Tag: Nablus

Here is the Nablus News Report:

July 10th, 2007. At midnight the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invaded Nablus with 75 vehicles from all different directions. They entered Balata refugee camp and the Old City of Nablus. During the night 7 men were arrested in the old city.

At 5 am, the IOF moved on to the Rafideh neighborhood with the aim of arresting 2 wanted freedom fighters in the area. Half an hour later the soldiers went into a villa, interrogated the 6 people living in the house, showing maps of the neighborhood and pictures of the wanted men, clearly knowing who they were looking for and where they could find them. At the same time they surrounded the civilian apartment complex situated next to the villa. The soldiers started to fire their guns and throw grenades and sound bombs in the street in order to wake up people sleeping in their homes. When the residents did not respond to their demands to open the door the soldiers blew up the front door.

They forced the 70 people in the house out into the street. All the men had to show IDs and then go through the humiliating act of taking off their clothes in front of everyone. After that women and men were separated and the approximately 20 men in the group were taken to the nearby villa for detention and interrogation. Since the wanted men were not among the men in this group the IOF started to place bombs around the apartment complex with the intention to blow up the whole building in case the wanted men would not turn themselves in. At this point the two wanted men and the apartment owner that hosted them exited the house. They were handcuffed, blindfolded and then brought to the villa, where they were tortured.

When the ISM team arrived at Rafidah they tried to approach the occupied buildings with no success. Shortly after that, the IOF left Rafidah with the 3 arrested men. After that the ISM activists were let into the apartment of the now arrested man. The apartment was completely torn to pieces. The soldiers had gone berserk, ripped up all the furniture, emptied drawers and closets, throwing everything on the floor including the children’s toys and school material. Basically, the soldiers wrecked everything in the family’s house.

The wife of the house owner told the ISM activists what had happen during the morning. The freedom fighters had been let in to the house earlier that night since they had asked for help and as she said; “we would never turn someone down that asks for our help. We’re doing his because one day we might be the ones in need of help and also we have to do it for our nation.”

July 9th, 2007. As a part of the summer campaign 12 International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists visited the Till village to help the local farmers reach and cultivate their land.

The fear of being shot or having their tractors confiscated has made it impossible for the farmers to reach parts of their land. In addition, thanks to an Israeli law, Palestinian land that has not been cultivated for 3 years may be confiscated by the state of Israel. At 9am in the morning the ISM activists arrived to Till where they met the local farmer Forsam and his family. Forsam has not been able to reach his land in 4 years, out of fear of being shot by the military from their outpost which is located only 200m from his land. The aim of the action was to plant 20 olive trees in 2 hours. The ISM activists task was to make sure the Palestinians could move safely to, on and from their land, which is located inside a closed military zone.

The action was a big success, 20 olive trees were planted in less then an hour and the military did not intervene. This successful action will hopefully lead to more Palestinians being able to access their land during the actions occurring on future days.

By the ISM Media Team

July 5th, 2007. Iraq Burin, a village in the Nablus region, has been suffering from increasing harassment by the neighboring illegal colony of Brakha. Villagers, many of whom are farmers, have owned the land for generations and are being frequently threatened by armed colonists. Beatings and shootings of farmers who attempt to tend to their fields have terrorized the village, preventing them from utilizing their land and making a living. Colonists have often burned fields and cut down the farmers’ trees.

During harvest time, as the villagers labor to collect the olives for harvest, colonists descend upon the fields and steal the harvested crops under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). These illegal colonies are in violation of international laws prohibiting the occupation of land and the obstruction of the economy of an occupied people. Furthermore, the criminal behavior of the colonists are provocations of these peaceful people. The IOF consistently protects the colonists by the use of armed force against these unarmed villagers.

In response to these illegal acts, yesterday, the International Solidarity Movement planted 75 trees on land in Iraq Burin which had been subject to attacks by colonists and the IOF. Having obtained trees with the assistance of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees and the Tanweer Organization in Nablus, international activists worked in conjunction with local farmers to plant the trees. The planting finished without any disturbance by the colonists or IOF who were within view of the operation.

By the ISM Media Team

Starting on June 27th, 2007. Following the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) invasion of Nablus, from late Wednesday evening until early Friday morning, in which hundreds of Israeli troops in dozens of armored vehicles and bulldozers invaded the city and the Balata refugee camp, taking over numerous buildings and homes, blocking entrances to hospitals and schools, taking over radio stations, and eventually demolishing three homes in the old city, Human Rights Workers (HRWs) inspected the old city, visiting sites of IOF-demolished homes.

Several houses in the old city were demolished using explosives. The residents of the homes were not given warning of the impending demolition, and in some cases were prevented from leaving the home. One resident, a Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) medic described climbing out the 2nd story window and hanging onto the ledge in order to escape the collapse of the floor resulting from the demolition of the adjoining house.

The father of a family whose home was demolished by explosives described how the IOF invaded the home around 5:30 pm on Thursday, collecting family members in one room and interrogating the sons on two occasions. The 2nd interrogation session took place in a bathroom, where the sons were badly beaten. Two young men of the family, ages 20 and 24, were arrested. The house was demolished shortly before midnight.

