Tag: Night Raid

Burin Youth Center targeted once again: 10 youth arrested in 200 soldier raid

by Lydia

21 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In a quick and clean opperation, the Israeli Occupation Military managed to arrest 10 young men in two hours, forever altering  the next few months or even  the next years of their life in one swift swoop.

At 2 AM on 18 April, around 200 soldiers entered the village of Burin, south of Nablus and dispersed into teams of 20-30. Soldiers then proceeded to enter the homes of ten families and took away who they wanted. There were unusually no house raids, no extreme “video game styled” soldiers, just quick and to the point.

All but one of the youth arrested can be seen in this gallery:

The mother of Mohammad Sohier Najjar, who is 19 and part of the latest batch of arrests, described how her son was taken. “They [the soldiers] came at 2:30 AM. Mohammad was sleeping outside due to the weather. My husband was already awake and met them on the stairs to the house. They asked if Mohammad was the boy on the floor. He replied, yes. Mohammad was told to change his clothes and that was it. They took him from us.”

Mohammad is 19 and was due to start his exams the day he was arrested with the intention of applying to An Najjah university to study to be a physical education teacher.

Five of the ten arrested were due to start their exams that day, but instead, they will have to bare what is thrown at them by the Israeli military system. If lucky they will be able to re-take the last year of school again when they are released. Mohammad is now the third boy in the family to have been arrested.

Seven of the ten youth arrested were members of the Burin Community Center, named in honour of the martyr Bilal Najjar. Being members of this center comes with an awful chance of not only arrest by Israelis, but that at least a year of imprisonment is very possible. In 2010 25 members of the center were systematically arrested. Up to this month of April 2012 14 members of the Center have been arrested, and nine remain in Israeli jails until now.

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

 

Day of the Child: Houses overturned, 20 arrested by “American style” Israeli military

by Lydia

8 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Houses overturned during night raids – For more pictures click here

April 5th marked a day to celebrate the children of Palestine. This year the Israeli military decided to contribute to the special day of the children of Kufr Qaddoum by invading the village and kidnapping 20 fathers and brothers. Boys and men were taken from their homes in a series of overly aggressive and destructive raids.

At 2 AM approximately 200 soldiers stormed the center of the village and split up in to groups of around 30 soldiers. Efficiency was key in the military’s plan to cause as much destruction and intimidation before the sun rose. The soldiers did not come alone, all teams were accompanied by dogs, and intelligence showed up later on in the morning to assist with interrogations.

The Israeli military has seen escalating its intimidation of members of the village, and the soldiers’ main goal is to stop the Friday demonstrations that the villagers host. These have grown in strength and popularity.

Since June 2011,  Kufr Qaddoum has been subjected to many night raids but nothing of this scale. Murad Ishtawi, the lead organizer of the weekly demonstrations, said, “I have never seen anything like this in the village before, I have never seen them storm in like that.”

Bashar Ishtawi, brother of Riad who was arrested, likened the raids to “a video game. Very aggressive and American style.”

Out of the 20 arrests made, five of the homes entered by the soldiers were overturned and vandalized. Upon entering the house of Bashar Ishtewi, husband and father of three children under the ages of 11, soldiers demanded that Ishtewi “give them the men.” Ishtawi tried to tell them all he had were his children and his wife, but this answer was not sufficient. The soldiers herded the family into one room and carried on destroying the house. Their daughter, Zainab, who is 6 years old, was vomiting from stress and has not uttered a word since the raids on her house.

In the house of Iman Ishtawi, father of two children under the age of three, is where the story is most disturbing. Ishtawi informed the soldiers that he had no son to arrest and was told “we know this, we are here simply to destroy your house, nothing else.” Ishtawi with his wife and children were made to stand outside and listen to there home being destroyed. After twenty minutes the children became sick and started to cough. Iman tried to to reason with the soldiers, to show the commander that his babies need warmth. The soldiers simply replied, “That is the business of a doctor, not the business of a soldier.” The family was finally allowed in but were forced to stay in the small kitchen until the soldiers were finished.

The nightmare continued until 5am. The homes were turned upside down, in another house they even removed the windows from the entire house, showing the transparency of this operation. For the Israeli military, they will convince themselves that this operation was in search of rms and young men unlawfully defending their land, but in reality this was an act of intimidation, an operation to try and put an end to the peaceful, popular resistance carried out lawfully every Friday. It fits in an agenda of ethnically cleansing Palestine.

