Tag: Urif

BREAKING NEWS: Internationals arrested and hospitalised for trying to plant trees in Urif

12 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

UPDATE: All of those detained today have been released and the Brit who was pepper sprayed has been let out of hospital

P1080640At around 11am this morning, a group of internationals including three volunteers from the Michigan Peace Team travelled to Urif in Nablus. They were attempting to assist in planting olive trees at the top of the village near the school, an area which has been the scene of much of the recent troubles in Urif.

Despite being nowhere near the illegal Israeli settlement, Yizhar, Israel forces have a constant presence on the hilltop.  One local resident said, “we always know when we are about to be attacked by settlers, because the army leave their position at the top of the hill“.

On arrival activists were immediately approached by the Israeli Occupation Force who were asking for internationals’ passports, the army then tried to arrest a Palestinian farmer.

The internationals tried to intervene but 6 including three from the Michigan Peace Team and 3 volunteers from the ISM were arrested. The three ISM activist currently in detention at the Ariel settlement are from America, Denmark and Finland; no Palestinians were arrested.

Two ISM volunteers were pepper sprayed which hospitalised one British volunteer.

Please stay posted for further updates.

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Ongoing attacks result in injuries and 17 miscarriages in Urif, West Bank

29 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

The Israeli army and illegal settlers have been, on almost daily basis for the past two months, invading and attacking the village of Urif in the West Bank. A local doctor reports that these actions have inflicted 17 miscarriages only in the month of December, numerous injuries, sleep deprivation and significant disruption to life. The attacks occur day and night. Tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets as well as live ammunition are routinely used by the army. The village has been the site of regular attacks over many years, but from early December 2012 there has been a significant increase.

A video published shows soldiers entering a silent Urif around 1 am on the 29th December. The soldiers explode sound bombs, use an air raid siren and boast through a loud-speaker “good morning Urif, get up all the village, get up” (4:15) and then repeatedly use the horn on an army vehicle (6:28). These night incursions have become a frequent occurrence in Urif and continue up till now.

Large amounts of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets are being used against the villagers, continually inflicting a high number of casualties. A local doctor – a primary healthcare worker, reports that there have been 17 miscarriages in the past month as a direct result of this gas. The doctor describes how his wife lost her unborn child: “After the gas entered my home, my wife started to have a discharge of blood. We went to the hospital for an ultrasound scan and we saw there was no longer a heartbeat.” He gives an account of another case: “My neighbour was pregnant for 8 months but after a gas attack they also lost their baby.” In a village of barely 3000 people, this is a huge anomaly in miscarriages.

Jim, an international solidarity activist present in Urif, observed that “the gas is very strong, it has a potent effect even from a great distance and we have seen the army firing this gas directly at people’s homes. Sometimes the whole village is in a cloud of this chemical gas”. One of the villagers describes the gas further: “My face burns and I cannot breathe, it is not like the normal gas. With this gas, my sight is affected, everything is blurred and I feel dizzy”. According to other villagers, the gas also affects animals. Eight sheep have died from its inhalation, one pregnant cow miscarried and then died shortly after a still birth. The gas seems to have inflicted death to many new born puppies, too.

Settlers from Yitzhar, the nearby illegal settlement, regularly throw stones at the local school and shout abuse at children inside. Recently, the army fired tear gas into the school while the children were sitting their end of year exams. On New Year’s Day a wedding was attacked with gas and a mentally ill man was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet, as the villagers reported to the international activists. The bullet lodged in his leg, as he was shot at such close range. On 10th January settlers were shooting live bullets, throwing stones, uprooting olive trees and attacked two houses. A similar scenario occurred in the village of Qusra, with settlers from the Esh Kodesh and Qida illegal settlements attacking at the same time when the attack in Urif was underway, thus raising the possibility that these were coordinated attacks.

Further attacks on the local population of Urif might lead to even more miscarriages and other health issues. “The army must stop immediately all attacks on the village, including the heavy usage of tear gas and night rides, and prevent all settler attacks,” international solidarity activists monitoring the area near to Nablus conclude.

 

Settlers attack Urif and Qusra with guns, knives and stones

January 10th, 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif and Qusra, Occupied Palestine

As the villages around Nablus woke up to the rare scene of a snow-covered landscape, Israeli settlers violently attacked groups of youngsters playing with snow in the villages of Urif and Qusra. Two people were both hit in the leg by live bullets fired from settlers’ guns and six people were hospitalized because of rubber-coated steel bullets shot by the Israeli army.

In Urif, a group of thirty-five settlers came down the hills from the nearby Yizhar illegal settlement and attacked youth engaged in a snow-battle. One settler, who was carrying a sword, went to slash one of them but was stopped in time by the villagers. Other settlers started shooting live bullets and attacked two houses, smashing their windows. Shortly after the attack started the Israeli army also came down the hills, openly protecting the settlers from people that were gathering to defend their village. International human-rights activists that arrived in Urif saw settlers throwing stones and filmed them uprooting olive trees while the Israeli army shot tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, preventing the activists and villagers from approaching the settlers. As the attack went on, settlers again opened fire on people from Urif and hit one young person in the leg. Five other persons were taken to hospital because of injuries sustained from rubber-coated steel bullets shot by the Israeli military.

