Tag: Video

Israeli snipers using new ammunition in Ni’lin

On Friday the 9th of January at 11.30am the weekly prayer demonstration was carried out in Ni’lin. Approximately 100 citizens of Ni’lin together with international and Israeli human right activists took part in the demonstration. During the demonstration the Israeli army used snipers to shoot the new ‘0.22’ caliber bullet, injuring two people.

The army was already present at three different spots close to the clinic long before the prayer had started. After the prayer the demonstrators marched from the clinic towards the construction site of the Apartheid Wall. Even before the demonstrators entered the olive fields the army shot both the old type of tear gas canister and the new type which is much heavier and explodes on impact making it impossible to see. They also shot rubber-coated steel bullets. The demonstration was held back with much tear gas and so remained at the site of the clinic throughout the whole demonstration. There were many more soldiers and border police than usual.

The army was more dispersed and came very close to the clinic. They had snipers using 0.22 calibre bullets as well as border police firing the new type of gas canister from close range. Three people were shot with the 0.22 calibre, one international was hit in the foot, another broke a lower leg bone and the other was shot through the outer thigh. Two were taken to Sheikh Zaid hospital in Ramallah, neither injury was severe, and both men returned to their homes that evening. Another was shot in the hand by the new gas canister and 8 more were hit by rubber coated steel bullets. Many others suffered asphyxiation by tear gas. The teargas was also fired far into the village away from any demonstrators effecting people in their homes. Firing teargas far into the village risks hitting people in the streets, entering homes and increasing the chance of children being injured.

The protest ended at sunset around 5.00 pm.  The people of Ni’lin have been demonstrating against the illegal Apartheid Wall since May 2008.

UNRWA emergency shelters and bombed schools

UNRWA school
UNRWA school
Across Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is setting up emergency shelters in its schools. Despite two such shelters being cynically targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza last week, many families still seek refuge in UNRWA schools simply because they have nowhere else to go. The massacre on 6th January at the Al Fakhoura School and a second school in the Jabaliya refugee camp north-east of Gaza City killed nearly 50 and injured dozens more.

Two UNRWA schools in Rafah, the ‘A’ and ‘B’ Boys Preparatory Schools close to Rafah city centre, have become temporary homes for nearly 2,000 people. These emergency shelters were set up as thousands of people in Rafah fled their homes following threats by the Israeli Occupation Forces to target entire neighbourhoods lying close to border strip with Egypt. The families in one of the schools were evacuated from communities near the defunct airport on the edge of Rafah city where Israeli ground forces have been basing themselves since invading Gaza on 3rd January. Members of ISM Gaza visited the schools today and met UN staff and some of the families seeking refuge there, such as the Amsi family who have about 15 members of their extended family living together in one classroom.

They also visited the UNRWA warehouse in Rafah, where they spoke to the Area Operations Officer. He confirmed that the supplies currently getting in are not nearly enough to cope with the crisis. Approximately 200 tons of aid per day is being allowed in compared to the 2,000 tons usually brought in daily by the UNRWA. He explained that UN stocks were exhausted a while ago and that the only food people now have comes from this trickle of aid entering the strip. Anything that does get in is distributed immediately.

Destroyed mosque and orphans school
Destroyed mosque and orphans school
At approximately 3.00am on Sunday 11th January, Israeli F-16 fighter jets bombed the buildings of the Dar al-Fadila Association for Orphans, which included a school, a college, a computer centre and a mosque, on Taha Hussein Street in the Kherbat al-‘Adas neighbourhood in the north-east of Rafah. Parts of the buildings were totally destroyed and others were structurally damaged. The school had been assisting about 500 children disadvantaged children. Nearly 20 mosques have now been destroyed or severely damaged by the Israeli military since 27th December. ISM Gaza documented the devastation.

The Rafah Red Crescent ambulance station is now relocating from its base in the Tel Zorob neighbourhood close to the border with Egypt, to Kherbet Al Adas on the other side of the city centre. Tel Zorob is in the area now being targeted so a planned move to the new premises was brought forward ahead of time. Numerous ambulances have been attacked by the Israeli military during the ongoing war on Gaza and 13 paramedics have been killed.