24 dec 2014
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Tuesday afternoon kidnapped a wounded Palestinian youth after he was bitten and mauled by police dogs unleashed during the clashes that burst out in Beit Ummar, north of the West Bank city of al-Khalil.
Mohamed Awad, media spokesperson for the Popular Committee against Settlement in Beit Ummar, told the WAFA News Agency that the 16-year-old minor Hamza Ahmad Khalil Abu Hashem sustained moderate injuries after he was attacked by two police dogs unleashed by two masked Israeli soldiers on a group of Palestinian unarmed youngsters during the confrontations.
The dogs attacked the boy and pounced on him moments before the Israeli occupation soldiers apprehended the bleeding child and dragged him to the Karmi Tsur settlement, Awad added.
The IOF discharged heavy barrages of tear gas on the boy’s family after the latter protested at such an arbitrary arrest.
A number of Hamza’s family members and civilians were treated for breathing disorders in the process due to heavy gas inhalation.
The Israeli occupation soldiers attacked activist Awad in an attempt to rob him of his cameras after he captured live snapshots and videos of an IOF soldier pitching an ambush to trap Palestinian young men.
Mohamed Awad, media spokesperson for the Popular Committee against Settlement in Beit Ummar, told the WAFA News Agency that the 16-year-old minor Hamza Ahmad Khalil Abu Hashem sustained moderate injuries after he was attacked by two police dogs unleashed by two masked Israeli soldiers on a group of Palestinian unarmed youngsters during the confrontations.
The dogs attacked the boy and pounced on him moments before the Israeli occupation soldiers apprehended the bleeding child and dragged him to the Karmi Tsur settlement, Awad added.
The IOF discharged heavy barrages of tear gas on the boy’s family after the latter protested at such an arbitrary arrest.
A number of Hamza’s family members and civilians were treated for breathing disorders in the process due to heavy gas inhalation.
The Israeli occupation soldiers attacked activist Awad in an attempt to rob him of his cameras after he captured live snapshots and videos of an IOF soldier pitching an ambush to trap Palestinian young men.
20 dec 2014
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Mohammad Saleh, a sixty-six-year-old Palestinian resident of Tel Rumeida, al-Khalil (Hebron), waited with his mule outside Shuhada checkpoint for nine hours over the course of two days. He spent four hours waiting before being allowed through on Monday (15/12/14) evening.
He then spent five hours Tuesday (16/12/14) attempting to cross in the opposite direction before eventually turning back, after being denied repeatedly by Israeli forces claiming that donkeys, mules, horses, and carts are not permitted to pass through the checkpoint. Shuhada checkpoint serves as the only clear passage between the H2 (Israeli-controlled) neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida and the H1 (Palestinian |
Authority-administered) neighbourhood of Bab Al-Zawiye, a route many Palestinians must traverse regularly in the course of their work and daily routines.
Mohammad arrived at the Bab Al-Zawiye side of the checkpoint at 13:40 on Mondayafternoon, his mule laden with empty milk jugs and saddlebags packed with various provisions. Israeli forces refused to let him through, claiming no animals were allowed past the checkpoint – a claim no one, including other international organisations at the scene as well as the Palestinian District Coordination Office for al-Khalil, had ever heard before.
Mohammad explained that he had been allowed pass the checkpoint on Monday morning, with the promise that he would be let back through later in the day. When he returned, he found a new shift of soldiers and no one willing let him pass. The soldier manning the checkpoint claimed he needed permission from his commander to open the gate, which would allow Mohammad to pass with his mule.
An ISM volunteer at the scene later received a call explaining that the Israeli military’s new rule stated that horses, donkeys and mules were not permitted to pass through the checkpoint. No one, however, was able to explain why Mohammad had been allowed through that morning, but denied on his way home. “Look at my ID,” he told the soldier at one point, “I’m in your computer. I go through here all the time.”
He stayed waiting, sitting beside his mule on the cold concrete base of the fence, even as the afternoon turned into evening. The sky grew dark, though the lights from the checkpoint still illuminated the fences, turnstiles, and barbed wire. Even the soldier seemed concerned, telling him to please go home, as it was cold and late and staying would not help him. But Mohammad had already made it clear he would not leave. About ten minutes later the soldier finally opened the gate, saying it was the “last time” the he would be allowed through. Although Mohammad heard the soldier’s message, it was clear he would not heed it. He intended to continue to resist, no matter what anyone told him.
