Tag: Nablus

The Scene of Destruction at the Nablus Muqata

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

Palestinians Open Checkpoint by Laying down on Settler Road

by Ali Omar and Raad

Today, July 26th, at 5pm, the IOF closed Yesthar checkpoint (west of Nablus) in all directions for all Palestinian and settlers passing on the road. They re-opened it at 7pm for just the settlers, while there were dozens of Palestinians waiting to go back to their homes.

Previously the road was only for settler use, but was opened for Palestinians in 2004 after it was closed since the beginning of the Intifada.

Opening the checkpoint just for the settlers made the Palestinians very angry and they responded by having a completely non-violent direct action by lying down on the road and closing it with their bodies. The army responded with excessive violence by beating the people and throwing sound grenades at the crowd. This violence wasn’t helpful to evacuate the crowd who continued chanting songs of the Intifada and refusing to move.

After the failure of the IOF troops to open the way for the settlers who were stuck waiting, the settlers began threatening the Palestinians with their machine guns, waving them at their faces. The soldiers did nothing to stop the settler’s threats.

The army failed to evacuate the Palestinians who occupied the checkpoint from 7pm until 9pm and so the army was forced to open the checkpoint for all.

PHCR: “Four from One Family Killed and 3 Injured in Gaza City, 20 Killed and 193 Injured in El-Maghazi and Nablus”

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 22 July 2006, 11:00 GMT

Large scale destruction in houses, agricultural fields, infrastructure, and governmental and security buildings

In another crime of disproportionate use of lethal force, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 4 members of one family on Friday, 21 July 2006. A mother, her 2 sons, and the sons’ nephew were killed by an artillery shell that fell on their house in Shejaeya Quarter in Gaza City. This is the second crime of its kind in the same quarter this month. Two weeks ago, a mother and 2 of her children were killed in similar circumstances.

This crime and others perpetrated by IOF are part of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for nearly a month. Palestinian civilians are paying the price of this aggression as a large number of civilians was killed or injured, and their property was destroyed.

Prior to the latest crime in Shejaeya, IOF redeployed out of El-Maghazi refugee camp area after a 2-day attack. IOF left behind a large number of casualties and significant destruction. In addition, IOF withdrew from Nablus in the evening after a 3-day operation, which caused a large number of casualties and destruction.

PCHR is extremely concerned over the continued Israeli aggression against the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which threatens to inflict additional casualties among Palestinian civilians, and cause destruction of civilian property.

PCHR’s preliminary investigation into the crime in Shejaeya Quarter indicates that at approximately 08:00 on Friday, 21 July 2006, an IOF tank stationed along the border east of Gaza City fired a shell at a residential house belonging to Jaber Harara, located near El-Muntar hill, near the border. The shell landed directly on the roof of the 3-story house. Two of Jaber’s children and their cousin were on the roof. They were killed instantly. Jaber’s wife went up from the second floor to see what happened after the first shell landed. As soon as she reached the roof, a second shell was fired at roof. She was killed instantly. Three members of the family were injured by shrapnel, including a 3-year old girl. The victims killed are:
– Mo’min Jaber Harara (18);
– Amer Jaber Harara (21);
– Sabah Harara (45), the mother of the first two; and
– Mohammad Hamdi Harara (27).

Commenting on the crime, an IOF spokesman stated that Israeli soldiers noticed 2 armed people in the area who were about to fire rockets; and IOF fired the shells at them. IOF moved into the area after firing the shells, and started to raze agricultural land in the area.

At approximately 05:30 on Friday, IOF completed their redeployment out of El-Maghazi refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. IOF had occupied large areas of land in the area for 48 hours, during which they committed crimes of willful killing and destruction of civilian property. Fifteen Palestinians were killed, including 3 children and a mother and one of her children who were killed inside their house. The number of injured is 125, most of them civilians, including 30 children and a paramedic. There are 31 serious injuries. Four houses were completely destroyed and 9 houses were partially destroyed. A sewing workshop, the source of income for 80 families, was destroyed. In addition, 200 donums of agricultural land were razed, and extensive destruction was caused to infrastructure such as the water network, electricity lines, and roads.

