I have
just spent the past week in Tulkarem.
Tulkarem straddles the line of the West Bank and Israel, where
you can see the lights of Netanya and the sea in the distance.
But the city is completely isolated, and this imprisonment heavily
enforced by the surrounding Israeli military.
This
is a city where extreme violence carried out by the Israeli military
on all Palestinian citizens is hushed up. Journalists are strictly
forbidden from this 'military zone'.
Apaches
this past week have been flying low over the city day and night,
firing into Tulkarem camp and city with routine frequency. Tanks
have occupied the center and outskirts of the city, also firing
often. And the soldiers in jeeps, many of them Druze, drive around
constantly, shouting that if they see anyone on the street they
will shoot.
The military
is very busy arresting and shooting at civilians, on many occasions
children as young as seven years old. Journalists have been threatened
with arrest unless they get out of town immediately, their film
confiscated on site. This week Ha'aretz reporter Gideon Levy's
car was fired upon with no provacation (a bullet straight in the
center of the windshield), the only thing saving his life being
the bullet proof glass.
COLD
BLOODED EXECUTIONS
On Tuesday,
August 7th, the military executed one of the men on their "wanted
list", Ziad D'ayas, 28 years old, in cold blood. They also
murdered two Palestinian civilians in the vicinity, afterwards
claiming they too were "wanted". This official military
statement is an absolute untruth.
One,
Mahair Jesmawi, 17 years old, was a student who had just learnt
moments before he had just passed his end of the year school examinations.
Elated, he stepped out briefly onto the street and was killed.
The other was Mohammed Saidz, 24 years old, a mechanic working
in his shop who had the bad luck to be happened upon by soldiers
going after Ziad. He was shot and died a slow death after ambulances
were prevented from retrieving him.
This
military action was conducted in a particulary gruesome way. According
to eyewitnesses in neighbouring buildings, it started around 9
am that morning. Snipers, and soldiers, many in plain clothers
surrounded the area of the mechanic's roof where Ziad was sleeping.
They proceeded to aim and shoot, hitting Ziad in his leg and neck.
Ziad fell off the roof into the shop, breaking his limbs but still
alive. They then proceeded to bash him all over his body with
their guns, before firing 9 dum dum bullets directly into his
head, killing him instantly. Their dogs were set on the body,
and acid was poured on his arms, legs, and stomach.
Ambulances
were prevented from moving for five hours that morning. One tried
to retrieve the three bodies that the military held in a small
field outside the mechanic's house, but the ambulance was fired
upon and had to turn back. Finally, a civilian car rushed the
bodies to the government hospital as soon as the soldiers left
the the vicinity.
I viewed
the bodies as they came in. Ziad's body was grotesquely tortured,
limbs broken, and his skin peeled off in huge sections from the
acid. His head was half blown off. Mahair, the 17 year old student,
was shot in the head. And Mohammed, the mechanic, had a bullet
in his torso.
Meanwhile,
the houses in the area of the murders were emptied of families,
as the soldiers went through each one, damaging furniture, stealing
money on two occasions. A group of roughly thirty men were arrested
and taken to Israel, including two wounded by live ammunition.
THE
HOSPITAL AND AMBULANCES UNDER SIEGE
The ambulance
dispatch center is next to Tulkarem's government hospital. On
three occasions this past week both the hospital and ambulance
entrance have been blocked by tanks and jeeps. Apparently this
is quite normal.
On these
occasions, soldiers scream at the hospital gate keepers to close
the gates. Once, to punctuate their point, the soldiers fired
live ammunition through the gaps in the gate, towards the emergency
room entrance, hitting a car in the process. Thankfully, the car
had no occupants at the time.
On these
three occasions the Red Cross has been informed by the military
that the ambulances cannot move AT ALL. Shooting at moving ambulances
is unfortunately not uncommon in Tulkarem.
A
DECIMATED AMBULANCE
Three
days ago, the ambulance center wanted to deliver an ambulance
that had been decimated by tank fire on March 7th, to the main
ambulance center in Ramallah.
The attack
on this particular ambulance resulted in the death of the driver,
Ibrahim. The vehicle was shot upon without warning by a tank as
Ibrahim was heading back to the hospital after delivering a patient.
He was killed by numerous bullets to the head. His passenger,
a medic called Sophia, was pushed down onto the floor of the ambulance
by Ibrahim moments before he was killed, so luckily escaped with
only shrapnel all over her body.
The ambulance
center had to negotiate with the soldiers at Tulkerem's checkpoint
to transport this badly damaged ambulance through. When a soldier
saw the 30 odd bullet holes in the windshield and body of the
vehicle, as well as Ibrahim's blood and hair smeared on the inside
of the driver's door, he asked me what happened. When the story
was told, the soldier's response was, "they must have been
fired upon by their own people". "No, it was definitly
an Israeli tank," I said. [caught on film, eyewitness accounts,
as well as the medic's account] "Well... then they must have
been terrorists," the soldier adamantly replied.
SUMMER
CAMP FOR KIDS CONTINUES UNDER FIRE
The summer
camp for children is popular, but often caught up in the violence.
The kids have been in the downtown camp on numerous occasions
when the tanks come in to the downtown area and start firing.
The kids
who attend (roughly 7 - 10 years old) are from both the city and
the camp. Every morning the kids, escourted by the teachers run
single file along the sides of buildings to reach the summer camp.
The same routine happens upon their return home.
Running
to the homes of the kids one afternoon we came across a tank and
had to duck into a nearby house. The kids were terrified, one
8 year old girl sobbing with fear uncontrollaby. The tank opened
fire outside the house as we cowered on the floor.
Thankfully,
there was a small kitten lounging on the floor. We used it to
divert the kids' attention from the blasts outside, playfully
pulling the kitten's tail and saying "look,look." They
focused on the kitten and the small girl stopped crying. We left
when when the street fell silent again, and ran to their houses.
TO SUM
UP
It is hard to conclude this essay of what was witnessed this bloody
week in Tulkarem. The violence was so strong, and details brutal.
For more information please call:
Rebecca
@ +972-55-558-954
INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT - www.palsolidarity.org