Sure enough, the following morning he was once again standing outside the checkpoint, this time on the Tel Rumeida side, with full milk jugs tied to the back of his patient mule. The soldiers presented multiple reasons from denying him passage, from a prohibition on taking anything through the checkpoint too large to be carried through the turnstile, to the new rule against allowing donkeys, horses and mules through. ISM volunteers attempted to find a solution, offering to carry the milk jugs around the checkpoint and meet Mohammad and his mule on the other side. The Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint rejected all suggestions.
“Is the donkey the problem or the milk the problem?” One ISM activist eventually inquired.
“The donkey’s the problem,” a soldier replied.
The animal could have easily passed through the metal detector; only last night ISM activists had witnessed the ludicrous sight of Mohammad’s mule strolling through the concrete structure, empty milk jugs banging against the corners of the gateway. The turnstile served as the only obstacle to the his passage – an obstacle the soldier could easily remove by opening the gate on the other side of the metal detector and letting the mule pass around the turnstile and into Bab Al-Zawiye.
After five hours of waiting, Mohammad’s comment seemed by far the most accurate. “The soldiers are the problem,” he had responded in Arabic.
Barring donkeys, mules, and horses and carts is only the latest in a string of frustrating, humiliating regulations imposed on the people living near the checkpoint, who must pass through to work, study, and shop for essentials such as fresh food. Just a few days earlier a group of elderly Palestinians, ill people, young children, and teachers at a local school had also been forced to wait, some for up to three hours, before being allowed through.
When Israeli forces shut down the checkpoint after it was burnt nearly a month ago , barring most people from passing through for over three weeks, the Palestinians were forced to adapt. Local people know ways around the checkpoint; several paths lead through local families’ yards and over the walls and rubble between Tel Rumeida and Bab Al-Zawiye. These “rabbit runs,” however, are entirely unsuited to traveling through with a mule – as well as for anyone sick, elderly, or carrying large heavy objects.
Since the attempted burning of the checkpoint, the Israeli military rebuilt it larger and with more obstacles for anyone traveling through. One side now has a metal detector, and both sides are equipped with vertical metal turnstiles which are a major impediment to anyone trying to move through with large baggage. Soldiers continue to use the burning of the checkpoint to justify collective punishment imposed on the entire Palestinian population – young and old, men and women, healthy and ill – who live or work near the Shuhada checkpoint.
Any Palestinian might be stopped while attempting pass through. Even with the checkpoint officially open, far too many are. Soldiers regularly search bags and make people remove their belts and empty their pockets before being allowed through. These everyday humiliations accompany frequent ID checks and detentions, serving as an inescapable reminder of the illegal Israeli occupation. Soldiers present at checkpoints routinely cite newly imposed rules and orders from superior officers as reasons for denying people passage, but whether someone passes easily through a checkpoint or must wait for hours often seems to be determined by nothing more than the soldiers’ caprice.
Many Palestinians must pass through Shuhada checkpoint multiple times in a day, carrying items as diverse as fresh vegetables, tubs of oil, and gas for cooking and heating their homes. During the hours ISM volunteers stood waiting with Mohammed, they witnessed multiple people struggle with the cumbersome design of the rebuilt checkpoint. One woman was carrying too many grocery bags to be able to fit into the turnstile. Someone on the other side of the turnstile had to reach a hand between the metal bars and move one bag through, returning it to the woman once she had passed. Another Palestinian, this time a young boy, needed the help of multiple passers-by over several minutes to figure out how to get two tubs of oil and a metal trolley through the turnstiles. Soldiers denied passage outright to boys who wanted to walk through the checkpoint with their bicycles.
At one point on Monday night, a group of off-duty soldiers ran up Shuhada street and stopped near the checkpoint to rest, stretching and laughing, their easy freedom of movement a stark contrast to experiences of Palestinians struggling through Shuhada checkpoint. Almost all of Shuhada street has been closed off to Palestinians, reserved instead for the settlers and soldiers occupying H2. Even Palestinians who manage to get through the checkpoint must pursue long, circuitous routes between the surrounding areas of al-Khalil. Many, especially the elderly or disabled, are effectively barred from traveling to significant portions of the city their families have lived in for generations.
“I want to resist,” Mohammad told the ISM activists the first day they waited with him. He made sure the man translating said it twice, to make sure the ISM volunteers understood. “I want to resist,” he said, after over three long hours of waiting to be allowed through.
