August 11 | International Solidarity Movement | Old City, East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine
Hundreds of settlers invaded the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City this morning after Israeli soldiers used tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets to clear out Muslim worshippers.
61 Palestinians were injured and 15 hospitalised when soldiers and police let loose on tens of thousands of Muslims celebrating the first day of Eid al-Adha.
Just minutes after the morning prayer, the peaceful scene descended into chaos as men and women were beaten by riot police and children ran screaming from tear gas and sound grenades.
A Palestinian from East Jerusalem who witnessed the violence told ISM that he saw an elderly man hit by soldiers, and three other men beaten and covered in blood before being arrested.
The Red Crescent reported that one man suffered a broken jaw while others were treated for rubber-coated steel bullet wounds and burns from exploding sound grenades. ISmers also saw two men arrested inside the Lion’s gate.
Muslims pray at the Lion’s Gate entrance in Jerusalem’s Old City
After many Palestinians fled from the compound, 1,700 settlers in total were given permission to enter – the second time this year during a Muslim holiday. They were escorted by heavily armed soldiers in smaller groups of 100-200. The ultra-nationalists claimed to be seeking entry to commemorate Tisha B’Av, a Jewish holiday, which coincided this year with Eid al-Adha.
However Palestinians believe that the invasion was entirely politically motivated. “It’s a political issue and nothing to do with religion,” the East Jerusalem resident told ISM. “They want to show who has the power, who are the ones in charge. Don’t forget, it’s election time and these fanatics are very important to win over for the Israeli government.”
Hundreds of settlers were waiting by the Dung Gate entrance of the compound near the Western Wall from around 8am, chanting over the bangs of sound grenades exploding inside.
The number of settlers permitted to enter was 17% more than on Tisha B’Av last year when the Jewish holiday did not coincide with Eid al-Adha.
Ultra-nationalist Jews wait at the Dung Gate to enter Al-Aqsa compoundUltra-nationalist Jews wait at the Dung Gate to enter Al-Aqsa compoundUltra-nationalist Jews praying in Jerusalem Muslim Quarter
They continued their provocations for the rest of the day, trying repeatedly to enter the Al-Aqsa compound through different gates. As late at 8.30pm, ISMers saw the fanatics holding a ceremony by the Lion’s Gate entrance to Al-Aqsa. A local told ISM that this display has never happened before. “There’s no limits, no limits to what they are doing today,” he said.
The extremist groups had released a call out earlier this week to raid the compound on Sunday.
In an attempt to prevent the settler invasion the Muslim Waqf – the authority that controls the compound – had delayed the prayer by an hour and encouraged worshippers to stay in Al-Aqsa afterwards to deter the Israeli government giving them the green light.
Ultra-nationalist Jews praying at one of the gates of Al Aqsa mosque in the afternoonUltra-nationalist Jews praying at one of the gates of Al Aqsa mosque in the evening
But after thousands of Palestinians fled the compound the numbers inside were low enough to be deemed ‘safe’ for settlers to enter.
Muslims were also prevented from re-entering the site for around two hours after.
A Palestinian woman sat crying at the Lion’s Gate after being refused entry and a man was briefly detained and searched. Another woman who was also denied entry and aggressively pushed back by soldiers when she tried to pass said: “I am a Muslim. I am outside. There are Israelis inside. Inside my Al-Aqsa.”
Worshippers were eventually allowed back in to the compound after being forced to wait for hours while settlers roamed free inside.
For the past 10 years, Israel has been making steps to control the holy site, allowing more and more ultra-nationalist Jews to enter.
A movement in Israel’s far right is behind this push for more access to the compound. They are also seeking permission which would allow Jews to pray at the site which is currently forbidden.
ISMer’s neck shows strangulation marks where she was dragged across the floor by Israeli border police with her Kaffiyeh
July 23 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Sur Baher, East Jerusalem occupied Palestine
Two Palestinian families lost their homes yesterday in unprecedented mass demolitions in East Jerusalem carried out by 900 Israeli soldiers who hospitalized Palestinians and ISMers in a sadistic and brutal eviction operation.
During the invasion of the two occupied buildings Israeli border police shot Palestinians at close range with rubber-coated steel bullets and kicked them down flights of stairs. ISMers were stamped on, dragged across the floor by the hair, strangled with a scarf and pepper sprayed by Israeli border police.
The International Solidarity Movement activists, Bethany Rielly, 25, Beatrice-Lily Richardson, 27, Chris Lorigan, 30, and Gabriella Jones, 20, were carrying out a non-violent action by sitting in the house of Palestinian Ismail Obeide with 30 locals in the Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood of Sur Baher, in an attempt to delay the demolition.
12 Palestinians were also hospitalized after being kicked in the back down flights of stairs and two were illegally shot at close range with rubber-coated steel bullets.
