Nothing in the media about a nursery school being vandalized...
November 27, 2002
The following two messages we received this evening from the organization of international volunteer observers.
What is described by them from close by was confirmed by some mention in the morning radio of army activity in different places on the West Bank, with some thirty Palestinians arrested. But there appeared nothing about a nursery school being vandalized - to mention something.
------- Forwarded message follows -------
International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Last night IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces), 4 units or about 200 soldiers total, entered Dehaisha refugee camp at 2 a.m. and began house to house searches that lasted for over 10 hours. During the course of this operation they arrested over 100 people, most of who have been released. They blindfolded and quick cuffed these men and treated them in brutal, aggressive manner. There are 9 men that are
still in the IOF's custody.
Internationals, Sarah (USA), Chuck (USA), Tracey (Ireland), Mohamad (Palestine) were present during the operation and followed the soldiers as they conducted the house to house searches in an attempt to minimize the aggression and human rights violations.
Internationals were threatened with arrest and physically shoved around as they insisted on staying close to the soldiers conducting the operation.
Sarah : +972-55315892
------- Forwarded message follows -------
International Solidarity Movement
1. Nablus. Medical supplies driver and eight others
Held at crossroads for five hours.
2. Balata Village. Nablus.IOF Operation.
3. Other buildings occupied in other areas.
26th November 2002
1. IOF Demolish two houses in Kafr Qallil after
Stealing their family jewelry.
2. Israeli troops tear up ISM activist's passport.
____________________________________________________
25th November 2002
(Yesterday, 25th November, the day when an eight year
old boy was killed and 15 injured by Israeli occupying
forces in Nablus, there were also several military
operations that terrorized and the local populations
of Balata village, and another area just outside of
Balata Refugee Camp.)
1. Nablus.
2.Balata Village. IOF Operation
We could not get close enough at the time to find out who was detained but learned later that all were released and no arrests were made. The person they were looking for was not found. When we tried to approach last night the snipers on rooftops, and in the occupied houses, used their laser sights to put red spots on our foreheads to try and scare us.
Several tanks and armored patrol cars cordoned off the whole residential area of Balata Village and soldiers used dogs to search in the buildings. Soldiers ransacked apartments, helped themselves to food and drink, and left a mess behind.
We heard the explosions of bombs used to enter the road Al Gad Nursery school. Soldiers shot into the windows of the school and once inside destroyed children's toys, furniture and educational equipment. A large color television was smashed.
To make a donation to the Road Al Gad Nursery School who are unlikely to receive compensation for all the damage to the building, equipment and television, call the school direct in Nablus +9729/2376258.
Today we learned that no suspects had been found or arrested in Balata village. Reports of other such operations in the city were received this morning. Despite over 100 soldiers and at least a dozen military vehicles, including tanks, involved in the various operations, IOF reported that they had only made one arrest during the night.
We also learned that when the IOF failed to get information about the location of their suspect, they decided to attack the family home of the man they were looking for, further up Jerusalem Street. First they shot up into the windows of the apartment on the second floor. A bullet entered one of the rooms and us could see, on a visit there today, the damage caused by ricocheting shrapnel to the room and the building. Other rooms were also attacked with live ammunition from outside before IOF entered the house still firing their guns. There were only women and children in the
apartment at the time. As with the nursery school, when the IOF centered the apartment, they shot the television set. No suspected terrorists were found to be hiding in any television sets.
3. On the same night ISM activists accompanied an old
woman who had been out to get medication for diabetes.
She was with her husband and grand daughter. We walked
back to their home in the dark past the tanks and jeeps on Jerusalem Street. We were held up by soldiers at a checkpoint with two ambulances. The soldiers said they were checking the identification of the ambulance drivers before they could pass. The ambulances were carrying old women with medical problems. A Red Crescent volunteer told us how more people were desperately needed in his organization.
We were then informed that the IOF had entered two houses in close proximity to the accompanied families house in the same way described in the report about Balata Village above.
Ceri Gibbons 067-572952
Catrine Akerblom 058-275945
26th November 2002
Nablus.
1. Two houses demolished in revenge attack by Israeli
Forces.
