1 November 2023 | Jenin | International Solidarity Movement
By Diana Khwaelid
On Sunday, October 29, a huge column of military vehicles stormed the city of Jenin in an overnight raid, killing four Palestinians, and destroying a monument for Jenin’s martyrs.
Israeli soldiers invaded the city’s Jenin camp at 12.30am, accompanied by an armed Caterpiller bulldozer (D), as part of the occupation army’s ongoing campaign of arrests of young Palestinians in the camp.
After failing to make arrests, the occupation forces destroyed and demolished the memorial monument of the camp, bearing photos and names of Palestinian martyrs killed by Israeli soldiers in Jenin.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, four Palestinians were killed during the invasion of the camp, and five other young people were injured. Two are in serious and unstable conditions.
We report the name of three of the martyrs: Amir Shabrawi, 25, Nourse Bejawi, 27, Musa Jabarna, 23.
During the raid, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) also bulldozed and destroyed all the main roads leading to the camp.
The floor of a residential building was blown to pieces and set on fire. The Grand Mosque in Jenin camp was also invaded and vandalised.
Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces, especially Israeli snipers, were firing indiscriminately at civilian cars in the camp and at buildings, residential houses, and the mosque.
Mahmoud Abu Issam – one of the camp residents – said that the destruction witnessed by the residents of the Jenin camp is only a fraction of that experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. “No matter what happens, we will remain strong and steadfast and we will not give up,” he said.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been burying the bodies of the four Palestinian martyrs since Sunday morning.
The death toll of martyrs in the West Bank keeps rising, and it has now reached more than 120 since the start of the war on Gaza.
The body of a martyr being carried through the street by a group of residents.
27 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin
By Diana Khwaelid
The Israeli occupation has not only targeted unarmed young people, children, and women in Gaza. The Israeli occupation’s crimes also continue in the West Bank, especially targeting young people and children alike.
On Friday night Oct 27th around 1.30AM, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jenin and the Jenin camp with military vehicles Jeeps and a D9 bulldozer.
Palestinian youths came out to confront the occupation forces after they learned of the Israeli occupation forces storming both the city of Jenin and the camp.
3 Palestinians were killed, including the 17-year-old Palestinian child, Jawad Turki, from the city of Jenin. An Israeli bullet pierced his chest, after which he was taken to the hospital for treatment but did not survive his injuries.
The 25-year-old Palestinian youth Acer Awaad from Jenin camp and the young man Abdullah Abu Al-Haija from al-Yamoun village, one of the villages near Jenin City, were also killed, leaving 3 martyrs in less than 12 hours.
Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funeral of the three martyrs. Palestinians chanted expressions of anger and national unity during the funeral, and the families of the martyrs took a last farewell look before they were to be buried later in the Martyrs Cemetery in the camp.
A crowd of people walking through the street, as a part of the funeral procession.
The body of the young man, Mohammed Qabha, from the village Tora, one of the villages near the city of Jenin, was buried, after he died as a result of his injuries from about a week ago. He was injured during a sit-in for the people of Jenin which was organized a solidarity demonstration with Gaza. The martyr Muhammad Qabha was a person with special needs, as he was deaf and non-verbal.
The occupation did not stop at the killing of Palestinian-American journalist, Shirin Abu Aqleh. The Israeli occupation forces also destroyed and bulldozed the Main Street of the camp, which was the site of her murder and damaged the memorial symbol of her.
The location of the Shireen Abu Akleh memorial on the street where she was killed. The road has been torned up by D9 Caterpilla bulldozers.
The crimes of the Israeli occupation continue both in Gaza and the West Bank, and the Palestinians have no power in the face of the occupation. The situation is tense everywhere in Palestine and the occupation opens fire on Palestinian youth and children without warning.
During the 20 days since the start of the Palestinian / Israeli war on Gaza, more than 110 Palestinians, including children and young people, have been killed in cities and areas in the West Bank.
14 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
Four Palestinian protesters were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in Tulkarm, northern West Bank, on Friday, October 13.
Soldiers shot live rounds into crowds who had marched from the city to the apartheid wall to condemn Israel’s crimes in Gaza on the seventh day of its deadly bombing campaign of the besieged strip.
Medical crews and ambulances were also subjected to direct fire by occupation forces.
