31st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Sunday, 31st January 2016, Israeli forces fired large amounts of tear gas at school-children on their way to school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Heavily-armed soldiers approaching the students
In the early morning, as children were walking to their schools located past the Salaymeh checkpoint, three school-boys picked up some small stones and tossed them in the direction of the checkpoint. The children are forced to go through this checkpoint on their daily walk to school, and are often subjected to body-searches, bag-searches and random detentions by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces shooting tear gas canisters at students
Even though the soldiers were standing safely behind a fence, one of the soldiers immediately picked up a stone throwing it back at the children. After a while, the soldiers crossed the checkpoint and started shooting tear gas at the children. They were shooting both tear gas grenades and tear gas canisters in rapid succession at the same time. Israeli soldiers forced two international human rights defenders to move away from them in order to stop them from documenting, thus forcing them to move into the clouds of tear gas lingering outside the schools.
Despite only three boys were throwing stones, Israeli forces attacked the whole neighbourhood with more than a dozen tear gas grenades and canisters. This is clearly unproportional and a form of collective punishment, aimed not at anyone in specific, but instead affecting all the students and residents in the neighbourhood. Teachers tried to bring the children, who were coughing badly, to safety inside the school-building, but were tear-gassed even there as soldiers were shooting tear gas directly into the school-yards. 4 tear gas canisters landed straight in the Khadiga school yard, while 6 more were shot into the Hebron school yard. As teachers were calling ambulances, the majority of the children went back home in order to escape from the noxious tear gas.
Tear gas clouds lingering in the school-yard and on the streets
In the afternoon, the few children that were left at the school were forced to have their bags searched by heavily-armed Israeli forces on their way home.
This is not a uncommon occurrence on the regular way to school for Palestinian children in occupied al-Khalil. Children are often facing tear gas, stun grenades and violence from Israeli soldiers. The right to education for Palestinian children in this environment is not guaranteed and often schools are forced to close early due to violence. While passing the checkpoint, many children are accompanied by their parents or elder siblings since they are afraid of the heavily-armed Israeli forces and some of them run past the checkpoint quickly to escape from anticipated intimidation and harassment.
21st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On 21st January 2016 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) gathered in Shuhada Street. From here the settlers went into the Old City of Al-Khalil, where they broke into two houses on al-Sahla Street near the Ibrahimi mosque at around 2.30 pm today. Backed by more than 50 soldiers and policemen, the settlers could freely break down the doors and enter the houses, that they claim they bought legally, but the houses have not yet been signed over to them. During the occupation of the two houses the settlers started throwing stones at the Palestinians in the area around the two houses, and broke multiple doors and windows of surrounding houses.
The two occupied houses with Israeli flags on the roof
Shop owners in the whole area were forced by the Israeli Forces to close down their shops, and the whole area was closed off for everyone else than settlers and Israeli Forces, leaving many Palestinians unable to go to their houses. After the settlers had entered the two houses that have been uninhabited for an unspecific amount of time, they put up several Israeli flags on the roofs and harassed the Palestinian families in the area by yelling and throwing stones at them. The Israeli forces entered multiple houses and stormed through Palestinian families living rooms and bedrooms before taking over their rooftops and using these as an easy way to shoot teargas and sound grenades into the Palestinian market in the Old City of Hebron. Just in the half hour between 3.45 and 4.15, 14 tear gas canisters were shot at residents in the Old City, but Israeli forces were continuously showering the Old City most of the afternoon. At least one person suffered from excessive teargas inhalation and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
Al-Sahla street 21st of January. Settlers partying in the other end surrounded by soldiers and police.
At 7.30 pm the settlers and soldier were still in al-Sahla Street playing music and celebrating their newest house-takeover in Hebron. Two danish human rights defenders entered the area and were verbally attacked by a settler who came at them aggressively and yelled: “You killed my father and my grandfather. You are Nazis. This is my land.” Soldiers intervened and stopped the man from physically attacking the two young women.
Palestinians and internationals are still not allowed to be in the area even though there is no official order claiming this. All checkpoints leading into the area around the Ibrahimi mosque and al-Sahla Street are closed by Israeli Forces. At one point they detained more than 15 Palestinian men on their way home from work, because they lived in the ‘closed area’. This kind of restriction of movement is a clear violation of Palestinians freedom of movement.
