12th January 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Occupied Palestine
Today in Kfar Qaddum the protesters, marching towards the road closed off due to the illegal settlement of Kadumim, were suppressed by Israeli military. Protesters were met with teargas and rubber coated steel bullets. Luckily there were no serious injuries. Three days ago though, hundreds of settlers from the illegal settlement of Havat Gilad attacked the neighboring village of Far’ata.
When ISMers spoke to the protesters in Kfar Qaddum, they expressed more relief than usual about there being no serious injuries today. “There is so much violence around the West Bank right now, so if something happened here we fear that it would go unnoticed.” says the main coordinator Murad Shtawi. He showed ISM the video taken by his friends in Far’ata where dozens of settlers forcibly enter the village.
Following the funeral of a recently killed settler from the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, dozens of settlers attacked the nearby village of Far’ata. The settlers from the illegal outpost threw stones at seven Palestinian homes, breaking windows and causing other property damage. The attacking settlers also damaged trees belonging to Palestinian villagers.
Photos from the security cameras in the Far’ata families’ homes.
The illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, founded in 2002, has had numerous incidents of land theft, destruction, vandalism, and violence towards nearby Palestinian villages. The illegal outpost is scheduled for demolition under an international agreement, but Israel has yet to remove the illegal outpost. Outposts, like Havat Gilad, are illegal under Israeli and International law.
The villagers in Kfar Qaddum have been protesting the effects of the illegal settlement Kadumim since 2011. Apart from the land theft, which is still ongoing, in 2003 the villagers lost their main connection with Nablus increasing their commute to almost an hour instead of previous ten minutes.
December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
Witness accounts and video footage confirm that the Israeli army has been and is committing war crimes in dealing with the current wave of protests against the occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
On Friday, December 8, 2017 around 4:30 PM, ISM activists clearly witnessed and filmed a unit of of around 40 Israeli soldiers and commanders in the H1 area of Hebron – which, according to the 1997 Hebron agreement, should be fully controlled by the Palestinian Authority – intentionally injuring the backs, shoulders, and heads of two randomly arrested teens. Much of this occurred after they had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and were held in custody.
Hebron-H1 – Checkpoint 56 – Hebron-H2
The incidents took place shortly after the Israeli forces invaded Bab al-Zawiya from the military Checkpoint 56 (Shuhada Street in H2) and stormed more than 300 meters up Adel Street, as well as two other main civilian thoroughfares.
The teens were captured near the Hasona Petrol station. If previous child arrests in that area are any indication, they were likely grabbed at random from the street without having been involved in any form of protest beforehand.
The video evidence below, a combination of 3 different camera positions, shows how cruelly the teens are treated by different soldiers, while and after they were handcuffed, blindfolded, and cooperating with the soldiers in walking to Israeli controlled H2.
The almost-raw video footage of all three cameras is included and viewable with the following hyper-links:
Human Rights Watch (HRW), an NGO that is widely acknowledged for its monitoring and determination of human rights abuses, compiled a readable publication based on the 685 page ‘ICRC Customary International Humanitarian Law’ study manual.
In the HRW publication, war crimes are defined as:
“Serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the mistreatment of persons in custody and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian property, when committed with criminal intent amount to war crimes. Criminal intent requires purposeful or reckless action. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for attempting to commit a war crime, as well as assisting in, facilitating, aiding or abetting a war crime. Responsibility may also fall on persons ordering, planning, or instigating the commission of a war crime. Commanders and civilian leaders may be prosecuted for war crimes as a matter of command responsibility when they knew or should have known about the commission of war crimes and took insufficient measures to prevent them or punish those responsible.” [emphasis added]
Based on this definition, the video depicts a war crime committed by the Israeli army, for which it’s soldiers and commanders bear responsibility.
This isn’t the 1st documented war crime committed by the Israeli state or its armed forces against the Palestinian people. Other examples include:
Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully;
Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
Enforced disappearance of persons;
Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender;
The crime of apartheid;
The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
It is the obligation of all states that have signed the multiple international treaties violated here to stop these Israeli war crimes, and a duty of the people to put pressure on their governments to do so.
24th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli soldiers, for the second day in a row, invaded the old town in Hebron (al-Khalil), arresting four people. The occupation forces blocked the main road for 4 hours restricting the movement of the Palestinians. The Israeli forces used stun grenades to control the crowd.
Israeli forces restricting the movement of Palestinians
Around 9 am a group of soldiers went into the streets of the old town in Hebron. They arrested one man, and brought him to the military base. At the same time, the forces blocked the main market road, restricting people from moving between the market and their homes. This has impact on the trade based economy in the old town, where the shopkeepers are already in economic hardship, due to the Israeli occupation and, amongst others, the enforced movement restrictions.
Israeli forces throwing stun grenades at Palestinians
Around 11.45 am the Israeli soldiers withdrew into the military base, except for one military unit, who patrolled the area. Around 3 pm the Israeli forces returned to their previous position in the old town, and blocked the road yet another time, this time arresting 3 children. 2 boys aged 13 and 14, and one boy aged 7. The father of the 7-year-old, intervened and managed to get his son free whereas the other two children were taken by the soldiers without their parents or guardians presence. The details about were the two other arrested children were brought, are still unclear. Around 3.30 pm, the occupation forces violently dispersed the crowd by throwing a stun grenade towards a group of Palestinians, including children and elderly, and afterwards retreating to their military base.
