Tag: Rubber-coated steel bullets - Page 9 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli forces stole 21 boats and sank two more just in the last 3 months

5th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Just in the last 3 months Gaza’s fishermen had 21 boats stolen and 2 sunken by the Israeli occupation forces.

Each small boat sustains at least 20 people on average and each one of the big ones at least 100 people. That means that just in the last 3 months around 550 people lost their source of income and were left in a situation of severe food insecurity.

All of these attacks took place within the fishing limit imposed by the occupation, as one of the fishermen interviewed by ISM pointed out: “they always know who they are taking, it’s not by chance or because we cross any of the limits they impose on us. They come for us. They kidnapped me and my cousin while we were less than a mile from the coast, and on that day the limit they gave us was for 6 miles”.

It is known that one of the main reasons to kidnap the fishermen is in order to try to buy them or blackmail them into becoming collaborators.

Fishermen kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces

One fisherman that insisted on remaining anonymous, given the sensitivity of this matter, explained to ISM what happened to him while he and his cousins were in Ashdod port: “they sat us in a room and we had in front of us a table with two trays, one with money and another one with gold. They told us that if we work with them all of it would be for us. Then they started asking us about our neighbours, relatives and anyone they thought we could know something about”.

Most of the fishermen kidnapped are tortured during the interrogation in Ashdod port and suffer from several kinds of physical and verbal abuse. They are beaten, their heads get rubbed on the floor or with a dirty mop and the soldiers step on their faces with their military boots. Those are just some common examples from most testimonies.

But humiliations already start in the sea, where most of the fishermen are told to strip off their clothes and swim naked towards the warship of the occupation forces. In many cases by that moment they have been already injured by rubber coated steel bullets, buckshot-filled sacks or even live ammunition.

Israeli forces shot 3 youth with live ammunition in just two days in Kafr Qaddum

5^th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine

On two consecutive days, Israeli forces in Kafr Qaddum village, near Nablus, have shot three Palestinian youth with live ammunition in their hip.

The Friday demonstration under the slogan of the ‘Naksa’, remembering the 6-day ‘war’ and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Sinai, started as every Friday after the noon-prayer. Right after the beginning of the demo, the army started firing tear gas canisters not only at the protestors, but at all directions. Additionally, they sprayed foul-smelling skunk-water, a mix of sewage and chemicals, directly inside the houses in an act of collective punishment of the civilian population of the village. Towards the end of the demonstration, Israeli forces shot two brothers, 19-year old Asaf Hikmat and 20-year old Omran, both were hit with live ammunition in their thigh. Asaf had to be evacuated to hospital and undergo surgery to remove the bullet-pieces from his thigh and is now recovering.

Demonstrators carrying one of the brothers to an ambulance after he was shot by Israeli forces Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration — Demonstrators carrying one of the brothers to an ambulance after he was shot by Israeli forces
Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration

On Saturday, Israeli forces attacked the demonstration with endless rounds of tear gas canisters, both shot from their guns and from the ‘venom’ mounted on the army jeep shooting 10 rounds at a time, as well as stun grenades. They additionally shot rubber coated metal bullets at the demonstrators, as well as live ammunition – injuring 16-year old Wael Abdallah with live ammunition in his thigh.

A Palestinian ambulance covered in tear gas shot by Israeli forces Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration — A Palestinian ambulance covered in tear gas shot by Israeli forces
Photo credit: Kafr Qaddum demonstration

After these two days, the number of injuries with live ammunition in Kafr Qaddum reached 81.

The village of Kafr Qaddum thus, in fear of this number rising even more, calls for international presence and media pressure to stop the Israeli forces’ violence against protestors and the collective punishment of the Palestinian village.

Violent night raid in Ni’lin leaves 7-days old baby suffering from tear gas inhalation

3rd May 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine

During nighttime on the 1st of May, Israeli Forces raided the village of Ni’lin in the West Bank in occupied Palestine without any reason.
First, with the arrival of one military jeep, villagers were already aguishly awaiting why the Israeli army is invading the village, fearing arrests. Later on, several armored military jeeps invaded the village and immediately started shooting tear gas towards the houses in an act of collective punishment, targeting civilians that were mainly still asleep. Additionally, the Israeli forces fired rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition towards the house. Ni’lin in the last weeks has repeatedly seen army attacks on civilians entirely uninvolved even in the weekly Friday demonstrations.

Photo from demonstration in Ni'lin. Photo credit: Palestine Solidarity Campaign — Photo from demonstration in Ni’lin. Photo credit: Palestine Solidarity Campaign

This night, a 17-year old young man was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet, but luckily did not sustain any major injuries. Additionally, a newborn, only 7 days old baby, had to be taken to hospital for tear gas inhalation. This is a result of the Israeli forces tactic of deliberately targeting civilians and all the villagers in acts of collective punishment. In the recent weeks, several children and elderly had to be treated for excessive tear gas inhalation as Israeli Forces targeted a public park with a playground, showering it in tear gas; and shooting the potentially deadly long-range tear gas canisters straight into the village. As this long-range tear gas canister can not be heard and has an extremely hard metal tip, it is not only potenitally deadly – an international solidarity activist Tristan Anderson was critically injured with this kind of tear gas canister in the head in 2009 in Ni’lin and now requires 24-hour care – but it also easily breaks through windows and even walls. This is just another proof of how dangerous it is. Thus, tear gas can easily, and has already, trapped civilians inside their own homes, causing excessive tear gas inhalation.

