Tag: Nablus

Second youth from Iraq Burin dies overnight

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

21 March 2010

Ussayed Qaddous, 19, who struck in the head with live ammunition and critically injured passed away in the Rafidya hospital in Nablus this morning. Qaddous was shot during a military incursion to his village as the Army attempted to suppress a demonstration.

Ussayed Jamal Abd elNasser Qaddous passed away at 4:30am this morning despite doctors’ efforts to save his life. According to eye witnesses Qaddous was shot with live ammunition as soldiers invaded his village after residents demonstrated to protest settler harassment and restrictions of access to their lands. Mohammed Qaddous, 16, was killed in the same incident yesterday, after soldiers shot him in the chest.

Despite the Israeli military’s claims that live ammunition was not used during the incident yesterday, the version given by numerous civilian eye witnesses of unjust use of live ammunition is corroborated by medical findings.

An Xray of Ussayed’s skull taken at the Rafidya hospital in Nublus shows what is clearly a live bullet lodged in his skull. In addition, Mohammed Qaddous’s body had an entry wound in the chest and an exit wound in the back. Such an injury could not have possibly been cause by anything but live ammunition. Less-lethal ammunition, rubber-coated bullets included, can, under no circumstances, cause such injuries, even if shot from point blank.

For more details:
Jonathan Pollak +972.546.327.736

Background
The demonstrators set out yesterday towards the village’s lands after midday prayer, and were immediately confronted by soldiers who shot bursts of live ammunition in the air. The Army then continued to shoot tear-gas and rubber bullets towards the villagers in an attempt to prevent them from reaching their lands. Following the unprovoked attack on the villagers, who were accompanied by 15 international activists, intermittent clashes ensued.

Roughly two hours later, the Army retreated towards the settlement and demonstrators went back to the village. Shortly after, armored military jeeps invaded the village, arrested three people and raided houses. A few minutes later, live shots were fired at a small group of young men, some of which were throwing stones. The shots resulted in one fatality and one critical injury to the head.

Grassroots activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faces military court, still without charge

16 March 2010

Palestinian activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faced his third hearing in Salim military court on 11 March. His detention period was extended until 24 April when the next hearing will take place. Al-Faqeeh remains imprisoned without charge since his arrest from his Nablus home on 9 December 2009. It is expected that Al-Faqeeh will be charged with aiding an illegal organization, a common pretext employed by the Israeli military to imprison politically active Palestinians, and faces a minimum of 12 months behind bars.

Al-Faqeeh, imprisoned for over three months now, sent a message to his loved ones from Jelemeh prison as he began the new year imprisoned by Israel’s occupation forces: “I am the captive Wael Al-Faqeeh, wishing the free world a Happy New Year full of peace, security and love. I hope for a year of enlightment in all human relations, and a renewed call for peace agreements, supported by the free people of the world. It is my hope that we can design and build a society free from all forms of discrimination and persecution.”

Al-Faqeeh’s wife Myassar has been denied permission to visit her husband in Megiddo prison where he has been held for the last 2 months. She has been afforded only two brief glimpses of Al-Faqeeh since the arrest, at hearings at Salim military court which have lasted an average of 3 minutes. Permission was granted to his two eldest daughters however, who will make the journey to Megiddo in northern Israel next week.

Reports that Al-Faqeeh’s health has deteriorated whilst in prison have fueled his family and friends’ concern for the human rights activist. Family members and fellow solidarity activists have lodged requests to the Red Cross and Physicians For Human Rights to visit Al-Faqeeh and ensure that his health is sufficiently attended to.

Al-Faqeeh, 45 years old, was kidnapped in a night raid on his family’s home in Nablus on 9 December 2009, when a force of over 200 Israeli soldiers entered the city in an operation to arrest prominent grassroots activists in the region. Al-Faqeeh is known throughout the community for his tireless support of the Palestinian non-violent struggle and organization of countless community-outreach projects, demonstrations and cultural/educational programs for Nablus’ youth. The arrests signaled an escalation in Israel’s attempts to crack down on the resurgence of Palestine’s popular resistance against the illegal occupation, evidenced by the subsequent arrests of community leaders Abdullah Abu-Rahmah and Mohammad Khatib of Bil’in, Ibrahim Amirah and Hassan Mousa of Ni’lin and Jamal Juma’, head of the Stop The Wall campaign, from Jerusalem.

Take action against Israel’s detention of Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners here.

Israeli Army Raids Nablus Apartments

International Solidarity Movement

18 February 2010

Damage to door.
Damage to door.

Last night at around 2.30am, the Israeli army illegally stormed into 5 apartments in the Ashref Building on Suki Street in Nablus. The city is located in “Area A”, which is under full Palestinian Authority control under the Oslo II Agreement, making this raid illegal under international law.

Without any warning, Israeli soldiers forced their entry by blowing open all five apartment doors as it left visible dents on the metal door frame, deformed metals doors and cracked walls. Residents described the device to have been pushed against both sides of the door frame, as the dents on all the door frames indicate, with a control box in the middle, making a loud explosive sound as the doors blew open. After hearing the description of this device, two former Israeli soldiers have recognized it as a “Fox”, an Israeli military device loaded with two fingers of TNT to blow open doors.