The protesters were unarmed and had come out onto the street in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Four died from their wounds. They were the martyr Islam Abu Zant, 23, Sameh Abu Tabikh, 25, Bakr Jamin, 39, and Qasem Hakam Qasem, 23, from Tulkarm refugee camp. Qasim did nothing but hold the flag of Palestine.
Paramedics were fired on as they tried to reach the injured: a crime in broad daylight.
Another Palestinian was shot by an Israeli sniper while riding his bicycle after crossing the checkpoint. The man had not been part of the protest but was simply travelling home from work.
The march started on Friday morning from the Gamal Abdel Nasser roundabout after Friday prayers before moving on through the city towards the Tasnawuz checkpoint near the Apartheid Wall. Protesters raised the Palestinian flag and phrases were repeated condemning the Israeli occupation for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people and in Gaza.
The protest was part of the ‘Friday of Anger’, which also saw demonstrations take place worldwide and in the occupied West Bank in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Earlier on the same day, the Israeli occupation forces targeted a civilian car crossing the Sanaoz checkpoint near the apartheid wall with live fire, injuring people inside.
The injured were transferred to Thabet Thabet government hospital in the city. Later the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of one of them, Raafat Mehanna, 20, from the suburb of Shuwaika, raising the death toll in Tulkarm on Friday to 5 martyrs in less than 8 hours.
A general strike and mourning were declared in the city of Tulkarm on Saturday in honour and respect for the souls of the martyrs.
Fifty Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in the week since the start of the war on Gaza last Saturday.
In these days, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing “mighty vengeance” following Saturday’s offensive by the Palestinian resistance, European governments are releasing statements essentially greenlighting Israel’s bombing campaign, which has already killed more than 400 Palestinians in Gaza and that might soon be followed by a ferocious ground invasion. For its part, the United States government has pledged a swift additional package of military aid to Israel. Once again deciding to directly participate in the crimes of the Israeli government.
Colonial violence is rising in the West Bank, as Israeli soldiers and settlers seek reprisals against Palestinian communities. The Israeli government now feels it has additional clearance from the West to escalate its project of ethnic cleansing.
The International Solidarity Movement maintains its presence on the ground in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, provide protective presence and report on human rights abuses.
Given the dire situation, more volunteers are needed. We are calling for all those who stand in solidarity with Palestine to join ISM’s efforts on the ground in the West Bank.
The ISM also calls on everyone in solidarity with Palestine to act immediately to stop Israeli massacres by organising demonstrations, and pickets and direct actions, organising boycott campaigns in line with the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid. We also call for people to contact their representatives, and lobby them to condemn the colonial policies of the Israeli state.
Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation, settler colonialism and racist military dictatorship for decades. In particular, for 16 years Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to an inhuman military blockade, under which the Israeli government calculatedly deprives two million Palestinians of the most basic necessities, such as access to essential goods, medical treatment, electricity and water. Recurrent bombing campaigns by the Israeli military killed more than 6400 Palestinians between 2008 and 2022, and deliberately targeted critical civilian infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and water plants.
Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem face killings, torture, beatings, night raids, settler pogroms, tear-gas, house and school demolitions, collective punishments, ethnic cleansing, expulsions, land seizure, arbitrary arrests, humiliations at check-points, and systematic racial discrimination on a daily basis.
No Palestinian is a stranger to the war that Israel has been waging on them for decades, a war that has only escalated under the current Israeli government, the most far-right the country has ever seen.
On Saturday Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was at war. What this really means is that for the first time in decades, Palestinians are not the only ones facing the consequences of Israel’s colonial apartheid state.
The International Solidarity Movement joins Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists and organisations all around the world in restating that the root cause of the current violence is Israeli occupation and settler colonialism. Until the oppression of Palestinians comes to an end, Israel is responsible for the death and misery of Palestinians and Israelis. Governments and companies that directly support Israeli apartheid and military occupation, and the international community that fails to react to constrain Israeli terror, also share responsibility for the continuing violence.
ISM activists will maintain their presence on the ground in the West Bank and continue their efforts outside of Palestine to stand in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli oppression, until freedom, justice and equality is achieved. We invite you to contact your local ISM support group and join us in Palestine.
Solidarity visit to the Nur Shams camp, following the deaths of Abdulrahman Abu Daghash and Oseed Farhan Abu Ali, killed by indiscriminate Israeli Occupation Forces shooting during the raid on Sunday 24th September.