At around 3am yesterday morning 900 hundred Israeli soldiers were bussed to the area with trucks of demolition equipment to bulldoze three Palestinian apartment blocks, including an unfinished block which they spent 15 hours rigging with dynamite.
At around 5am they smashed down the door of Mr Obeide’s house. He was standing in the doorway holding his hands out in disbelief when dozens of soldiers invaded his home immediately pepper spraying him in the face.
They used excessive force, seemingly with enjoyment, whilst firing tear gas into the enclosed space and brutalising Palestinians and international activists.
The four British nationals were sitting in a small unventilated bathroom with the door closed when a soldier opened the door and threw in a tear gas canister.
Chris said: “When the soldiers found us in the bathroom, they threw multiple tear gas canisters and shut the door. As we started to suffocate in the smallest room in the house, soldiers burst in and dragged us violently, pulling at every possible part, regardless of safety or policy.
“I was dragged by my feet and lifted up, kicked in the stomach, then one soldier in particular stamped on my head four times, at full force, then standing on my head and pulling at my hair, he then stamped on my throat and others started punching my torso. It was a sadistic display of violence by the border police.”
After he told the soldiers he would leave, they continued to beat him, throwing him through a table. At one point they also tried to pull his trousers off. He suffered a fractured rib, and severe bruising to his chest, legs and face.
ISMer in hospital being treated for a fractured ribISMer with severe tissue damage to right hand
Beatrice was also dragged out and her hands crushed so badly that she suffered severe tissue damage to her right hand which will be permanently misshapen unless she gets cosmetic surgery and a fractured knuckle on her left hand. She was bruises across her arms, hips and inner thighs.
Gaby was severely pepper sprayed in the face and hands and soldiers ripped her shirt revealing her bra, leaving large bruises on her right arm.
Bethany was dragged by her Keffiyeh around her neck out of the bathroom. Soldiers then pulled her out of the room by her hair. She said: “A soldier dragged me by my keffiyeh across the floor strangling me until I screamed when he then crushed my neck under his knee. I couldn’t believe the pure aggression they were using against us. I was in such a state of shock the whole time that I couldn’t open my eyes. As they dragged me by my hair as I choked from being strangled and the tear gas I heard them laughing at me. We were unarmed civilians using peaceful means to try and delay them destroying Ismail and his family’s home that they worked so hard to build. Hundreds of soldiers were bussed in to do this. Is a house demolition a military operation anywhere else in the world? This is the reality of life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.”
ISMer with bruising on arm and ripped shirt where soldiers pulled it apart
The four activists were all admitted to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem where they were treated for their injuries.
Three international activists, from Britain, the US and France were locked in a different room in the same house with around 15 Palestinians. Soldiers threw sound grenades into the room and continued to throw two more even after the Palestinians said they would leave.
A US national who did not want to be named said: “The Palestinian men began saying ‘hallas’, saying they were done, ‘open the door.’ They held hands up and then again, a soldier threw a sound grenade in and closed the door, and then again. And this was after everyone had stopped resisting, but the brutality kept going. Then one by one they very roughly, very aggressively, unnecessarily rough, as these men were holding their arms up in the air, grabbed the men and shoved them out of the door. They grabbed people fingers, it appeared as though they intended to break them. Then we got to the stairs and they were kicking us down the stairs in the lower back and several of the Palestinian boys they kicked so hard that they tumbled down the stairs and this was when there was no resistance at all going on.” A video of the moment when soldiers burst in is shown below (taken by US ISMer).
ISM activists from Britain, Spain and Austria were in another house which was also demolished.
Nine Israeli and international activists were in the house of Ghaleb Abu Hadwan, with his 4 daughters, son and grandfather.
Edmond Sichrovsky, an Austrian activist of Jewish origin, who was in the house said: “Border police broke into the house and dragged out the Palestinians, knocking the grandfather to the floor in front of his crying and screaming grandchildren. Everyone with a cellphone was forcibly removed from the house. Once there was no one filming present, they attacked me and 4 other activists. I was repeatedly kicked and kneed, which left a bloody nose and multiple cuts, as well breaking my glasses from a knee in the face. Once outside, they slammed me against a car while shouting verbal insults at me and women activists, calling them whores (Sharmuta).”
ISMer holds glasses which were broken after being kneed in the face by a soldierSpanish ISMer after being hit in the face with a gun by the border police
A US activist was kicked in the stomach and Spanish activist Ivan Rivera was hit in the head with the but of a gun.
Yesterday’s demolition of Wadi al-Hummus has made national news but due to the lack of media presence inside the family homes the extent of the violence and sadism perpetrated by IOF on Palestinian citizens and international activists has remained largely unreported. ISM activists are sharing their personal accounts of yesterday morning’s events including being brutally beaten, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, strangled and laughed at in the process of non violent resistance even after compliance, but urge the international community to recognise the fact that the treatment of Palestinians is incomparable.