In another operation last night (25th Nov) IOF went
to a house in Kafr Qallil to arrest two brothers. One
35 and one 40 years old.
The 35yr old brother was arrested but the 40 yr old
brother managed to escape. In revenge for this the IOF
returned today with Jeeps, Bulldozers, and as many as
100 soldiers. Soldiers forced the family of one brother and the family in the neighboring house to leave with their valuables, which the soldiers then stole from them. They then demolished both the houses with bulldozers.
Ceri Gibbons 067-572952
Catrine Akerblom 058-275945
2. Israeli Army tears up ISM Activist's Passport
Later that day they were back, at the entrance to Balata Camp. We watched them from a distance, because we did not want to delay the process. They did not seem to be keeping the people waiting long this time.
We decided to go home to Balata, but as we turned away
they called me back and asked for my passport again. I
walked up to them demonstratively with my passport in
hand and stopped just in front of the sitting soldier.
He snatched my passport away from me and handed it to
the one behind him. I asked to get it back, but they told me that they had to check it first. I said that I would not back off until they have given my passport back. I repeated my demand and the soldier started to sound aggressive. So
tactically I found it better to take a few steps back,
and hoped that it would help. Before I had come up with a new plan, they told me to come and get my passport. They had now given back all the Palestinians their identity cards. I took my passport back, and when I opened it I found that they had torn out the whole page with my picture and personal details!
Catrine Akerblom 058-275945
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From: "pcrbs"
House to house searches and mass arests in Dehaisha Refugee Camp
[Dehaisha Refugee Camp, Bethlehem], November 25th, 2002.
Saif : +972-59335271 / +972-67328536
From: "pcrbs"
ISRAELI OCCUPYING FORCES INCREASE TERROR IN NABLUS.
[Nablus] 25th November 2002.
70 people held without food or water and questioned
for six and a half hours. Women and children in eight houses, forced into one room in each building.
Houses occupied and ransacked. Nursery school bombed, shot at, and vandalized. Family home of suspect attacked with live ammunition while women and children were inside.
No arrests in the area.
Medical supplies driver and eight others held at
checkpoint for five hours. In the morning of 25th November, IOF held nine Palestinian men at a crossroads between Balata and Asker refugee camp. One man was a driver of a medical supplies vehicle on his way to a health centre.
Soldiers had taken his keys and his identity card
along with those the other eight men for five hours. A
tank prevented women and children from crossing the
street. We saw one mother forced to send her five year
old boy across the road alone since she was not allowed to pass with the child to take him home. We watched as the child was dwarfed by the tank, jeeps and armored troop carriers carrying up to one hundred IOF soldiers, all with guns raised and pointed through armored windows. We watched two 11 year old schoolgirls forced at gunpoint to empty their schoolbags. They threw the books on the road before
the soldier who hid within his armored patrol car
pointing his rifle at them. They refused to show him
aany fear. All men were eventually released.
ISM activists observed as men were marched at gunpoint in an attempt by IOF soldiers to locate a wanted young man. People were detained and questioned from 1:30pm to 8:30pm. We saw Palestinian men and young boys bound and blindfolded being interrogated in waste ground by several soldiers. We later learned that up to seventy people been bound with hands behind them, and denied food of drink for three and a half hours after the breaking of the fast. Some had been
blindfolded and all had been bullied. Each person being interrogated was taken away from the main group and closely surrounded by several soldiers. One soldier had his face covered by a balaclava. Troops were positioned in side windows of eight occupied houses and on roof tops. As dark fell we saw people held face down on the ground being pressured for information.
cerigibbons@yahoo.com
Catrineakerblom@hotmail.com
cerigibbons@yahoo.com
Catrineakerblom@hotmail.com
When we walked back to the Balata camp today, we saw
six people sitting in the street. They were held by three soldiers that had set up a temporary check-point. The soldiers had taken the identity cards from them. I talked to them and asked them to let at least one man passes. He was going to the hospital because his son had just died.
After a while they wanted to see our passports. I showed them a photocopy of mine, and agreed to show them the real one later.
Catrineakerblom@hotmail.com
