entered his home in the middle of the night, searched the premises, and interrogated Saeed. The IOF informed Saeed that if he did not surrender his son by 12:00 on Sunday (tomorrow), that his son would be assassinated or Saeed would be arrested once again. Saaed’s two other sons, Hani and Ahmed, are already serving jail sentences in Israeli prisons. Hathyem is now planning on giving himself up to be interrogated at Huwarra, although the entire family is of course worried that they will lose yet another son.

This type of harassment is regular inside Balata Camp. Nightly, soldiers enter the camp, harassing and arresting residents and occasionally carrying out assassinations.

A follow-up report from our original press release about the attack. By Michael.

Today, two ISM activists visited the site of the demolished Muqata in Nablus. Last week, from July 19th until July 21st Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) laid siege to the building, home to the Palestinian government. The two ISMers visited the site to document and observe the damage to the building following the three day offensive. The site of the building is almost completely demolished. The main building is completely leveled, and the peripheral buildings are missing most of their walls. The smaller buildings are also almost entirely destroyed, and deep tank tread marks scar the streets around. The scene at the site is solemn as some Palestinians scavenge for valuable metal, and others pick through the remains gathering what is left of the building’s records and paperwork.

Some have already begun to rebuild and clean up. The observers witnessed a man beginning to rebuild a wall, and a small tractor was moving rubble.

The siege in Nablus marks an escalation in the IOF’s attacks in the region. During the incursion, not only was the government building destroyed, but the IOF arrested many Palestinian police. During this offensive, the nearby Balata refugee camp was also invaded, and here the IOF killed 3. At the end of the attack, 9 Palestinians were killed, including 3 children, and over 80 were injured.

Also damaged in the attack was the office of the Palestinian Red Crescent, the national affiliate of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The IOF occupied the premises, actively blocking ambulances from driving into or out of the building to care for the wounded. During this time, the IOF stole three bodies from Red Crescent ambulances, saying the dead men were wanted. The army also shot tear gas into the neighborhood next to the Red Crescent, and used the facility’s lot as a staging and firing area for tanks and other military equipment.

The Red Crescent building is atop a hill that overlooks the Muqata so after documenting the Muqata, ISM activists visited with the Red Crescent and spoke with a worker. He showed the damage to the observers who photographed and recorded. During the blasting of the Muqata, doors, windows and window frames were destroyed scattering glass and metal across areas where patients were being cared for. The room that was most directly facing the blasts, normally used as a rehabilitation center for disabled children, was heavily damaged, but luckily no children were present at the time. In most of the rooms facing the blast, all of the windows were destroyed.

The ISM condemns these attacks on the democratically elected Palestinian government and on the civilian institutions providing much needed medical relief.

For more information on the attacks, please read these reports:

Ma’an News: “Israel delivers remains of three killed in Nablus Wednesday, continues siege of Al Muqata’ah“, 20th July 2006

IMEMC: “Israeli military pulls out of Nablus after 4-day siege, leaving P.A. government complex destroyed“, 23rd July 2006

The Corner Report blog: “9/11 in Nablus“, 22nd July 2006

PCHR: “IOF Attack El-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Gaza and Raid Nablus“, 19th July 2006

ICRC: “ICRC calls on Israeli army to immediately leave Palestine Red Crescent premises in Nablus“, 20th July 2006

PRCS: “PRCS condemns attacks on health organizations and PRCS staff“, 19th July 2006