Mohammad arrived at the Bab Al-Zawiye side of the checkpoint at 13:40 on Mondayafternoon, his mule laden with empty milk jugs and saddlebags packed with various provisions. Israeli forces refused to let him through, claiming no animals were allowed past the checkpoint – a claim no one, including other international organisations at the scene as well as the Palestinian District Coordination Office for al-Khalil, had ever heard before.
Mohammad explained that he had been allowed pass the checkpoint on Monday morning, with the promise that he would be let back through later in the day. When he returned, he found a new shift of soldiers and no one willing let him pass. The soldier manning the checkpoint claimed he needed permission from his commander to open the gate, which would allow Mohammad to pass with his mule.
An ISM volunteer at the scene later received a call explaining that the Israeli military’s new rule stated that horses, donkeys and mules were not permitted to pass through the checkpoint. No one, however, was able to explain why Mohammad had been allowed through that morning, but denied on his way home. “Look at my ID,” he told the soldier at one point, “I’m in your computer. I go through here all the time.”
He stayed waiting, sitting beside his mule on the cold concrete base of the fence, even as the afternoon turned into evening. The sky grew dark, though the lights from the checkpoint still illuminated the fences, turnstiles, and barbed wire. Even the soldier seemed concerned, telling him to please go home, as it was cold and late and staying would not help him. But Mohammad had already made it clear he would not leave. About ten minutes later the soldier finally opened the gate, saying it was the “last time” the he would be allowed through. Although Mohammad heard the soldier’s message, it was clear he would not heed it. He intended to continue to resist, no matter what anyone told him.
Sure enough, the following morning he was once again standing outside the checkpoint, this time on the Tel Rumeida side, with full milk jugs tied to the back of his patient mule. The soldiers presented multiple reasons from denying him passage, from a prohibition on taking anything through the checkpoint too large to be carried through the turnstile, to the new rule against allowing donkeys, horses and mules through. ISM volunteers attempted to find a solution, offering to carry the milk jugs around the checkpoint and meet Mohammad and his mule on the other side. The Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint rejected all suggestions.
“Is the donkey the problem or the milk the problem?” One ISM activist eventually inquired.
“The donkey’s the problem,” a soldier replied.
The animal could have easily passed through the metal detector; only last night ISM activists had witnessed the ludicrous sight of Mohammad’s mule strolling through the concrete structure, empty milk jugs banging against the corners of the gateway. The turnstile served as the only obstacle to the his passage – an obstacle the soldier could easily remove by opening the gate on the other side of the metal detector and letting the mule pass around the turnstile and into Bab Al-Zawiye.
After five hours of waiting, Mohammad’s comment seemed by far the most accurate. “The soldiers are the problem,” he had responded in Arabic.
Barring donkeys, mules, and horses and carts is only the latest in a string of frustrating, humiliating regulations imposed on the people living near the checkpoint, who must pass through to work, study, and shop for essentials such as fresh food. Just a few days earlier a group of elderly Palestinians, ill people, young children, and teachers at a local school had also been forced to wait, some for up to three hours, before being allowed through.
When Israeli forces shut down the checkpoint after it was burnt nearly a month ago , barring most people from passing through for over three weeks, the Palestinians were forced to adapt. Local people know ways around the checkpoint; several paths lead through local families’ yards and over the walls and rubble between Tel Rumeida and Bab Al-Zawiye. These “rabbit runs,” however, are entirely unsuited to traveling through with a mule – as well as for anyone sick, elderly, or carrying large heavy objects.
Since the attempted burning of the checkpoint, the Israeli military rebuilt it larger and with more obstacles for anyone traveling through. One side now has a metal detector, and both sides are equipped with vertical metal turnstiles which are a major impediment to anyone trying to move through with large baggage. Soldiers continue to use the burning of the checkpoint to justify collective punishment imposed on the entire Palestinian population – young and old, men and women, healthy and ill – who live or work near the Shuhada checkpoint.
Any Palestinian might be stopped while attempting pass through. Even with the checkpoint officially open, far too many are. Soldiers regularly search bags and make people remove their belts and empty their pockets before being allowed through. These everyday humiliations accompany frequent ID checks and detentions, serving as an inescapable reminder of the illegal Israeli occupation. Soldiers present at checkpoints routinely cite newly imposed rules and orders from superior officers as reasons for denying people passage, but whether someone passes easily through a checkpoint or must wait for hours often seems to be determined by nothing more than the soldiers’ caprice.