The fate of the following names is still not known, they are currently in interogation centers:

Rihad Mohammad Ishtawi – 38

Thaer Baseem Ishtawi – 38, Ibrahim Mohammad Amer – 38

Hekmat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 35

Harib Mashur Jumaq – 18

Alkamia Mahmoud Jumaq – 18

Mohammad Majid Jumaq – 17

Mujahed Hassan Habas – 24

Ahmad Abdelkadar Abdullah 17

Salam Teyseer Bayram – 20

Yousef Mustafa Ishtawi – 17

Kais Chaher Jamaq – 16

Roslan Abdulkhalid Ishtawi -25

Awis Abdulrizik Amer – 24

Mujahed Sabeh Darwish – 22

Sabir Atta – 22

Tarik Mahmoud Taha – 18

Mahmoud Manjur Ishtawi – 18

Nisfat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 26

Wassim Abdulkhalid Ishtawi – 25

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Nablus City: Family left pleading in the night for their sons’ freedom

by Lydia

3 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Essam Amer Ghassal,16 Khaled Beal Harabi, 22, Yousef Beal Harabi, 23: Three more names to be added to the political prisoner list, two more mothers to carry framed pictures of their children to prisoner awareness demonstrations.

At 2 AM, on April 2nd the Israeli soldiers invaded an apartment block on An Najjah university road, Nablus city. They arrived at the homes of Essam, 16 and Khaled,22, friends who live just two floors apart. Both families were asked to step away from their door as the soldiers entered with force. Both families offered to open the doors for the soldiers, but the soldiers insisted on breaking the door down, preferring to use the force of their riffles to maximize damage. The shocked families were faced with 20 soldiers whose  riffles aimed head height when the doors was opened.

The members of Essam Amer Ghassal’s family were lined up in the living room with their hands raised above their heads, and Essam was picked out from the line and taken by the soldiers. His ankles were in shackles, his eyes were blindfolded and his wrists in handcuffs. The soldiers left the apartment with Essam and his laptop for further investigation. Layla, the mother of Essam was worried for her child, who was taken from his bed in his night clothes. She begged the commander to let her see her child one last time and to give him warm clothes. With determination Layla kept pleading with the words “please, he is my son, do you understand, he is my son. I want to see him, I want him to be warm.”

The commander finally gave into Layla’s requests, but insisted that only he would pass on the clothes. Layla was able to see her son from the balcony with a final lasting image of him blindfolded and being put into a military jeep. Essam was taken away from his school studies, his friends and his family who are struggling to get by. His father has health problems and is not able to work.  Later that day he was   admitted to a hospital due to complications with his diabetes brought on by the stress of the arrest.

Essam was first taken to Huwwara military camp. This is a common practice with those newly arrested. He was then moved on the evening of 2nd April to Patachtekfa interrogation center, near Jenin. This where they will be questioned for hours on end and have allegations forced at them. It is usual that the army ensures that the arrested are in a state of fatigue before questioning begins, keeping the victims from sleeping, keeping bright lights on at all hours of the day and not allowing them to wash or maintain their sanitation.

The family of Khaled Beal Harabi was awaken slightly later and they suffered the same ordeal. They were not allowed to open their own door, instead the soldiers opted to open it with force, again using the butt of the riffles instead of the doorbell. The members of the family were lined up in their living room, again with hands above their heads and the father and Khaled were taken outside. Khaled was soon arrested and taken straight to the interrogation center in Petach Tikva, Jenin. Khaled is a student at An Najah University, he had also just started a new job.

It is here also, in Petach Tikva interrogation center where his brother, Yousef, has been incarcerated for a week. Both Yousef and Khaled were released from jail eight months ago after Khaled served 2 years and Yousef 2.5 years. Just like Esam, they both had their laptops seized. Yousef recently had his interrogation extended by twelve days.

On visiting the families, Myassar Attyani was present, who is a member of the Popular Committee for Nablus, and a dedicated member of the Political Prisoner Club. Attyani expressed a serious concern regarding the influx of arrests and invasions of Nablus city which is area A. She explains “the invasions by the Zionist soldiers are all part of a strategic game to frighten peoples minds.”

