Tag: Tear-Gas Canister

Kufr Qaddoum: two boys arrested and beaten before weekly demonstration

By Tete Telsen

17 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Prior to the weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum last Friday, June 15, two young Palestinian boys were detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers. At least three others were injured by tear gas canisters during the peaceful protest that ensued.

Shortly after noon on Friday, Israeli soldiers kidnapped two 10 year old Palestinian boys. While being held by the Israeli military, the two boys were repeatedly kicked in their backs by soldiers. They were then released and taken home by adults from the village.

The weekly occurring demonstration began following the Friday noon prayer with speeches and music. The Israeli military immediately began shooting sound bombs and tear gas. Some protesters replied with stone-throwing. At around 2:30 p.m., Israeli soldiers began illegally shooting tear gas canisters at head level and lower. Three men were shot by the canisters. The military evacuated Kufr Qaddoum around 3 p.m..

Prior to the protest some 20 children were playing near the area were the demonstration is held. They were throwing stones in trees and playing. Israeli soldiers arrived a half hour before the demonstration began and abducted two of the boys, aged 11 and 9 years old.

The other children ran back to the village to ask for help. When Palestinians and International Solidarity Movement volunteers arrived on scene, the boys had already been released. The two young boys related that they had been kicked in their backs by the soldiers.

The weekly demonstration began as usual around 1 p.m.. The people of Kufr Qaddoum spoke to the Israeli army through a loudspeaker, stating that they were holding a peaceful demonstration and that the soldiers should go away. The military replied with tear gas and sound bombs.

Before ending the protest, Israeli soldiers shot tear gas canister at head level and into the ground to make the canisters bounce. Ashraf Shtaiwi was hit in his stomach, Mojahid Barham in his shoulder, and Bashar Shtaiwi in his arm. All were treated in an ambulance by medics. Several others suffered tear gas suffocation and were also treated in ambulance.

Kufr Qaddoum is a village 12 kilometres west of Nablus home to almost 3 thousand people. Since 2003, the road which connects the village to Nablus was blocked to Palestinian access by Israel. The inhabitants are thus obliged to take an indirect and much lengthier route. The annexed road prompted the weekly demonstrations but Kufr Qaddoum is also protesting the ongoing land theft by the adjacent Jewish-only illegal settlement of Qedummim. The Friday demonstrations began in July 2011 and continue to today.

Tete Telsen is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Urif: Israeli settlers attack village, Palestinian shot in abdomen

By Tete Tele

26 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On May 26, the village of Urif, south of Nablus, was attacked by Israeli settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement. Extensive amounts of agricultural land belonging to Urif were burned and settlers threw stones and shot live ammunition at civilians from the village. A Palestinian man was shot with live ammunition in the abdomen and a Franco-British volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement was injured by a tear gas canister.

The attack began around 1p.m. with shooting coming from a hill east to the village, nearby to a Palestinian secondary school. After one and a half hours the settlers appeared on the opposite side of the valley and began again to fire. It was during this attack that a young Palestinian man was shot and seriously injured. Urif residents carried him down the hill towards an ambulance that took him immediately to Rafadiyah hospital in Nablus. Israeli soldiers witnessed the attack from the top of one of hills, yet did not intervene.

Israeli soldiers prevent Palestinians from putting out the fires started by Israeli settlers further up the hill - click here for more photos

Urif’s residents attempted to climb the hill to put out fires that the settlers had started. They were confronted by heavily armed Israeli soldiers who prevented them from reaching the fires. Soldiers fired live ammunition into the air and fired blanks at the crowd of unarmed civilians. They then left the area in two armoured jeeps. Other soldiers who were positioned atop the hill, continued to monitor the Palestinians who managed to climb the hill and were attempting to put out the fires.

After one hour the settlers started a new fire on another hill near the settlement. The soldiers prevented the Palestinians from climbing the hill to put out the fires, but allowed the settlers a free pass to throw stones at the young Palestinians and internationals below them on the hill.