It’s hot, it’s the third day of mourning. There is a constant flow of visitors in the home of Abdulrahman Abu Daghash. Mohmen, his brother takes us upstairs to his upper-floor flat in the family house. But first we go to the roof terrace to see. Not for the view, but to see the broad smears of blood left when Abdulrahman was killed.
Blood on the roof where Abdulrahman was murdered
Mohmen tells us:
He had gone up to see what was happening, I was telling him come inside, it’s dangerous. He falls forward, I try to hold his body, I can’t do it, I have blood on my hands, maybe I was hit. No, he is the one bleeding, I call for help. My wife and his wife – seeing him lying on the roof – can’t react. Finally someone helps me, the ambulance is called. Now that we get down the ambulance is already there, they always go around during the raids. But soldiers have arrived with sound bombs, they try to prevent the ambulance from going. It finally manages to leave, but we stay barricaded in the house for another hour and a half, besieged by soldiers.
The view from the roof where Abdulrahman was killed
Mohmen told us about his relationship with his brother:
We used to work together, we were very close, I don’t know how I will cope now he is gone, his children will be like my own.
We meet Abdulrahman’s father in the mourning are set up in the courtyard. He said:
You have to tell everyone how they treat us, he had nothing to do with it, shot by a sniper who was doing target practice, couldn’t he have shot at at the shoulder? he was aiming for the eye. My son died in the hospital!
It seems the result of the murder is to bring everyone together, they will be more and more active against the occupation.
We leave the grieving family, and visit the family of another martyr. It’s very hot, it must be one o’clock, we might find a cab, but there are five of us, we don’t fit, so we keep walking, luckily we started off high up on the hill, the sniper had fired from a lower roof. So we go down and up again heading for the central square of the camp. Such destruction! The army of occupation had left a gutted building from a previous invasion, the streets torn up.
Then, on a corner between narrow alleys: the second house. There are only women here, but they accept me and T. Come on, we wipe off our sweat, in the rear room we are received by the mother and sister.
Aseed was only 21 years old, he was like all the boys here, he dreamed of being a writer, of making his mother happy, he was like everyone here, they despise death, so what kind of life is this, in one month two raids
Even on the third day of mourning there are many outbursts of weeping. After we have paid our condolences, however, food arrives, a smiling woman says she cooked. She wants us to eat with them to remember Aseed. So many tables are set up, everyone tucks in, besides yogurt and humus, there are pans with minced meat in strips seasoned in different ways.
A military bulldozer during the invasion of Nour Al-Shams
So what’s the background here? Around midnight between Saturday and Sunday, massive occupation forces attacked the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp, adjacent to Tulkarem. Dozens of vehicles, supported by three bulldozers, equipped with a kind of rear plough. These are adapted to penetrate the roads, break the asphalt and the water and electricity pipes. In Jenin, they had been caught out by the explosives hidden under the asphalt, which had severely damaged their vehicles. Now the explosives are throw them at them, but now they always enter the camps with these contraptions to destroy what they can. In Nour Al-Shams the last raid had been only 20 days earlier and they had not yet finished repairing the damage. Alarm sirens sounded immediately, the resistance fought for four hours, with barrages of fire, explosives and ambushes on the army that soon needed reinforcements.
As always, nothing is known about Israeli casualties and the damage to military vehicles. A few vehicles had to be dragged out. They severely damaged one building using rockets, it had been the home of a boy who was killed in 2001. They claim fighters were hiding there and explosives had been stockpiled; unlikely to be true because everything would have been blown up.
A destroyed house in Nur Al-Shams campDestruction in Nur Al-Shams camp
But where are we? In Tulkarem, a northern town attached to the separation wall. We are only a hundred meters above sea level, at the mouth of some valleys. Of course, there are a few settlements around here, too. So low compared to Nablus, it is much warmer and also more humid.
A. lives on a hill that divides two descending valleys, however, to get some air you have to arrive almost in the morning. From his rooftop, he points out the two refugee camps, one on each side: “Nour Al-Shams” further east, “Tulkarem” to the west attached to the city. Many workers are cross-border, but here the Israelis have also set up a dozen factories. Workers come from here, but management comes in directly from the other side.
Before visiting the martyr’s families we attended a demonstration for the prisoners, with many children.
Children at a demonstration for Palestinian prisoners in Tulkarem
The agricultural part has several greenhouses, in the past, there were also many orange trees, but the construction work on the expanding town devoured them.