Many Palestinians must pass through Shuhada checkpoint multiple times in a day, carrying items as diverse as fresh vegetables, tubs of oil, and gas for cooking and heating their homes. During the hours ISM volunteers stood waiting with Mohammed, they witnessed multiple people struggle with the cumbersome design of the rebuilt checkpoint. One woman was carrying too many grocery bags to be able to fit into the turnstile. Someone on the other side of the turnstile had to reach a hand between the metal bars and move one bag through, returning it to the woman once she had passed. Another Palestinian, this time a young boy, needed the help of multiple passers-by over several minutes to figure out how to get two tubs of oil and a metal trolley through the turnstiles. Soldiers denied passage outright to boys who wanted to walk through the checkpoint with their bicycles.
At one point on Monday night, a group of off-duty soldiers ran up Shuhada street and stopped near the checkpoint to rest, stretching and laughing, their easy freedom of movement a stark contrast to experiences of Palestinians struggling through Shuhada checkpoint. Almost all of Shuhada street has been closed off to Palestinians, reserved instead for the settlers and soldiers occupying H2. Even Palestinians who manage to get through the checkpoint must pursue long, circuitous routes between the surrounding areas of al-Khalil. Many, especially the elderly or disabled, are effectively barred from traveling to significant portions of the city their families have lived in for generations.
“I want to resist,” Mohammad told the ISM activists the first day they waited with him. He made sure the man translating said it twice, to make sure the ISM volunteers understood. “I want to resist,” he said, after over three long hours of waiting to be allowed through.
4 dec 2014
10-year-old child Mahmoud Salah lost his right eye and 90% of his left eyesight after an Israeli bullet hit his face on his way to a nearby supermarket to buy pepper for his mother.
Talking exclusively to the Palestinian Information Center, Salah said: “I was on my way back home from school early in the morning. I could not attend class because the IOF (Israeli occupation forces) sealed off all entrances to al-Issawiya town. My mother asked me to get some pepper for the afternoon meal.”
“But on my way back home from the market, an Israeli occupation soldier caught sight of me as I walked downtown, and he fired at my face from a very close distance. I blacked out for a couple of days,” Salah added.
“I lost my right eye just a month later. Only 10% of my left eye-sight capacity has remained now,” he proceeded.
“The attack changed my entire life. It affected my academic career the way nothing else had ever done before. I miss my classes. I used to be one of the school’s laureates. Today this is no longer the case,” Salah lamented as he harked back to his schooldays and as his eyes shed the tear of nostalgia.
“I used to learn and play with my friends. I am very fond of hand-crafts. Just one day before I was wounded, I partook in a donors’ campaign for the victims of caner,” he recalled.
“Now my life has fallen apart. Consulting doctors, ophthalmologists and psychiatrists is all I wake up for every day,” he added.
Salah’s father resumed as his son wept bitterly: “I received the tragic piece of news at noontime when one of the members of the ambulance personnel who rushed Salah to al-Makasid hospital phoned me.”
“You’ve no idea about the kind of mess into which I fell as soon as medics reported to me Salah’s serious wounds. I’ve been told that his brain and eyes kept bleeding for hours and that he caught serious skull fractures.”
Salah has been transferred to Ein Karem hospital where he has undergone blood transfusion and two eye surgeries. He was placed for a couple weeks in intensive care until the doctors decided that he should go through an emergency operation to remove his right eye.”
Salah’s mother, who could not help her tears as she talked to the PIC said: “My son Salah wakes up every morning panic-stricken. He stays up late night for most of the time. My son cannot even have the lie-downs quite normally needed at his young age.”
“My son is very active. He loves socializing and has taken part in many shows. My child’s smile has gone forever now. These Israeli terrorists took away the happiness of my little child once and for all,” the mother bewailed.
Talking exclusively to the Palestinian Information Center, Salah said: “I was on my way back home from school early in the morning. I could not attend class because the IOF (Israeli occupation forces) sealed off all entrances to al-Issawiya town. My mother asked me to get some pepper for the afternoon meal.”
“But on my way back home from the market, an Israeli occupation soldier caught sight of me as I walked downtown, and he fired at my face from a very close distance. I blacked out for a couple of days,” Salah added.