The neighboring house, sharing a wall with the demolished home, also lost a 1st story ceiling-2nd story-floor due to Israeli explosives. Additionally, the weight-bearing wall was badly damaged, further endangering inhabitants sharing this wall. The mother of the family explained they had only just finished re-building after the last invasion. She further explained that had her sons been standing a few meters further away, they would have been killed in the collapse of the floor.

In the Safadi home, 3 sons were arrested. The house was thoroughly trashed: Israeli soldiers burrowed into the kitchen floors in search of tunnels and weapons, and additionally ransacked the rooms of the home. While occupying the house, snipers were installed in windows strategically overlooking the alleys outside. The family was used as human shields while the IOF occupied the house.

The Asali household suffered similar injustices. IOF soldiers also dug into the floor, opening a well and exploding a shared-family storage room on the ground level. Soldiers occupied the home from 8 am Thursday until the IOF left Friday morning, again placing snipers in the windows. Upstairs rooms were completely ransacked. Six Palestinians were kept captive in the house, as human shields, during the entire time of occupying the home.

At 3 of Nablus’ hospitals —Al Watani, Rafidia, and Nablus Specialty Hospital—at least 2 Israeli military vehicles blocked entrances from Wednesday night until Friday morning, with soldiers preventing doctors, hospital staff and patients alike from entering, despite the urgency of doing so.

According to Al Watani hospital staff, the army shot at the hospital with machine guns on 5 different occasions. IOF additionally delayed delivery of critical supply trucks like those bringing oxygen, as well as those with supplies for dialysis machines—most patients cannot survive long periods without dialysis, and further prevented delivery of food.

The day after the army pulled out, HRWs visited the home of one Nablus old city resident who was held captive in one room of her home, along with approximately 40 other family members and neighbors, from Wednesday evening until Friday morning. In another room upstairs, approximately 50 neighbors were held, and a further 15 were kept in yet another room of the house. All were held under similar conditions. During their captivity, residents were neither given food or water, nor were they permitted to use the toilet, instead having to hold themselves or urinate in the room in which they were kept captive. Numerous elderly, children, and one pregnant woman suffered greatly under these circumstances. One elderly man was unable to take his vital medicine for nearly two days as it needed to be taken with food. Both the elderly woman and man developed severely swollen legs from remaining seated for nearly two days, needing to be carried out of the room when finally released from captivity.

While occupying the home, soldiers urinated in the rooms as well as ransacked the house. Upon eventually leaving the home, one soldier tossed a hand grenade into the 2nd story window of the house still occupied by about 100 unarmed civilians, fortunately not resulting in any deaths but nonetheless adding to the damage done by the soldiers.

This house-occupation was not an isolated instance. Numerous homes in the old city were appropriated and occupied, residents crammed into small rooms together and held without food, water, or visits to the toilet.

The army was allegedly looking for “wanted men” (resistance fighters). The action of occupying homes and holding residents captive equates to using the civilians as human shields during the military invasion, a practice which is internationally recognized as illegal.

In one instance on Thursday evening, soldiers took captive a Palestinian Medical Relief (PRM) volunteer who had been part of a group escorting civilians to their old city homes. Initially detaining the medic by asking for his ID, the soldiers further detained him by keeping the ID. Soldiers took the medic into the home they were occupying, holding him inside for over 30 minutes before he reappeared blindfolded and handcuffed at the door of the building. He was then made to squat in front of the building for approximately another 20 to 30 minutes while soldiers changed shifts. During this time, international HRW attempted to secure the medics release, citing the soldiers’ violations of international law in arresting and using the volunteer medic as a human shield. The HRWs inquiries and requests were met with refusals to release the medic and by the soldiers’ statements that they were not obligated to disclose the reasons for the medic’s detention. After numerous attempts to negotiate the medic’s release, HRWs had to leave the scene. It is unknown whether the PRM volunteer was harmed during his initial or later detention, though there is a high probability he was interrogated and beaten, as in other instances.

The targeted arrest and detention of medics is common and is a form of collective punishment for these volunteers providing essential emergency services to wounded Palestinians. Volunteer medics typically are young Palestinian men, who the IOF routinely accuse of having involvement with militant groups. When not arrested, medics and ambulances are still routinely denied access to emergency areas, denying the wounded emergency attention, a tactic which can result in the deaths of the injured. On Friday morning, one paramedic, age 23, was shot in the shoulder while on duty.

During this latest invasion of Nablus, at least 60 reported cases occurred as a direct result of the IOF army presence and actions. A further 15 routine but serious medical cases required the attention of the PRC whose movement was greatly restricted by the presence of the IOF. Injuries resulting from rubber bullet wounds numbered 48 in the span of 16 hours—these were only the injuries which were reported to and attended by the PRC. Among these cases, one 23 year old man was shot 4 times in the back and once in the chest with rubber bullets. There were also two reported cases of injury by live bullets. It is worth mentioning that these were all cases which the PRC was alerted to and do not include the injuries unreported to the PRC.

Following a brief absence during the day on Friday, the occupying army re-entered the old city Friday evening and again Saturday evening, as happens on a regular basis in the Israeli military-surrounded city of Nablus.