At approximately 22:30 on Friday, IOF redeployed out of Nablus in the West Bank after a 3-day operation. During their attack, IOF besieged the Government Compound and other governmental buildings and headquarters of security services. The pretext of the operation was detaining wanted people inside the Government Compound. IOF used a wide range of military equipment in the operation. IOF killed 5 Palestinians, including 3 who were wanted and 2 civilians. The number of injured is 68, including 27 children and 3 journalists. The destroyed governmental buildings and structures included the veterinary department building of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Interior offices, Special Police Force headquarters, 3 building for the Preventive Security Apparatus, and a prison. In addition, IOF destroyed the southern wing of the Governmental Compound that included the headquarters of the National Security Force, the Presidential Guard “Force 17,” and Military Intelligence. In addition, IOF destroyed the maintenance section of the National Security Force. The Central Prison was partially destroyed, with the section used for females destroyed after freeing the prisoners. IOF detained nearly 100 Palestinians, most of them members of security forces and others who are wanted by IOF.

PCHR reiterates its concern over the situation in the OPT. The Centre warns against the ongoing Israeli aggression, which are a violation of International Law and International Humanitarian Law. This aggression will result in additional casualties among Palestinian civilians. In addition, the Centre condemns the acts of willful killing and destruction perpetrated by IOF. These crimes as a form of reprisal and collective punishment against Palestinians, which is a violation of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR points to the fact that IOF do not respect the principles of necessity and proportionality when using its war machine against Palestinian resistance activists when they are in non-combat situations in civilian areas, which leads to casualties from among the civilian population and to damage of civilian property.

In the Center�s view, the complacency of the international community and the High Contracting Parties of the 4 th Geneva Convention and their failure tot take effective steps to stop Israeli war crimes has been a supporting and encouraging element for Israel to continue perpetrating additional war crimes against Palestinian civilians. The legal cover provided to Israel by the US, which purposely hinders International Humanitarian Law, and the conspiracy of silence by Europe encourage Israeli to continue to perpetrate war crimes unchecked, placing it above international law.

The Centre reminds the High Contracting Parties of:
— Their obligations under article 1 of the convention to ensure respect of the convention under all circumstances;
— Their obligations in article 146 of the convention to pursue suspects of committing serious violations of the convention, noting that these violations are war crimes according to article 147, as specified in the first protocol additional to the convention

-End-

Public Document
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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip:
on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893

PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail:
pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org

While the World Watches Lebanon, the Israeli Army Tightens the Noose in Palestine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Starting around 5am this morning and lasting until the evening, the Israeli army surrounded the Mukatah (local government building) in Nablus with close to 100 military vehicles. They killed three people inside who are a part of the preventative security force of the PA, that the Israelis claim were wanted persons. They detained the bodies of the fallen in Nablus after abducting them from an ambulance. The bodies have not yet been identified because their faces were so mutilated by gunfire. This comes on the same day that the Israelis stormed a government building in Ramallah, arresting five people. They also stormed the office of the Palestinian Wafa News Agency in a pre-dawn raid.

The Israeli military has invaded El-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza and killed 6 people, including two children. They have bombed refugee camps, civillian infastructure and government buildings in Gaza in the last few days, killing many civilians. Since Israel stepped up the bombing of Gaza last month, the Israeli army has been enforcing more severe closures on the entire West Bank. It is currently impossible to travel to Nablus from the south.

Members of the ministry of security were held hostage in the Nablus building, surrounded by bulldozers, jeeps and tanks. It has since been reported that they were moved to another building and stripped of their clothing. The army has completely destroyed the preventative security building, part of the Nablus Mukatah, which was already mostly destroyed by the Israeli offensive in the West Bank of 2004.