Damage to wall from new device.
Damage to wall from new device.

In each of the five apartments, armed soldiers, three of whom wore masks, stormed directly into the bedrooms and separated the husband from his wife and children and proceeded to interrogate them in the apartment lobby. The husbands of all three families on the second floor said that they were questioned about the names of their families, neighbors and if they recognized different names soldiers listed off.

After the interrogation, soldiers locked all three husbands on the second floor in one room as their wives and children were crying, separated in other rooms. Residents also stated that one woman on the third floor was pushed by a soldier after she said that there is a doorbell and asked why they didn’t just knock. One of the families on the third floor also told us that the children had stayed home from school today as a consequence of the night raid. The simply still were afraid.

None of the families were asked the same questions regarding the names of the people the soldiers were looking for, yet the commander clearly stated they were searching for one individual. This inconsistency points to the possibility that In the past, other ISM volunteers have heard villagers explain that night raids have occurred as training for soldiers, especially before certain campaigns have been launched by the Israeli army.

This is the second time Ashref Building has been illegally raided in the past two months, but the first time such a device was used for forced entry. Each door will cost around 1,500 NIS to replace and the illegality of the Israeli army entering “Area A” will likely remain without any consequence.

A Day Of Destruction in Khirbet Tana

Palestine Monitor

21 January 2010

The Israeli army rolled into Khirbet Tana, a village east of Nablus with a population of about 300, in the morning hours on January 10, 2010. They then destroyed about thirty structures, including a school, homes, and shelter for farm animals. This destruction stems from a court ruling issued in February 2009 that cannot be appealed, stating that all structures in Khirbet Tana must be demolished, and the farmers removed from their land. The Palestine Monitor takes a look at the situation that Khirbet Tana faces, and how the villagers are trying to rebuild their lives.

The villagers of Khirbet Tana told the photographer that officials from the Palestinian Authority have visited them, but did nothing to improve their living conditions. To the minimum, Tana requires a good road, tractors (four were confiscated and are being kept at Ariel settlement; the photographer spotted one tractor in the whole village during his visit), a new school, and a popular committee or village leadership. Unlike the villages in, for example, the Hebron area, there is no permanent international presence in Khirbet Tana and the neighboring villages.

All photographs were taken by Brady Ng.

Israeli forces invade Al-Ein camp, arrest three

17 January 2009

Muntaser Hamdi's house was invaded and trashed by 13 Israeli soldiers.
Muntaser Hamdi’s house was invaded and trashed by 13 Israeli soldiers.

Early in the morning of January 17 the Israeli army arrested 3 young Palestinian in a dawn raid on Al-Ein Refugee camp, located to the North of Nablus. The soldiers came at around 5am, departing at around 8 the same morning. The three friends – Samer As-Salhi (17 years old), Muntaser Hamdi (19) and Raed Al-Khatib (21) – none of whom had any previous convictions, were taken from their homes in simultaneous raids by several large groups of soldiers. The mother of the eldest, Raed Al-Khatib, described how the soldiers identified him by his ID documents from a page-long list of names, other Palestinians presumambly wanted by the military.

According to family members present during the raid the As-Salhi’s house was entered by 7 soldiers at 5am. The soldiers pushed and shoved family members, manhandling women and children. Several items in the house were damaged including the kitchen ceiling and bedroom furniture, most likely due to sound grenades. The soldiers left the house between 6 and 6.30am. The As-Salhi family has already suffered similar raids – Samer’s older brother Eiman (aged 22) has been in prison for 4 years now. Samer, only 17 years old, has until now been working as a carpenter.

The second family we spoke to described how Muntaser Hamdi was taken by more than 13 soldiers, who broke down the door of their house at 6 in the morning. During the 20 minute operation the soldiers tore open several sofas in the living room. As is routine with most operations of this kind, the targets were the men and boys of the camp; Muntaser’s brother was also searched during the raid. But it is not only the young males who are bearing the brunt of the raids – apart from damaged property in an area already scarred with the visible effects of occupation, the raid on the Hamdi household left two terrified young children, Muntaser’s younger siblings. Muntaser himself was blindfolded before being taken away.

The raid that hit the Al-Khatib household was particularly brutal. About 20 soldiers entered the small apartment at 6am, setting of a sound grenade which punched a hole in the kitchen ceiling. Repeating a pattern apparent in the other raids, according to Raed Al-Khatib’s mother the damage done to the kitchen happened while the soldiers searched for weapons; as in the other two cases, nothing was found. Other damage sustained during the raid included a broken dishwasher and a bathroom door ripped off its hinges. After going through cupboards and drawers, and body-searching all the men in the house, Raed was identified from a long list of other names, blindfolded and taken away. Raed’s mother has since been in contact with the Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked, who have helped her discover the prison where her son is being held, precious information usually denied to Palestinians.

The families indicated that the three friends were probably taken to the Huwara prison, as in a previous raid that ISM reported on at the end of October last year, where thirteen boys were arrested and taken from the camp. No information has been given as to how long the most recent three will be held but in previous instances, as with Samer As-Salhi’s brother, this has been anything from a month to several years.