Many families in the Old City of Hebron are now living in houses that have roofs still occupied by Israeli forces, leaving the families completely in the dark about what is going to happen next. A human rights activist explained: “The family which we are staying with have had up to ten soldiers on their roof for more than four hours. They stormed in and ran through the house, while the kids were playing and ran up to the roof to monitor the neighbourhood. The mother of the family is pregnant and lives in the house with her husband and four young kids and they do not know what to expect from the soldiers.”
Ambulances, policemed, soldiers and settlers in the closed area around Ibrahimi mosque
This is just a small example of the impunity of Israeli settlers violently taking over Palestinian homes and how Israeli forces’ actions are determined by settlers and their every wish. Settlers are now celebrating their illegal deeds in al-Sahla Street playing loud music and harassing the families in the whole area.
16th January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Tulkarem team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On the 16th of January, Israeli forces shot a young protester with live ammunition while the villagers of Kafr Qaddum were protesting the theft of their land. The Israeli military also rebuilt a roadblock, restricting the movement of the villagers even further.
Israeli military buldozer enters the village. Kedumim settlement in the background. Photo credit: ISM
Kafr Qaddum neighbours the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumin that was established in 1976. The illegal settlement now occupies five hilltops next to Kafr Qaddum, and houses more than 3000 illegal Israeli settlers.
More than half of the village’s land is located in Area C, which makes it a part of the approximately 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control. This means that many villagers need to get a special permission from the Israeli authorities to access their own land. Getting this permission is almost impossible, and a lot of villagers that do receive a permission complain that Israel only allows them to enter their land for a few days per year, thus not giving them enough time to cultivate their land.
In 2003 the Israeli military closed the entrance of the village by constructing a permanent roadblock. The residents are now forced to drive a 13km long detour in order to reach the main road into the village. In 2010, after waiting five years for a court decision, an Israeli court ruled that the closure of the road is illegal, but also stated, inaccurately, that the road is too dangerous to travel, and the Israeli army has used that as an excuse to keep the road closed ever since.
In addition to the permanent roadblock placed next to the entrance of the Kedumim settlement, Israeli forces have periodically put an extra dirt mound as a roadblock on the same road approximately 1 kilometer before the permament roadblock. One Ppalestinian family-home is closed of and isolated from the rest of the village by this dirt mound, and both cars and ambulances are prevented from driving to this particular home. This roadblock also limits the residents’ acces to their farmlands even further. To reach their land in this part of the village, they now have to go by foot, and are forced to carry their harvest and all the tools that are necessary for the work by hand.
The reconstructed roadblock, in the village of Kafr Qaddum. Photo credit: ISM
Every Friday and Saturday the residents of Kafr Quddum protest the road-closure and the theft of their lands. During last weeks Friday demonstration, Israeli soldiers together with an Israeli military bulldozer entered the village. One Israeli sniper hid on the bulldozer and shot a young protester in his leg as soon as the Israeli military entered the village. When protesters drew back to seek cover the bulldozer and the Israeli Forces started rebuilding the roadblock, that was removed only a few weeks ago.
Since July 2014, the Israeli Occupation Forces have been using live ammunition more frequently. To this day, more than 70 protesters have been injured with live ammunition. Protesters have also sustained serious injuries after being hit by ‘less-lethal ammunition’. One protester is blind on one eye after being hit by a rubber coated metal bullet, and protesters have sustained serious brain damage after being hit by this kind of bullet or tear gas canisters in their head.
During the Saturday protest on the 9th of January, a 60-year old villager was hit in his leg with live ammunition when he was walking back home from a visit at his neighbours house. An Israeli sniper hid behind a parked car, and international observers state that live ammunition was frequently used during the non-violent protest, even though the demonstrators posed no threat to the soldiers at all.
15th January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team| Ni’lin, occupied Palestine
A walk through the olive groves of Ni’lin village, down the dirt road between stone walls and cacti and past the scattered remnants of spent tear gas canisters, grenades and bullet casings reveals a striking vista: the Israeli-constructed, illegal Apartheid Wall cuts sharply across the fields, the 8-meter-high concrete slabs marked in some places by activist slogans and in others blackened by years of smoke from clashes with Israeli forces.
Walking down a road strewn with tear gas canisters during January 8th demonstration
The Wall, completed in 2009 despite a strong campaign of resistance from the villagers, renders completely inaccessible hundreds of dunums of what was once Ni’lin’s farmland and cuts off travel west from the village, which lies close enough to Tel Aviv for its skyline to be clearly visible from a third floor window. Behind the wall lies the illegal Israeli settlement of Hashmonaim, the large, neatly arrayed houses and orange roofs a constant reminder of the continuing colonization of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Every Friday Palestinian activists from Ni’lin, often accompanied by Israeli and international supporters, attempt to reach the Apartheid Wall in demonstrations against the theft of their land, against the Wall, against the Israeli occupation which has made life in the village so difficult and has in recent months claimed so many lives across Palestine.