The Israeli soldiers occupied buildings nearby in order to shoot into the Mukatah and people nearby. Palestinian Medical Relief, one of the many ambulance services, has reported that twenty people in Nablus have been injured including an Al-Jazeera technician who was shot in the leg by a rubber-coated metal bullet while he was helping shoot a live broadcast. BBC News Online has reported 45 people injured, according to hospital officials they have spoken to. The latest figures as collected by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in their latest press release are that 81 Palestinians have been injured and 9 killed, including 2 children.

For more information call:
Sam 054 647 8139

Updated 6:40pm

Ynet: “Look who’s been kidnapped”

Hundreds of Palestinian ‘suspects’ have been kidnapped from their homes and will never stand trial

Israeli reservist Arik Diamant | Ynet

It’s the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside. A guerrilla force comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier. After hours of careful movement, the force reaches its target, and the ambush is on! In seconds, the soldier finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.

A smash in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls to the ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up, quickly tie his hands and blindfold him, and disappear into the night.

This might be the end of the kidnapping, but the nightmare has just begun. The soldier’s mother collapses, his father prays. His commanding officers promise to do everything they can to get him back, his comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms, writing in pain and worry.

Nobody knows how the soldier is: Is he hurt? Do his captors give him even a minimum of human decency, or are they torturing him to death by trampling his honor? The worst sort of suffering is not knowing. Will he come home? And if so, when? And in what condition? Can anyone remain apathetic in the light of such drama?

Israeli terror

This description, you’ll be surprised to know, has nothing to do with the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is the story of an arrest I carried out as an IDF soldier, in the Nablus casbah, about 10 years ago. The “soldier” was a 17-year-old boy, and we kidnapped him because he knew “someone” who had done “something.”

We brought him tied up, with a burlap sac over his head, to a Shin Bet interrogation center known as “Scream Hill” (at the time we thought it was funny). There, the prisoner was beaten, violently shaken and sleep deprived for weeks or months. Who knows.

No one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not called to help him. After all, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the kidnapping of this Palestinian kid. Over the 40 years of occupation we have kidnapped thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit was captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly, with no judge or jury, or witnesses, and without providing the family with any information about the captive.

When the Palestinians do this, we call it “terror.” When we do it, we work overtime to whitewash the atrocity.

Suspects?

Some people will say: The IDF doesn’t “just” kidnap. These people are “suspects.” There is no more perverse lie than this. In all the years I served, I reached one simple conclusion: What makes a “suspect”? Who, exactly suspects him, and of what?

Who has the right to sentence a 17-year-old to kidnapping, torture and possible death? A 26-year-old Shin Bet interrogator? A 46-year-old one? Do these people have any higher education, apart from the ability to interrogate? What are his considerations? I all these “suspects” are so guilty, why not bring them to trial?

Anyone who believes that despite the lack of transparency, the IDF and Shin Bet to their best to minimize violations of human rights is naïve, if not brainwashed. One need only read the testimonies of soldiers who have carried out administrative detentions to be convinced of the depth of the immorality of our actions in the territories.

To this very day, there are hundreds of prisoners rotting in Shin Bet prisons and dungeons, people who have never been –and never will be – tried. And Israelis are silently resolved to this phenomenon.

Israeli responsibility

The day Gilad Shalit was kidnapped I rode in a taxi. The driver told me we must go into Gaza, start shooting people one-by-one, until someone breaks and returns the hostage. It isn’t clear that such an operation would bring Gilad back alive.

Instead of getting dragged into terrorist responses… we should release some of the soldiers and civilians we have kidnapped. This is appropriate, right, and could bring about an air of reconciliation in the territories.

Hell, if this is what will bring Gilad home safe-and-sound, we have a responsibility to him to do it.

Arik Diamant is an IDF reservist and the head of Courage to Refuse.