During the last weekly Friday demonstration in Ni’lin against the illegal Israeli apartheid wall and the theft of the majority of the villages agricultural lands (the majority still located and theoretically accessible on the villages’ side of the wall has arbitrarily been declared a ‘closed military zone’ thus denying the villagers access), Israeli forces, surprisingly did not use the violence against the peaceful protestors, the villagers were forced to get used to.

The nightly raid on Monday, thus, appears to the villagers to be an even more twisted act of revenge by the Israeli forces.

See the video from the invasion here:

Israeli forces attack weekly protests in the West Bank

2nd May 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Deir Istiya, Kafr Qaddum, Ni’lin; occupied Palestine

Last week, as every week, Israeli forces attacked demonstrations in the West Bank against the illegal Israeli land-theft, the apartheid-wall and illegal Israeli settlements.

In Deir Istiya, near Nablus in northern occupied West Bank, farmers continued their protest against the closure of agricultural roads that are essential for them to reach their land and thus ensure their own and their families income. The protest, as during the last few weeks, started with a prayer close to the settler road that cuts the farmers off from their land and prevents their access.

Farmers in Deir Istiya protesting the closure of their agricultural roads

In Kafr Qaddum village, demonstrators went out in their weekly march to protest against the closure of their main access road to the closest nearby village, Nablus. With the closure of the main road, the once 10-minute drive to nearby Nablus now takes at least half an hour – time that can be essential in case of emergencies and can thus cost the essential time an ambulance needs to reach a hospital on time. This closure clearly illustrates the Israeli apartheid policies as the only reason is to facilitate movement for the illegal settlement of Kedumim.
Israeli forces fired rubber coated metal bullets, stun grenades and excessive amounts of tear gas at the demonstrators. Three Palestinians were injured, one had his hand burned when hit with a hot tear gas canister, and two were injured when hit with rubber coated metal bullets in the stomach and back. Several suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation, as the Israeli forces deliberately attacked the whole village in an act of collective punishment.

Israeli forces chasing demonstrators, illegal settlement can be seen in the back

In the West Bank village of Ni’lin, Israeli forces this week, unlike before, did not invade the village before the start of the demonstration. The demonstrators therefore marched up to the soldiers. Surprisingly – and in contrast to years of demonstrations, Israeli forces last Friday did not target civilian homes with tear gas or use any other means of supposedly ‘less-lethal’ ‘crowd-control’ weapons. Israeli forces did shoot some tear gas, but not the amounts the villagers have become used to in the years of struggle against the illegal apartheid wall separating them from the majority of their farming land. The villagers are now hoping, that the collective punishment of the whole village, the targeting of civilians and the use of excessive force has come to an end.

Demonstrators with the Palestinian flag in Ni'lin — Demonstrators with the Palestinian flag in Ni’lin

Bi’lin Protest on the anniversary of the death of Bassam Abu Rahma

17th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Bi’lin, occupied Palestine

This Friday 15^th April, the village of Bi’lin held their long-running protest against the illegal Israeli occupation and Apartheid wall. However, the protest on this day was tinged with further sadness, falling as it did on the seven-year anniversary of the death of Bassem Abu Rahma, who was hit directly in the chest by a long-range tear gas canister in April, 2009.

Abu Rahma’s death was immortalised in Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s film Five Broken Cameras. Footage used in the film proved that Abu Rahma was standing east of the fence, not engaging in violent demonstration (stone-throwing) and not endangering soldiers’ lives. Analysis of the documentation by imaging experts found that the gas canister that killed him was aimed directly at him, contrary to the rules of engagement as laid out by the Geneva Convention. It also clearly contradicts the instructions for the use of tear gas as a ‘less lethal’ weapon, which clearly states that it always has to be shot in an arch above protestors and never straight at them.

Seven years after his death, Subhiya Abu Rahma, Bassam’s mother, still does not have justice for her son’s murder. At this Friday’s demonstration, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists marched peacefully towards the Apartheid Wall holding pictures of Bassem, waving Palestinian flags and chanting songs. They were met and pushed back with a large volley of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades. Dozens of people suffered the effects of the gas, with two children – who were in their house and not attending the protest, and thus uninvolved civilians, treated for serious inhalation. Once again the Israeli occupying forces used the deadly long range tear gas canisters in their attempt to end the demonstration. These canisters come with a potential range of 500 metres, are capable of piercing the walls of houses and are being aimed directly at protestors.

Sabiha, Bassem's mother, weeps over a photograph of her son — Sabiha, Bassem’s mother, weeps over a photograph of her son Photo credit: activestills

Bassem Abu Rahma posed no threat to the Israeli army the day he died and was a part of a peaceful protest against the illegal occupation of his land, much like the protest that still takes place every Friday in Bi’lin. If the army continue to respond with disproportionate and excessive violence, denying the Palestinian people (and those expressing solidarity) the right to peaceful protest, then it is only a matter of time before another life is lost in such tragic circumstances.