Tag: Nablus

By Lee

At approximately 11:00am the Army arrives at Tel street in Mafea Area of Nablus.

Military Operation to search the 5 story Aljhe building, likely used by students at nearby al-Naija university, and possibly to arrest some occupants. Four jeeps in attendance.

Soldiers arrived and used live ammunition from the start. Youth stone throwing at jeeps from surrounding buildings and adjacent road thats 30m higher.

We arrive at 11:45. Timeline as follows:

11:56- Smoke bomb set off outside building. Obscures view

12:00- Jeep drives from outside building and moves 20m next to ambluance
Uses it as cover from stones

12:06- Smoke clearing from outside building

12:07- 2 soldiers enter building (more could have entered when view obscured by smoke)

12:09- Smoke pouring from 2 & 3 storey windows of building. Something said over one of jeeps loudspeakers

12:17- 2 jeeps have returned. 4 jeeps again in total

12:23- Smell of tear gas coming from building, smoke still coming from several windows, but concentrated on 4th floor
2 soldiers exit building & return to jeep

12:35- 3 jeeps drive from building and move 30m to ambulance. Stone throwing recommences, hitting ambulance and jeeps. One then drives on and pushes aside makeshift barricade (metal wheelie bin & rubbish). 2 others follow. then final jeep drives from building

12:37- enter building with ambulance crews. Its full of smoke and tear gas. 1st and 2nd story doors are open and rooms are empty except for smoke and soot on the floor. 3rd story doors still closed. 4th story doors open but impossible to see inside – too much smoke & gas and its painful & difficult to breathe. Head a bit dizzy. Need to breathe out of windows on the stair landings. Remove window panes with ambulance crew to let more smoke out. Grab some pics – not sure if any good. After maybe 7 minutes, fire brigade arrive and man in breathing apparatus ascends stairs. i gotta leave, feeling ill. Take pics of fireman and rush outside

12:50- Fire brigade begin hosing down building to wash away soot and clear smoke. Oh, and ive got a headache and painful breathing, serves me right!

Not sure if anyone was living in the apartments as all looked empty but if they were, they wont be able to live there for a few days, place is a total mess

12:52- residents, media and ambulance crews all say that no one was arrested. Just no way anyone could have stayed in the building through the operation thats a fact

Epilogue: Last Night: 7 were arrested from Askar refugee camp. Army attacked at 02.00 and left and 07.00. 3 arrested from Nablus including 50 yr old woman Wafiqa Adela.

Today, April 22nd, the army invaded Nablus again, which they have done almost everyday since last Monday, evacuating soldiers in houses that they have occupied. Today 5 people were hit with rubber bullets, one of them below the eye. One of them was a reporter with Reuters, Ashraf Sharwis, who was filming an armoured vehicle the open, but far from the kids throwing stones. They hit him with a rubber bullet in the leg, and he moved closer to the TV jeep but continued to film. Then they shot him again in the shoulder and he was evacuated in an ambulance. At the same time (another shot or the same bullet, I don’t know) hit a very young kid that was standing next to the reporters and ambulance and was not throwing stones. I would estimate his age is about 11 or 12 years old.

Lauren, ISM Nablus

Pictures from yesterday’s house occupations

Today, the Israeli army has occupied three more buildings in Nablus that we are aware of. One of them is a brand new shopping mall which has not yet opened. The local youth are outside burning tyres in protest. This will have little effect on the soldiers who are at least 10 stories up. Despite this they are firing live ammunition. Yesterday’s woundings of two boys has not deterred them in the least.

The doors that the soldiers were using as shields

I need to stress this further: the soldiers are recklessly and randomly firing live ammunition down onto an area crowded with market traders, women, children and workers. This is madness – it utterly disgusts me. Some locals may have learned to live with these army invasions – what choice do they have after all?

Kitchen of about 15ft by 6ft in which a family of 6 was held for 12 hours

If they allow their ‘fight or flight’ buttons to be pressed every single time something happens they could not survive. But this is not normal, this is not OK and i can see the stress in people’s faces and an increaed urgency in their movements.

The Israeli army has withdrawn from one of the homes occupied earlier today in Nablus, although as many as five other houses remain occupied.

The twelve soldiers left the Mushara home at 3pm, after having occupied it since 3:30am Monday. The family, four children between the ages of six and twelve, their father, and their four months pregnant mother, were held in the kitchen for the entire time. The mother has now been evacuated to a hospital.

Bassam Mushara, the father of the home, reported that their cell phones were confiscated, and that they were told that if they made any noise the soldiers would kill them. When their neighbors knocked on the door this morning, to pick the children up for school as usual, the soldiers responded by firing shots at the ceiling.

The neighbors realized that the army must have occupied the house, now for the second time this week. Word of the house’s occupation spread, and soon a crowd of about 200 youth gathered outside the house, some of whom threw stones at soldiers through the windows.

In response soldiers fired live ammunition into the crowd, which included journalists and international human rights workers. A 13 year-old boy was hit in the neck while “standing next to the wall doing nothing,” according to Chilean activist Ana Maria who witnessed the shooting. ISM volunteers saw another four people in the crowd be injured, at least one by shrapnel.

When the soldiers left at 3pm, internationals went inside the house to survey the situation. They reported that the house was completely trashed. All of the windows were broken, shells from the soldiers firing were seen under every window, and pieces of the house, including a door, were torn apart to be used as shields in front of the window. The house was filled with rocks and rubble.

19 people were injured in Nablus today during the invasion, according to Palestinian news sources. Most of the injuries occurred in the center of town, where there were not any occupied houses. The army was seen driving through the center of Nablus for no apparent reason. When children threw stones at the army vehicles, soldiers responded with live ammunition.