Tag: Nablus

Nablus protests Israeli attacks on civil infrastructure

Thursday the 24th July the popular organizations of Nablus arranged a protest march against the previous weeks military assaults on Nablus social and economic life.

The 250 participants gathered in the city centre and marched to the local TV-station Afaq that was vandalized by the Israeli army. Before the march speakers acknowledged that the resistance against the assaults upon health clinics, mosques, schools and organizations will continue and that they will not let the social and economic life of the city get strangled by the military invasions.

The protesters marched to the TV-station Afaq and opened the door that was sealed by the Israeli army during the invasion.

Settlers riot in Burin village

On Thursday, 24th July, the electric and telephone lines of the Burin Village were destroyed with a fire started by settlers from the nearby settlement of Yizhar.

Thirty settlers arrived in seven cars and began to throw stones at the local people’s cars, in addition to starting the fire. The villagers called the Palestinian police, who alerted the Israeli police and army. Once at the scene, the soldiers began to tear gas the Palestinians to disperse the crowd. One settler took a gun from a soldier and for a few minutes shot at the villagers. The settler will receive only a week-long arrest and the settler who started the fire will be briefly arrested as well. While no one in the village was injured during this attack, an ambulance had to give medical attention to a woman who inhaled too much tear gas. The electrical and phone networks had to be replaced by the village.

The problems for the village began close to twenty-four years ago, but since 2005 the difficulties have severely worsened through daily attacks which vary in degree of damage. The village houses three thousand residents and is located between two settlments, Yitzhar and Abraha. Several members of the village council report that approximately five thousand olive trees have been cut or burned thus far, and multiple horses and sheep have been stolen.

J-Post: Shin Bet probes ‘settler rocket fire’ near Nablus

By Yaakov Katz and Tovah Lazaroff

To view original article, published by the Jerusalem Post on 22nd July, click here

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was looking into Palestinian claims on Monday that settlers from Har Bracha and Yitzhar in the West Bank fired two rockets into fields near Nablus.

This burnt cylinder, which Palestinians claim is a homemade rocket, was found in a field near Nablus on Sunday.

A picture of the “rocket” provided by a left-wing activist and obtained by The Jerusalem Post shows a burning metallic cylinder lying in a field near Nablus.

The Shin Bet said it could not confirm what the cylinder was and raised the possibility that settlers had fired a homemade rocket or that Palestinians had discovered an old military shell and set it on fire.

One of the two projectiles landed in a field near the villages of Awarta and Odala, Hani Dalrashi of Awarta told the Post. He said it was the fourth time that settlers had fired rockets at Palestinian villages south of Nablus.

Last week, the police arrested a settler from Yitzhar for allegedly participating in a failed rocket attack against the Palestinian village of Burin in June. Settlers from Yitzhar and Har Bracha rejected the claim that members of their community were firing homemade rockets at the Palestinians.

But Dalrashi said he had been standing at an auto mechanic’s garage in the village when someone came to say that a rocket had fallen just outside the village. He went to explore and found a 45-centimeter cylinder that was smoking on one end. Although he and others in the village called the army, he said, they did not arrive until 4:30 p.m.

Dalrashi’s story was confirmed by Israeli volunteer Nur Bar-On of Machsom Watch, which monitors IDF activity at the checkpoints. She said she had arrived at the Hawara checkpoint at about 1:20 p.m. Palestinian taxi drivers told her about the rockets, and she asked one of them to take her to the one outside Awarta.

Bar-On found the metal cylinder lying in a field, with smoke coming out of it.

“It looked dangerous,” she said.

Bar-On discounted the IDF claim that it was an old military shell, saying there was no Hebrew writing on it and typically such shells have some kind of a mark that identifies it as belonging to the IDF.

She believed it was a homemade device. A similar rocket also fell Monday in Burin, she added.

To view ISM report on the incident click here

Settlers launch another rocket attack in Nablus region

Settlers fired a rocket at Awarta village on Monday afternoon. Local people say that this is the second such attack this year, while it is the fourth attack involving rockets from settlements in the Nablus region.

The homemade device, measuring around twenty five centre meters in length, struck an olive grove near to the village but failed to detonate. The attack was launched at around one o’clock in the afternoon.

The Israeli army closed roads close to the area for five and a half hours and used a remote controlled robot to approach the device. At half past six a controlled explosion of the rocket was carried out. People from Awarta are frequently harassed by the local settlers and army. Israeli soldiers also arrested one local man for apparently failing to comply with their orders.

Israeli army arrests 27 people in Nablus

The Israeli army invaded Nablus on Sunday night and arrested around 27 people including Mona Mansour, a member of the Palestinian legislative council.

Her family describe how the army arrived outside their home at two o’clock in the morning and ordered them to leave their apartment. Soldiers then entered their home and forced the family of six into a single room, forbidding them from speaking. Israeli soldiers removed the oxygen mask from her youngest son who suffers from serious health difficulties.

Fifteen soldiers searched the family home and removed a computer, files, papers and four telephones and destroyed possessions in the process. Soldiers then arrested Mansour and prevented her from collecting clothes to take with her. The family believe she has been taken to Telmund prison. Mansour’s husband, Jamal Mansour was assassinated by Israeli forces seven years ago and the family were preparing to mark the anniversary of his death.

With Mona Mansour’s arrest, their children have been left without parents. This is the first time that Mona Mansour has been arrested by Israeli forces, but according to the family she has received death threats and attempts on her life. A friend of the family spoke of how they had recently celebrated the exam success of Mona’s daughter. ‘They want to kill every minute of happiness’ she said.