“I lost my right eye just a month later. Only 10% of my left eye-sight capacity has remained now,” he proceeded.
“The attack changed my entire life. It affected my academic career the way nothing else had ever done before. I miss my classes. I used to be one of the school’s laureates. Today this is no longer the case,” Salah lamented as he harked back to his schooldays and as his eyes shed the tear of nostalgia.
“I used to learn and play with my friends. I am very fond of hand-crafts. Just one day before I was wounded, I partook in a donors’ campaign for the victims of caner,” he recalled.
“Now my life has fallen apart. Consulting doctors, ophthalmologists and psychiatrists is all I wake up for every day,” he added.
Salah’s father resumed as his son wept bitterly: “I received the tragic piece of news at noontime when one of the members of the ambulance personnel who rushed Salah to al-Makasid hospital phoned me.”
“You’ve no idea about the kind of mess into which I fell as soon as medics reported to me Salah’s serious wounds. I’ve been told that his brain and eyes kept bleeding for hours and that he caught serious skull fractures.”
Salah has been transferred to Ein Karem hospital where he has undergone blood transfusion and two eye surgeries. He was placed for a couple weeks in intensive care until the doctors decided that he should go through an emergency operation to remove his right eye.”
Salah’s mother, who could not help her tears as she talked to the PIC said: “My son Salah wakes up every morning panic-stricken. He stays up late night for most of the time. My son cannot even have the lie-downs quite normally needed at his young age.”
“My son is very active. He loves socializing and has taken part in many shows. My child’s smile has gone forever now. These Israeli terrorists took away the happiness of my little child once and for all,” the mother bewailed.
28 nov 2014
11-month-old Balqis Ghawadra became the youngest prisoner in the world, after visiting her father in Eshel Israeli prison, occupied Beer Sheva.
Nihal Ghannam Ghawadra from Bir Al-Basha village, near Jenin, waited passionately for the permission to visit her husband, Mu'ammar, only to be separated from her two little children, and to see her entire family become prisoners, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights reports.
According to the PNN, Nihal headed to the prison on Wednesday, with her daughter Balqis, 11 months, and son Baraa', age 2. As soon as she arrived, the three were separated.
Nihal was imprisoned, along with her two children, under the pretext of sneaking a mobile phone to her husband. The entire family has now been imprisoned, as a result.
Muammar's mother told Ahrar that her daughter in law called to inform her that Israeli authorities had imprisoned her and her children, and began calling on people to help release them from the prison.
Director of the center Fu'ad al-Khuffash declared the move by prison officials a flagrant violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, calling on local and international human rights organizations, as well as Palestinian authorities, for a speedy intervention.
Mu'ammar Ghawadra was released in 2011, under the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian resistance, after serving 8 years of a life sentence (+ 20 years) in Israeli prisons.
Muammar was imprisoned again, a few months ago, without charge.
Furthermore, according to Director al-Khuffash, 63 of the Palestinian prisoners released in the Shalit agreement were also re-imprisoned without charge, for the purpose of using them as hostages, in order to damage resistance in any future prisoner exchange agreement.
Nihal Ghannam Ghawadra from Bir Al-Basha village, near Jenin, waited passionately for the permission to visit her husband, Mu'ammar, only to be separated from her two little children, and to see her entire family become prisoners, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights reports.
According to the PNN, Nihal headed to the prison on Wednesday, with her daughter Balqis, 11 months, and son Baraa', age 2. As soon as she arrived, the three were separated.
Nihal was imprisoned, along with her two children, under the pretext of sneaking a mobile phone to her husband. The entire family has now been imprisoned, as a result.
Muammar's mother told Ahrar that her daughter in law called to inform her that Israeli authorities had imprisoned her and her children, and began calling on people to help release them from the prison.
Director of the center Fu'ad al-Khuffash declared the move by prison officials a flagrant violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, calling on local and international human rights organizations, as well as Palestinian authorities, for a speedy intervention.
Mu'ammar Ghawadra was released in 2011, under the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian resistance, after serving 8 years of a life sentence (+ 20 years) in Israeli prisons.
Muammar was imprisoned again, a few months ago, without charge.
Furthermore, according to Director al-Khuffash, 63 of the Palestinian prisoners released in the Shalit agreement were also re-imprisoned without charge, for the purpose of using them as hostages, in order to damage resistance in any future prisoner exchange agreement.