The Israeli military then began to shoot teargas grenades from both sides of the valley, effectively trapping the Palestinians and internationals from both sides.

The Palestinians moved towards the hill where the the secondary school stands. A group of speeding Israeli army jeeps almost ran over a group of young Palestinian men and the soldiers and some settlers stood waiting for them on this hill. The Israeli military continued to shoot excessive amounts of tear gas. A Franco-British activist was injured in the leg after being struck by a tear gas canister.

Tear gas was fired at the residential area, and many households including women and children were affected.

Urif’s residents were unable to be precise as to the number of Israeli settlers that attacked the village since there were multiple attacks throughout the afternoon. A conservative estimate of 100 settlers was given.

The casualties were high. One Palestinian man is currently still in hospital after being shot by a settler in the kidney. The Franco-British volunteer shot in the leg required medical treatment and is still unable to walk without assistance. Several individuals required treatment for tear gas inhalation, including one in particular who reacted severely to the gas due to their asthma.

Illegal settlers from the Yitzhar colony were also responsible for the attack on Asira al-Qibliyah last week, wherein a Palestinian was shot in the head.

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

Nabi Saleh: 16 year old shot with tear gas canister

by Rana Hamadeh

19 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The march for justice in Nabi Saleh – For more photos click here

A nonviolent demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh last Friday, April 13th was met with Israeli army aggression, resulting in at least six injuries, including a sixteen-year old boy shot above the eye with a tear gas canister.

Following the Friday prayer the village’s residents, and several Israeli and international activists in solidarity, marched down their main road chanting slogans. Children lead the way at first, but ran back to their homes when the Israeli army came into view, anticipating the oncoming violence.

For at least five hours, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired ample rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs at peaceful demonstrators, as well as between houses and at village residents not participating in the protest. They also employed the use of the ‘skunk truck’, which propels torrents of a sewage-like liquid, again not only on protesters, but on the village’s olive groves and homes.

Six people were injured due to rubber-coated bullets and tear gas fire. Sixteen year old Osama Tamimi was hit above the eye with a tear gas canister. The IOF delayed his ambulance for half an hour before letting it continue to hospital.

The village of Nabi Saleh has been holding weekly nonviolent protests demanding an end to Israeli colonialism and occupation. More specifically, the demonstrations are about the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish. Halamish was built on Palestinian owned land and continues to expand. Halamish and the 250 other Israeli colonies and outposts in the Palestinian West Bank, are considered illegal under international law as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the illegality has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the United Nations Security Council.

The weekly protests began after Halamish annexed Nabi Saleh’s fresh water springs in December 2009. Israel has since protected this theft with the use of military force.

Since Nabi Saleh began regular nonviolent demonstrations, Israel has brutally sought to repress them. The village faces collective punishments such as night raids and mass arrests. Israel has thus arrested more than 13% of the village, almost half of them under the age of 18 years. All but three were tried for participating in the protests.

Last December in Nabi Saleh, Mustafa Tamimi was shot and killed during the weekly protests. Despite these great risks, the village continues to zealously fight for their rights.

 

Rana Hamadeh is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

 

Spring time in Ni’lin: Photos of the demonstration

by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta

6 April 2012 | Refusing to be Enemies: The Book

April 6th Demonstration - Click here for more photos

I’m a bit slow at writing things up, so in the meanwhile, here are some photos  of this past Friday’s action in Ni’lin.  To me the the most vivid pictures were the shebab, including boys who looked as young as 12 , symbolically lobbing stones at and over the gate and wall (probably not visible in my photos), amid clouds of stinging teargas and stinking “skunk water,” and Mohammed Amira calmly standing with his megaphone addressing the soldiers in Hebrew (telling them to go home to their families, and basically trying to get them to reflect on what they’re doing), while himself being sprayed with teargas and targeted with skunk water (they missed him with the “skunk,” as far as I could tell as we returned to his home for cold drinks and a rest, and didn’t notice the tell-tale stench of sewage he would have been carrying if hit.

Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Video: Israeli military shooting directly at press in Kufr Qaddoum

by Axel

4 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday the 30th of March the weekly demonstration was held in the village Kufr Qaddoum outside of Nablus. This day was however the same day as the Global March to Jerusalem, meaning less media attention than normal, and also less internationals present as most of the activists attended the demonstrations in Qalandiya, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. To further minimize attendance, the Israeli soldiers had set up a checkpoint outside the village, preventing people from entering.

 The situation was also more tense than usual, as it was only two weeks ago the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) released attack dogs on the demonstrators, resulting in savage attacks and sever injuries.

 Despite these facts approximately 500 people, including about 10 internationals, gathered after the Muslim Friday prayer to march along the main road of the village that the IOF  are still obstructing even though the Israels court has approved its reopening.

 “As we approached the road block we could see that there were a lot of soldiers, approximately 35, and they had brought a tractor and the ‘skunk water’ truck,” said Odai Al-Jumah, a film-maker from the village.

When the demonstration reached the barbwire road block, they were cheering and started to talk to the soldiers through a megaphone, demanding the reopening of the road. As normal the soldiers  responded to this non-violent action by shooting tear gas, stun grenades and skunk water. But this time they did not shoot upwards to make the metal tear gas canister fly in an arc, but instead they were illegally aiming right at the crowd just 20 meters in front of them.

“I was standing on the side of the demonstration, filming when I saw one of the soldiers aiming at me. I had no where to run, so I just covered my head with one of my arms,” said Al-Jumah.

 Luckily he was fast enough. The tear gas canister would have hit him right in the face, but instead it hit his arm and then ricocheted down to his chest. Tear gas canisters are a fatal weapon used by Israel against nonviolent protesters, using the crowd dispersion weapon as a projectile directed at destroying human life, as was the recent case of Mustafa Tamimi of Nabi Saleh. He ran a few meters and then collapsed. He got picked up buy the Red Crescent staff who carried him to an ambulance where they decided to take him to a nearby hospital.

On the way they had to cross the checkpoint where the soldiers stopped them. They wanted to interrogate Al Jumah.

 “I heard the ambulance driver asking what they wanted, but they just told him to shut up and open the back door.”

 He was then interrogated for more than half an hour, a very long time as he had sever pain in his arm and chest. After asking over and over again what he was doing at the demonstration, and if he had thrown any stone, they let him go as it was obvious he was there to document and was not even a part of the demonstration. The obvious delay to reaching any medical attention is one of the many ways Kufr Qaddoum and villages throughout Palestine are impacted by Israeli checkpoints, road blocks, and longer detours sustained by the illegal Israeli occupation.

Al Jumah was then taken to a hospital in Nablus where they found no serious injury, but he had to spend the night under observation.

The soldiers were apparently very violent through out the demonstration as more then 30 people were injured, most of them from inhaling very significant amounts of tear gas.

Five were shot directly with the canisters, including the press who were merely documenting Israeli violence and lack of concern. In February Reporters without Borders released a statement condemning Israel’s targeting of journalists.

The Israeli violence did not conclude with the demonstration but continued in other forms of oppression and harassment. On Sunday April 1st four soldiers came into the village and violently entered the house of Murad Shtawi, one of the organisers of the demonstration who was recently arrested by the military.

 “I was out for a walk when people from the village said there were soldiers in my house,” said Shtawi .

 He ran back to his home, and when he got there he asked the soldiers what they wanted. They showed a picture of his six year old son, saying the child was suspected of throwing stones. The family was shocked, and started screaming at the soldiers, chasing them out of the house. The soldiers then went back to their military jeep, leaving the village empty handed.

 “They really have no limits. What possible threat can they see in a six year old boy?” asked Shtawi.

 This is a question Shtawi, Al Jumah, or the locals of Kufr Qaddoum will not get answered. The collective punishment and practice of fear tactics exercised by Zionist military and settlers against the indigenous people of Palestine and their supporters is simply central to the strategy of Israel’s apartheid.

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