After everyone was evicted from the two occupied buildings, Israeli forces proceeded to destroy them while continuing to put dynamite on every floor of the unfinished building. The three buidlings, which are in Area A under full Palestinians Authority control, were destroyed yesterday for ‘security reasons’ using an Israeli 2011 military order that states any house within 250m of the apartheid fence could be demolished. The Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood is on both sides of the fence, which is illegal under international law. 17 people including Mr Obedi, his wife and their six children are now homeless (a video of the demolition of their home is shown below) as well as the family of Mr Hadwan. And the 350 people who were to live in the unfinished block now have lost their future homes. A video was posted of Israeli soldiers laughing and cheering as the unfinished block was demolished by thousands of explosives. Evidence of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine is more apparent than ever in efforts like the destruction of these three blocks in Wadi al-Hummus, and hundreds more demolition orders, by the Israeli government.
Ismail stands proudly in his beautiful kitchen the day before its razed to the ground
July 19 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
Abdul Rahman Yasser Shteiwi, 9 years old, shot in the head by the Israeli military in Kafr Quddum
An Israeli human rights group has proved that live fire was used by soldiers against the 9-year-old child who was shot in the head last Friday in Kafr Qaddum, exposing Israeli Military lies that none was used.
The report by B’Tselem, published yesterday, says that Abdul Rahman Shteiwi was shot with live ammunition during a protest in the West Bank town on July 12 “while sitting at the entrance of one of the homes on the edge of the village playing with a piece of wood.”
It reads: “Now hospitalised in critical condition, he is the latest victim of the reckless open-fire policy that allows soldiers to use live fire even when neither they nor anyone else is in any danger.”
Many people turned out for the weekly protest in Kafr Qaddum today, which has been held every Friday for the past 8 years, to call for justice for Abdul who is fighting for his life in Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv.
At the demonstration, which was attended by leaders of the PLO, international observers and local and international media, Israeli soldiers bombarded protesters with rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters.
Paramedics from the Red Crescent told ISM that 40 protesters were treated for various injuries, 22 for rubber-coated steel bullet wounds and 18 for tear gas inhalation.
Ahead of today’s protest, a number of Palestinian politicians including PLO minister Walid Assaf declared that they will bring the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). “The blood of our children is not cheap!” he said. “We will follow Netanyahu and the Israeli war minister in the ICC.”
The Israeli Military still insists that no live ammunition was used last week, despite the mounds of evidence stacking up against their hollow claims.
Kafr Qaddum resident, Riyad Shtaiwi, was sitting under an olive tree with his two children when he witnessed the shooting of Abdul last Friday.
He told ISM through an interpreter that he saw soldiers at the top of the mountain, “taking the position of sniping by lying on the ground,” just before Abdul was hit.
“When I saw the soldiers on the top of a mountain aiming and taking the position of sniping and shooting by lying himself on the ground towards us, I feel real danger,” he said. “I decided to move away from this place and to speak with the child who was opposite me, to take him away from this danger. Before I reach the child, one of the soldiers, the one who was taking the position of shooting, he shot one live ammunition. At this moment I look around myself at my children and then I saw the child on the ground and the blood.”
Mr Shtaiwi ran towards Abdul to pick him up. While he carried the unconscious boy in his arms, soldiers fired 3 or 4 more rounds of live bullets towards them which hit a metal gate just behind.
B’Tselem claims that Abdul’s severe injury is the “direct result of the open-fire policy implemented by the military in the Occupied Territories.”
“This policy illegally and without any justification permits the use of live fire against Palestinians who are not endangering anyone,” the report continues. “The policy remains in force despite the fact that it has resulted in hundreds of Palestinian deaths and thousands of injuries.”
This was not the first time the military has fired live ammunition at protesters in Kafr Qaddum in an attempt to suppress the popular struggle of the town’s residents. In January alone, five protesters were hit with live bullets including a child in the neck who was in a critical condition.
For eight years, the residents have protested against the closure of the town’s main road to Nablus by the military in the early 2000s. The blocked road is now exclusively used by illegal settlers, forcing Palestinians to take the longer road which has impacted their economy.
April 14, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied Palestine
Israeli occupation forces shoot huge amounts of tear gas at school children near Al-Salaymeh checkpoint in Al-Khalil. Soldiers further confiscate the car keys of every Palestinian driver in the area.
Soldiers invade Al-Khalil, bombarding the city with tear gas and stun grenades.
Around 8am soldiers shot tear gas and stun grenades at school children near Al-Salaymeh checkpoint. Forcing the children back with tear gas, the soldiers moved closer to the schools, while continuously throwing tear gas and stun grenades. At one point the soldiers tried to enter a school, but the principal convinced them not to. As protests erupted, the soldiers closed off all traffic, while confiscating the keys of all Palestinian drivers.
Several of the young children were visibly scared, but thankfully no one was seriously injured, although many suffered the effects of excessive tear gas inhalation. The press was told to leave several times.
The soldiers retired behind the checkpoint around 10.30am.