Ni’lin residents gathered on January 1st and January 8th, as they do every Friday, in the olive groves between the village homes, school and mosque and the wall and illegal settlements. Israeli forces, as always, were waiting for the demonstrators and quickly attacked with tear gas, rubber-coated metal bullets, and foam-tipped bullets. On January 8th, despite the hundreds of rounds of tear gas fired from the ‘venom’ devices mounted on Israeli military jeeps, protesters managed to advance all the way to the Apartheid Wall itself. Many Palestinian youths climbed the wall in a daring display of resistance.
Young boy climbing Apartheid Wall in Ni’lin
Fortunately no one in Ni’lin on the 1st or the 8th of January needed extensive treatment or hospitalization. On New Year’s Day the weather was stormy enough that the demonstration ended quickly, with the only reported injury being one ISM activist hit with a foam bullet for attempting to take photos near the soldiers. On Friday the 8th of January Palestinian Red Crescent medics reported treating seven people for excessive tear gas inhalation, and at least two were hit with rubber-coated metal or foam-tipped bullets fired by Israeli forces.
The ISM activist who was hit with a foam bullet recalled the experience:
We were walking slowly toward the soldiers, watching the ones who had gone off the road to hide among the olive groves and rocks. In Ni’lin’s extensive fields and olive groves it is always important to watch for ambushes; Israeli military forces might lay low out of obvious sight and attempt to attack or arrest Palestinian youths. As we approached, I was photographing the soldiers in the trees, not even aiming my camera at those standing directly ahead of us in the road, arrayed beside their military jeep.
One of the Israeli soldiers in the olive groves
As we got closer I followed my friend’s lead, holding my camera in one hand and my other hand open, in sight of the soldiers, to make it clear I was not a threat and had no weapons. Both of us obviously held cameras, he a video camera and I a DSLR – even if the Israeli forces could conceivably have mistaken them for something else or not been able to see them clearly, one soldier had binoculars and had been aiming them at us earlier.
Though neither of us wore reflective vests and my face was partly covered to guard against the rain and wind, there is no way the heavily armed Israeli military forces could have viewed us as anything other than civilians documenting the demonstration and the actions of the army. They never shouted or warned us away; one second we were walking toward them and the next we heard the loud pop of the bullet being fired and, before I could react, I felt a sudden, sharp blow to my upper thigh and saw the bullet bouncing away. We turned and fled, feet pounding the mud, hoping that none of the soldiers would feel inclined to fire at our retreating backs.
Earlier as the demonstration began, Israeli forces had fired several foam baton rounds down the road, mainly in the direction of activists holding cameras. My friend had warned me to be prepared to run fast if they fired, but I never though they would aim to hit on the first shot.
Palestinian photographer holds one of the foam bullets Israeli forces aimed at people filming in Ni’lin
When they shot at us, we were nearer the soldiers (within 10 meters) than anyone else participating in the demonstration. No one nearby was throwing stones; far back down the road the ambulance had parked and Palestinian medics were standing outside, but other than them the area was nearly deserted. Fortunately the foam bullet hit the large muscle at the top of my leg and did not penetrate my clothing. It could be treated with an ice pack and within half an hour I could barely feel where the bullet had impacted; even as it happened, I was more startled than anything else. Palestinian medics, however, have documented cases of significant injuries from foam baton rounds (especially from the black, longer range type) when they hit sensitive areas such as the face or are fired from close range.
The ‘foam baton’ ammunition Israeli border police fired in Ni’lin was, in previous years, used mainly in Jerusalem by the Yasam (Israeli ‘riot cops’), but incidents like this show that the military has expanded their use in recent months, with Israeli forces aiming them at demonstrators in areas well inside the West Bank.