A similar scenario occurred in the village of Qusra, with settlers from the Esh Kodesh and Qida illegal settlements attacking at the same time the attack in Urif was underway, thus raising the possibility that these were coordinated attacks. Fifteen settlers gathered on the hill overlooking Qusra and five of them, three of whom were armed with guns, went down to the village. The five settlers first headed to one of the homes on the edge of the village, previously targeted in a number of other assaults. As youth who were playing with snow went running to defend the home, settlers started shooting at them with their M-16 guns. 21-year-old Ammar was hit in the leg after the bullet passed through the mobile phone in his pocket. Settlers continued shooting at friends of Ammar who were trying to carry him away from the scene. He is currently in hospital and will have to undergo surgery because of the wound caused by the bullet.

In the meantime, dozens of Israeli soldiers started gathering on the hills, while settlers went around fields breaking olive trees. Only this morning a total of 188 olive trees were destroyed, with some of the trees having up to 20 years-worth of toil invested in them. When villagers from Qusra went to confront the settlers in the act they were met by tear-gas and rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli army positioned on top of the hills; resulting in one person being hospitalized, after a hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet in the leg.

Settlers and soldiers’ attacks are nothing new for both Urif and Qusra. Urif has been struck almost daily in the past month and a half, as settlers attacked the school and homes at the outer part of the village. This is often followed by soldiers’ incursions into the village, routinely shooting huge amounts of tear-gas in the streets and houses of Urif. Twenty women suffered miscarriages because of tear-gas inhalation in the last six weeks. Furthermore, soldiers frequently arrive at night, shouting through megaphones, throwing stun grenades and turning on their sirens, simply to deprive people of their sleep. Qusra has also been attacked four times in the past few weeks, when settlers uprooted thousands of olive trees, attacked a Red Crescent ambulance and beat up villagers. Recent offensive graffiti in Hebrew was still to be seen on the walls of the mosque there today, a year and a half after being subjected to arson.

 

 

Further incursions into Urif

30 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine

International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine – Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Urif for the fourth time in six days on Saturday 29th December.

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Urif has been attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yizhar on every Saturday in the past few months. Armed settlers protected by soldiers go down the hills overlooking Urif and start throwing stones at the local school as well as homes situated on the outskirts of the village.

Yesterday, instead, a group of settlers stayed on a hilltop near the village watching Israeli soldiers chasing away people that had gathered near the school to defend the village in case of the usual settlers’ attack. Israeli soldiers and Border Police went into the centre of the village at 2:30pm and stayed until 6:30pm shooting tear-gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at people, vehicles and houses in Urif.

2In one particular incident, a group of soldiers that had positioned themselves on a balcony started shooting tear-gas and rubber-coated steel bullets directly at international human rights observers standing on a roof in front of them.

In the past five weeks daily settlers’ attacks, followed by Israeli army aggression at those who go to confront the settlers, have completely disrupted life in Urif. On the nights of Monday and Wednesday soldiers, without provocation, entered the village at 1:00am and shot tear-gas and stun grenades until the early hours of the morning. On Thursday, Israeli soldiers attacked a school with tear-gas and stun grenades, sending scores of three to six year old children running down the hills of Urif, and then imposed a curfew on the village. The massive amount of tear-gas shot in the village has also led to seventeen women having a miscarriage in the past month.

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Attacks on Urif continue, soldiers invade the village

27 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine

Following three days of incessant attacks from Israeli soldiers and settlers on Soldiers checking people in the streets of Urifthe village of Urif, south of Nablus,  around  seventy soldiers on ten military jeeps soldiers invaded the village at 9:30 this morning. They started firing tear gas on children aged three to six years that were leaving their school after having finished an exam. The whole village was put under curfew for a few hours.

International solidarity activists arrived in Urif to find scores of terrorized children running away from a school that had just been attacked with tear-gas by the Israeli military. The soldiers ordered everyone to stay off the streets and shot tear-gas directly at old women who were next to a home in the village centre. Dozens of soldiers went around the village with military jeeps, broke into homes and fired tear-gas into buildings and streets, while others positioned themselves on roof tops. One international activist was briefly handcuffed and detained by the military. In another incident an international activist was punched in the chest and in the face after having been asked for his documents by the Israeli Border Police. Soldiers started leaving the village at 1:30pm. No arrests were made.

Life in the village of Urif has been completely disrupted in the past month as settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar have been attacking the village almost daily. This is usually followed by attacks from the Israeli army against the people who go to defend their village from the settlers.  The military also carried out various incursions into the village. In past four days soldiers entered the village twice in the middle of the night and shot tear-gas and sound bombs until the early hours of the morning. The villagers of Urif also talked about a particularly toxic tear-gas that is being used. Only in the past month, 17 women from Urif have had  miscarriages from tear-gas inhalation. Although attacks from settlers were not uncommon in all of the past two decades, people in Urif told us that after the successful bid by Palestine to become UN observer member, attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers became incessant, effectively denying any semblance of normality to life in the village.