30th July 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
An Al-Aqsa solidarity march organized this Friday in occupied Hebron was heavily repressed by Israeli Forces. Soldiers and border police fired stun grenades, teargas, putrid-smelling “skunk” water, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at demonstrators, injuring many. Several young protesters were also beaten and detained.
Palestinians demonstrate in Bab al-Zawiya, central al-Khalil (Hebron)
The Al-Aqsa solidarity march started from the Al-Hussein Mosque and continued on Ain Sarah street towards Bab Al-Zawiya towards Israeli controlled H2. Even before the march reached Bab Al-Zawiya, an Israeli video drone was seen flying above the scene and soldiers were getting ready on the other side of Shuhada checkpoint to face the demonstrators. The march reached Bab Al-Zawiya around 1:30 pm, at which point the Israeli forces came out through Shuhada checkpoint, which separates Palestinians from Shuhada street, and forcing some of the demonstrators ran to Wad al-Tofah Street, while others withdrew to the adjacent Ain Sarah street.
Border police reach stalemate with demonstrators on Wad al-Tofah street
Israeli forces followed the demonstrators down Wad al-Tofah street, firing rubber coated steel bullets indiscriminately at young boys and men. A skunk truck also drove down Ain Sarah and sprayed chemically treated skunk water on houses of uninvolved Palestinian civilians. A standoff ensued in which demonstrators lit tires on fire and a young boy was shot in the leg with live ammunition, before being quickly taken to hospital. Israeli forces eventually withdrew from the scene. These areas are located in the H1 area, supposedly under full Palestinian control.
Palestinian rushed to hospital after being shot by Israeli forces
The demonstrators moved up Ain Sarah, and once the protest seem to calm down the Israeli forces started shooting at demonstrators. At this point two more Palestinians were shot and injured. Israeli police and soldiers drove further along Ain Sarah, got out and started chasing the demonstrators. At 14:46 they detained a minor who, after being pulled down, was beaten down on his head and kicked on his back. Protesters withdrew down Ain Sarah, pursued by police and soldiers firing rubber-coated steel bullets and showers of teargas.
Teenager arrested after having been beaten by Israeli forces
As the soldiers seemed to withdraw towards the Bab al-Zawiya area again, the demonstrators followed them and some started to throw stones and light up tires. The Israeli forces promptly responded with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. The Israeli soldiers also broke into a shop in Bab Al-Zawiya, leaving an explicit note. After violently detaining a 15-year-old boy, they took him into the building, blindfolded him and then transferred him through Shuhada checkpoint. After this, the army returned again to attack the demonstrators.
Note left by Israeli soldiers in a shop that they had broken into in Bab al-Zawiya. The Hebrew states ‘Israel lives’.
One of the following attacks forced the group of young men and teenagers up the hill north of the entrance of the vegetable market. Soldiers positioned on the roof of the nearby building threw teargas and stun grenades towards the demonstrators. With around 50 border policemen in the back and support from a sniper lying at the entrance of the street, a troop of 12 soldiers went up the hill, trying unsuccessfully to break into a building. They proceeded to throw teargas and stun grenades at a group of four activists who were taking photos nearby. At the intersection at the end of the road protestors were showered in teargas and the crowd dispersed. Amidst the teagas fog a teenager, thought to be around 14 to 16 years old was shot, presumably by the sniper down the road, and was evacuated in the car of a passerby. After this incident the soldiers went back down and disappeared from Bab Al-Zawiya.
Israeli sniper takes aim at young demonstrators
The clashes lasted altogether around four and a half hours during which the Israeli forces displayed unnecessary and excessive violence not only towards demonstrators, but also towards the media. The army seemed out of control, breaking into Palestinian offices in Bab Al-Zawiya, demonstrating violence and intimidating journalists, targeting children and beating up demonstrators who were already detained, and not resisting arrest.
Soldier attempts to arrest Palestinian child after having violently assaulted him
The demonstration was in solidarity with the demonstrations in Jerusalem against the new access restrictions introduced by Israel at the Al-Aqsa compound. The Palestinian community had earlier called for a ‘day of rage’ in response to the restrictions, which Israel described as ‘security measures’.
Palestinian boy holds flag amidst the chaos on Ain Sarah street, al-Khalil
18th July 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli soldiers have arrested 19 year old Ahmed Fayez in Hebron’s Old City. The teenager was working with friends when soldiers approached the group, demanding to see their IDs. When Fayez showed his, he was arrested and taken towards Beit Romano military base. He was not seen being taken into the base itself, but rather was taken to Shuhada street, where he was last seen.
The majority of Shuhada Street is ethnically cleansed of Palestinian presence and only accessible for settlers living in the illegal settlements in the heart of Hebron’s old city and international tourists. The once thriving Palestinian market connecting south and north of the city is now only “accessible” for Palestinians if they are arrested and brought to the military base there.
Immediately prior to the arrest, soldiers, border police and civil authorities had been conducting small detonations in a parking lot nearby. The purpose of these was unclear.
![Israeli forces violently repress Al-Aqsa solidarity demonstration in al-Khalil (Hebron) [VIDEO]](https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IMG_8019.jpg)