Israeli forces a few minutes before they fired and hit ISM activist (border police armed with foam baton rounds has back to camera)
When I came back toward the ambulance, one of the medics explained that the Israeli border police who shot me probably thought I was Palestinian. It was raining, and I had a kuffiyeh covering part of my face; on that day no other internationals or Israeli activists had come to the demonstration. I do not know if they would have shot me if they knew I was from the United States instead of just another Palestinian from Ni’lin attempting to record what was happening. Perhaps they would have shot the young man beside me instead, for nothing more than crossing some invisible line, stepping too close to Israeli forces while filming a clash that at that point the storm had already rendered nearly nonexistent. After we had run far enough from the soldiers to be able to speak to each other, he told me that in his past participation at protests Israeli forces had already shot him with live, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas rounds. As it was, I got a tiny taste of the casual violence the Israeli military occupation inflicts on Palestinians every day, no matter what method of resistance they choose.
On December 25th Ni’lin residents did not escape so relatively unscathed; as many in Palestine celebrated Christmas, Israeli forces not only violently repressed Ni’lin’s demonstration against the occupation but also invaded the village and ran over Ayoub Srour, a 44-year-old father of four, with a military jeep. On Friday the 8th of January, a Palestinian Red Crescent medic reported that Ayoub was still in hospital suffering from multiple fractures in his foot.
Ni’lin village is no stranger to collective punishment. Since the start of October, Israeli occupation forces have also constructed an addition at Ni’lin’s entrance: a sturdy gate, yellow metal bars mounted on concrete, which Israeli forces can use to close off the main road leading into the village.The village has suffered a heavy toll for it’s persistent resistance against the Israeli occupation; from 2008-2009 five Palestinian from the village, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli forces.
On New Year’s day protesters braved not only the Israeli military jeeps but also rain, wind and sleet to protest. As the rain rendered tear gas less effective, Israeli forces aimed foam-tipped bullets at demonstrators, often aiming toward Palestinian activists holding cameras. The practice of targeting journalists is common at protests, whether with tear gas, stun grenades, “less lethal” ammunition or even live bullets. Many Palestinian journalists have similar stories: they were clearly holding their cameras and showing that they were unarmed, some wore press vests or shouted that they were journalists, and the Israeli military attacked them in a clear effort to force them to move and to render them unable to carry out their work of witnessing and documenting military violence against Palestinian protesters.
Palestinian photographer at Ni’lin badly tear gassed at Jan 8 demonstration
The following Friday was dusty and windy, but without the rain that had impeded both impact of the tear gas and the enthusiasm of protesters the week before. Familiar clouds of tear gas billowed through Ni’lin’s olive trees, shot close enough for the canisters to hit fleeing protesters as they ran.
Palestinian youths managed to aim some of the tear gas back at the Israeli forces, most also using slings to hurl stones at the military jeeps and soldiers invading their land.
Ni’lin youths throwing stones up the road toward the Israeli military jeeps
Israeli forces continued to fire tear gas as the demonstration spread out across the fields and continued to advance toward the wall, at one point targeting a group of Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators who had simply been attempting to walk through a field near the wall armed with nothing more than a cameras and a Palestinian flag.
Man from Ni’lin stands in the field near the Apartheid Wall
Eventually the jeeps retreated back through the gate in the wall after firing a few final rounds of tear gas, and Israeli forces positioned themselves inside military towers atop the wall as many protesters attempted to take cover while still approaching the length of wall farther from the snipers.
Two young boys protesting shelter behind a tree as Israeli snipers aim up at protesters
As the first Palestinian protester climbed the far edge of the Apartheid Wall, Israeli forces aimed what looked to the international activist present like either rubber-coated metal bullets or black foam-tipped rounds (possibly both) at demonstrators in the field above the wall. One twelve-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in his ankle by the snipers on the wall. Undaunted, he took cover behind an olive tree and briefly applied an ice pack offered to him before returning to the clash and joining young protesters gathered where the far end of the wall merges into a fence guarding the illegal Israeli settlement road.
Photo taken a few minutes before this boy was shot in the foot by Israeli forces
Palestinian youths scaled the wall, constantly on the alert for assaults from Israeli military forces still lying in wait behind it, and aimed a few stones over the wall and fence that had stolen both their land and freedom of movement. One youth was hit by Israeli forces with a rubber-coated metal bullet in the hand as he looked out around the wall.
Palestinian youths gathered where the Apartheid Wall turns into a fence
Despite the constant threat of attack and the sobering symbols of oppression the protesters had gathered to oppose, Ni’lin’s youths smiled at each other as they gathered beside the wall near the end of the demonstration. One teenaged Palestinian played a recently popular song on his phone calling for an uprising against the occupation as others helped each other onto the wall, striking poses for the cameras and defying the Israeli forces on the Apartheid Wall’s far side.
