Journals and Reports Updates on Nablus – From May 2, 2004 to June 11, 2004 Nablus
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
- Nablus
11 Jun 04 TARGETING OF CIVILIANS
Last night 13 year old Hani Mahmoud Qandil was shot in the head by Israeli military. This is the way local ISM volunteer Sameh described the scene in the Old City of Nablus last
night: "At 9 pm we heard the soldiers coming in the Old City. A group of us went to check if they are coming or not really and to see if they will occupy any houses. I’m going in the Old City and found twenty jeeps around the Old City. The first coming four jeeps inside
the Al-Qaryon district and after that more soldiers. There are twenty of us guys trying to check where the soldiers are. We heard live bullets. We founded a boy shouting. We founded the live bullet in his face and a gaping wound from the back of his head. We take him up
near the Zafer al-Masri school to check his condition. The heart for him was not working. We take him in a civilian car to the Tahasuseh Hospital near An-Najah University and the doctor told us he’s died."
 Sameh continues: "After that we called the ambulance for the family (three boys and two girls, and the mother and father). The whole family is just living in one room in the old city and now
this. The father when he heard the boy died, there was hysteria. After that we call the ambulance to come for the mother who also had hysteria. Today morning we took him to the cemetery in a civilian demonstration from the hospital to the house in the Al-Qasiriyeh district
of the Old City before burying him in the East Cemetery. Before two days he told the brother of another martyr, ’If I am martyred, please take me to the cemetery near your brother Jamal (who was killed before 40 days).’"
The death comes just a day after an employee
for the Palestinian telecommunications company PalTel was shot three times and critically injured by Israeli snipers firing from the Jabaal Shamal (North Mountain). A friend Hafez was on hand attending a summer science camp for school kids at the Abed El-Raheem Mahmood
school where the employee was gunned down while trying to hook it up to an internet line. "They shot him three times. Twice in the leg and once in the hip area. He was doing nothing but his job, he was wearing blue overalls and was visible to everyone. The Israeli military
apologized, but what does it
matter if they fired on him anyway." Yesterday, PalTel workers gathered in front of the Red Cross building to demonstrate against the targeting of Palestinian communications workers.
GENERAL UPDATE
On the ground the
situation has gone, once again, from bad to worse. With the recent Egyptian ultimatum to Arafat, an increasing portion of the Palestinian elite seeking to put an end to the Intifada, and Bush’s green-light to Sharon’s annexationist scheme in Washington back in April, the
Israeli military seems to have been emboldened in its military actions (with the dire consequences we’ve seen in Rafah the most evident example).
In Nablus, this has translated into an intensified campaign - in terms of geographic scope, frequency and military
presence - of raids within the city and surrounding villages. In the past few weeks, key resistance figures have been arrested, including Abu Samra (the head of the Al-Awda Brigades), Abu Taher (a key Al Aqsa figure) and Sultan (another fighter with Al-Aqsa). In terms of
loss-of-life there have been a number of martyrs killed in clashes with the Israeli military in the Old City and in Balata over the past month, including a number of civilians. In Makfiya dozens of worshipers in a mosque where held for several hours by the Israeli army,
only to be released after midnight several nights ago, with the same exercise being repeated in the Ras el-Ein neighborhood two nights ago (where over 100 worshipers where detained in a mosque for several hours).
A few days ago the Israeli military came in with
about 50 military vehicles and distributed leaflets demanding that Nayef Abu Sharek - the head of the Al-Aqsa Brigades - be handed over (as well as other ’wanted’ men like Naser Jumaa and Ismail El-Kharaz). Apparently Abu Sharek has been offered ’asylum’ by the PA in their
prison in Jericho (which is actually under the operational command of British and US intelligence agents and is where political prisoner Ahmed Sadat, the head of the PFLP is also being kept). So far Nayef has refused to acquiesce
to the demand, to the frustration of PA
security people and the Israeli military.
HOUSE OCCUPATIONS
The raids have been rather persistent in the last little while with dozens upon dozens of houses occupied by the Israeli military. A friend, Samah, had her house occupied last week and was shot at
by snipers from her window when she tried to approach her house where her entire family was locked up. She was accompanied by two internationals, but this didn’t stop the snipers from firing at them, and in the process hitting a man that was crossing the street nearby in
the chest (he is currently recovering in Rafidia Hospital).
Today, I spoke to a small-business owner in the Old City who’s house had also been occupied a few days ago. "We even had to ask them to go to the bathroom," he explained to me and my friend L. "We were
under lock and key in our own house for 24 hours. Now our neighbors are under the same treatment. This is our situation."
SITUATION IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES
Of course, house occupations aren’t the only violation of human rights. In the villages too there
has been constant pressure and military activity. In Al-Fara one woman was killed at the end of April after inhaling excess amounts of tear-gas pumped by the Israeli army into her house. There have been a number of deaths in the villages, including the killing of Professor
Yasser Abu Laimoun from the American University in Jenin who was visiting family in Taluza, just north of Nablus, where he lives.
Military patrols are also being stepped up along the roads connecting Nablus to the surrounding villages in the governorate. According
to Kanaan, from Assira Shamaliya village, "The soldiers are now patrolling everywhere. There is a tight net around the city. 99.9% of the time we are stopped by flying checkpoints [i.e. military jeep patrols] on our way to Beit Iba [one of the checkpoints leading into
Nablus]. On Saturday I spent seven hours in the sun with about 20 others, including women, children and the old. The soldiers detaining us wouldn’t give us water, telling us instead ’Wait, wait...’ But it never came. It makes it difficult to do anything under these
circumstances."
I got a taste of what Kanaan was referring to on May 15th as I was heading to Assira Shamaliya for the Nakba Day commemorations - marking the 56th year since the ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians by the precursor militias of what later became the
Israeli army in 1948. Following an alternative path heading from Mesakin Shabiya on the outskirts of Nablus, I was immediately stopped by a military patrol of soldiers that was detaining a number of other Palestinians. Our ordeal lasted 3 1/2 hours, including persistent
threats from the soldiers that they would blow up the car of one of the detained men.
POLITICAL REPRESSION CONTINUES
Three nights ago, during the now routine large scale Israeli military operations in the Old City and the downtown core in Nablus, Israeli
military units barged into the PFLP’s offices downtown: smashing computers, confiscating documents, breaking furniture and generally gutting the place. During the operation they used a human shield to go into rooms before the soldiers would enter. At the end of the raid,
the Israeli army claimed that it was acting on a military order issued by the Huwara DCO to close down the PFLP offices for two years.
This is a direct attempt at political repression targeting one of the most vocal groups criticizing the occupation. The next day,
a number of Palestinian organizations and some internationals converged on the office to symbolically reopen it before marching to the Red Cross to demand the release of PFLP prisoners, including political prisoner Abed Rahim Malooh who was arrested two years ago by the
Israeli military in Meggido prison.
For additional information feel free to contact:
Kole + 972.59.737.118 (English, French, Spanish)
Sameh + 972.59.325.297 (English, Arabic) |