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israeli soldiers arrest 20 in a pre-dawn raid on Kufr Qaddoum

by Abir Kopty

5 April 2012 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

During the raid, soldiers pillaged jewelry and caused extensive damage to houses. Residents are certain that arrests were made to quash regular protests in the village

Massive numbers of Israeli soldiers staged an extensive pre-dawn raid on the West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum last night, storming over a dozen houses. Twenty individuals, aged 16 to 38 were motioned from their beds at gunpoint and  arrested.

Several of the raided houses were ransacked and left with extensive damage to their interiors. Soldiers have gone as far as pillaging gold jewelry estimated in thousands of shekels from the house belonging to Atta Shtawi, whose son Sabri was detained.

Media contact: Abir Kopty: 054-678-2420

Among those arrested are three minors – one 16 year-old and two 17 year-olds – as well as Riad Shtewi, a member of the village’s popular committee.

Villagers from Kufr Qaddoum have been holding regular weekly demonstrations for the past 9 months in protest of ongoing land theft by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Qadummim and in demand that the main road to the village be reopened. the road has been sealed by the army at the beginning of the second intifada.

Protesters in Kufr Qaddoum regularly face ever increasing levels of military violence, including the use of a military assault dogs the soldiers sicced  at protesters two weeks ago.

Amani al Khandaqja, defender of prisoner rights, becomes a prisoner herself

by Robin and Axel

21 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West  Bank

Amani’s father displays the photo of his daughter, Amani, who was taken away by the Zionist military earlier this week.

Early Monday morning, on the 20th of March, Israeli soldiers raided a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, terrorized a family and arrested a young woman named Amani Al Khandaqja.

The soldiers arrived at 2am, whilst the family was sleeping, they surrounded and then entered the house. One of Amani’s brothers was awoken by loud voices outside his window, upon looking out he saw a number of soldiers interrogating members of a neighboring household.

As he ran to wake up his father, Saleh, a series of loud, hard bangs could be heard on the front door of the household.  After repeated banging, Saleh went down to open the door, and the Israeli Occupying Forces violently forced entry into Amani’s home. The entire family of 9 were forced onto the roof of their own home with their hands held above their heads and held at gun point.

According to Saleh, the trespassing soldiers were nervous and twitchy, making the situation unpredictable and terrifying for the entire family who, suffice to say, felt severely threatened.

 “I asked for permission to sit down as I have problems with my knees,” explains Saleh. “This request was denied.”

 While the family was interrogated on the roof, soldiers ransacked the house with dogs, justifying this brazen act of terrorism with the unsubstantiated and unlikely claim that Saleh’s family home might contain weapons or explosives.

 The soldiers asked Saleh repeatedly about his imprisoned son, Bassem, who has been held in Israeli prison since the second Intifada. Amani herself was also mentioned by the soldiers as they claimed she had been writing about the Palestinian struggle for equality and rights on the Internet and had been active in the support of political prisoners.

 In an interview with her father, he described her as an incredibly brave person with an extraordinary passion for the Palestinian struggle for the most basic of human rights. In any event it was clear she was wanted by the Israeli’s primarily for the fact that she had dared to put her thoughts and feelings in print concerning the illegal Zionist occupation of Palestine.

 After two hours of interrogation, harassment and threats, the soldiers decided to arrest Amani despite the fact that they did not find anything in the house and were unable to produce any material sufficient to press charges.

 As her father emphasized, “I am not worried about her destiny because she has done nothing wrong and can’t be held guilty of any crime. But my heart is breaking from her being taken away from us.”

 Despite the fact that Amani has not been accused in a court of law, let alone found guilty of any crimes, there is a great possibility that she will be held for a long time nonetheless.

 The biased Israeli legal system allows for what is euphemistically referred to as “administrative detention,” a law adopted from the British Mandate era that allows for the confinement of persons without charge or trial. Under this law a person can be held in prison for six months at a time, without being put in front of a judge or even being formally suspected of a crime. After six months, the procedure can be repeated and therefore one can be, in effect, held for an indefinite amount of time.

 Throughout Amani’s arrest the IOF soldiers repeatedly made clear their Zionist ideology and how they viewed her hopes for a free Palestine:

 “This is not Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. A popular uprising, leading to a revolution is not possible in Israel.”

 With these chilling words, and not-withstanding the irony of Israeli soldiers comparing their own country to one of  the many U.S backed dictatorships that dot the region, Amani was handcuffed and dragged into the bracing night air, away from her broken home and devastated family.

 Robin and Axel are volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)