Many young men and boys from Ni’lin scaled the wall on January 8Palestinian youth makes victory sign on the wall – behind him lies the illegal settlement of Hashmonaim
Even with the constant the setbacks, dangers, and collective punishment imposed on Ni’lin by the Israeli forces, Palestinians from the village will continue to protest. Every Friday, they make clear their resistance to the injustice of the Israeli occupation.
Peering over the wall, checking for soldiers who might be aiming to fire
2nd January, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
On the 2nd of January 2016, thousands attended the funeral of 14 martyrs in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). A demonstration following the funeral, against the continued killing of Palestinians with impunity by the Israeli military and Zionist settlers, was attacked by Israeli forces.
Part of the massive funeral procession walking up the road toward the Martyrs’ cemetery
The new year in the occupied West Bank began with the handover of 23 bodies that the Israeli government had been withholding from their families, some for over two months. These 23 young Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces or settlers claiming that they had been carrying out attacks; in many cases, eyewitnesses reported that Israeli forces planted evidence on the bodies or killed the alleged attackers when they posed no imminent threat. Israeli forces then took the bodies of the Palestinians killed and the Israeli government refused to return them to their families, denying them funerals and proper burial.
17 of the 23 bodies that were finally returned to their families were from the al-Khalil district. Of these 14 were from al-Khalil city itself, and were thus buried on Saturday in the Martyrs’ cemetery of al-Khalil. Thousands of people marched in the funeral procession from the Hussein mosque to the cemetery, with the fourteen bodies carried on the shoulders of their families. The families of the young men killed finally had the chance to bury their loved ones in an appropriate manner and grieve their loss.
One of the 14 bodies of Palestinian youths being carried down the road in al-Khalil
As the procession was passing by a road that leads down toward Shuhada checkpoint, Israeli forces threw stun grenades into the street even though no one was approaching or even near checkpoint.
The fourteen people buried this Saturday in occupied al-Khalil are:
The three Palestinians buried in the al-Khalil area are:
Hamzeh Moussa al-Imla, 25, shot dead on 20th October 2015. Buried in Beit Ula
Fadi Hassan al-Froukh, shot dead on 1st November 2015. Buried in Sair village
Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19, shot dead on 27th November 2015. Buried in Beit Ummar
After the funeral procession for Omar al-Zaaqiq, Israeli forces injured 12 protesters with rubber-coated steel bullets, including two that were shot in the head.
After the funeral in al-Khalil dozens of young Palestinian men braved wet, cold weather to gather in the streets of Bab al-Zawwiya neighborhood around Shuhada checkpoint to protest the murder of these martyrs. Israeli forces advanced from Shuhada checkpoint and threw stun grenades into the streets. They also pursued a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance that was driving up the road with its lights and sirens on in the H1 area of al-Khalil, the part supposedly under full Palestinian control. Israeli forces stopped the ambulance and threw a stun grenade at it, forcing medics to drive back in the direction they had come.
Israeli forces occupied a building and roof in Bab al-Zawwiya, using their vantage to aim down at protesters, mock the demonstrators and throw stones at them.
Palestinians and internationals documenting the Israeli forces’ violent attackon the demonstration were directly targeted by Israeli forces. Local activist Imad Abu Shamsiya was shot in the foot with a rubber-coated metal bulle by Israeli forces. One international was hit in the hand with a rubber-coated metal bullet when clearly holding a camera filming the event. “We were standing in the street taking photos of the soldiers aiming their rifles at demonstrators and realized that they were aiming right at us when a rubber-coated metal bullet hit right above my head,” another ISM activist recalled.
Photo taken just before Israeli border police aimed a rubber-coated metal bullet just above an ISMer’s head
Israeli forces indiscriminately fired rounds of plastic-coated metal bullets that, in contrast to the rubber-coated metal bullets, were not aimed and targeted at individuals but would instead hit anyone in the vicinity. The clashes ended after over two hours of confrontation with Israeli forces, with no severe injuries.
While the families of the 23 young Palestinians returned on New Year’s Day were finally able to bury their loved ones, other families are still waiting and demanding the return of the bodies of their family members killed by Israeli forces or settlers. This inhumane tactic of keeping the bodies from the families, thus denying them the possibility of holding a funeral according to their beliefs, clearly violates article 17 of the 1949 Geneva Convention: I “[Parties to the conflict] shall further ensure that the dead are honourably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged, that their graves are respected, grouped if possible according to the nationality of the deceased, properly maintained and marked so that they may always be found.”
