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© 2010 International Women's Peace Service
IWPS Incident Report No. 76
Summary: stealing of trees and property by soldiers and police in Deir Ballut
Date of incident:- January 20th, 2004
Time:- between 2 and 6 pm
Place:- fields between Deir Ballut and Rafat
Witness:- MM and MQ
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident : About 30 soldiers, policemen and workers with 2 police jeeps, 1 army jeep and 2 vans came to the fields of AS, Abu Mohammed (Deir Ballut) and AA (Rafat) and uprooted young trees and stole them:
Stolen from AS’s field, 5 dunums
- 50 peach saplings, 100 vine saplings planted 2 weeks before by AS were uprooted and taken away in the vans
- 150 metal poles were cut (the barbed wire left behind) and taken as well as the gate
Abu Mohammed had worked a whole year to prepare his field (getting rid of the stones, making a stonewall, etc. Nobody had ever said that this was not his land.
Stolen from AA’s field, 10 dunums
- 50 olive saplings, planted 3 years previously
- 200 fig saplings, planted 3 years previously
- 100 vine saplings, planted 2 weeks previously
- metal poles were cut (the barbed wire left behind) and taken, the gate broken and left on the ground
Two eye-witnesses MM and MQ observed from a distance what was going on. After a while the police came up to MM and wanted to check his identity. He did not have his papers with him, so MM asked one of his sons to bring it.
Abu Rabia, the DCL, was contacted. The army told him that these fields belong to Israel. AS is contacting his father who lives in Jordan so that he may produce the papers proving his ownership. Then he will go to Qdumim to show them the papers.
Report written by: Dorothée
Date report written on: January 24th, 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 77
Summary: Bruqin driver beaten by soldiers
Date of incident:- 29 January 2004
Time:- from 11:30 to 18:00
Place:- Deir Sharaf junction near Shaver Shomron settlement northeast of Nablus.
Witness:- victim and unknown passengers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
B. was stopped by soldiers at the checkpoint at the Deir Sharaf Junction, near Shaver Shomron settlement northeast of Nablus. There is a military camp nearby. This happened at approximately 11:30. Despite having two legitimate permits, one for the West Bank (up to Nablus) and one for Israel, the soldiers did not allow him to pass.
The passengers were asked to get out of the taxi. There were 3 women and 2 men. One male passenger was quite elderly, and the soldiers did not hit him. But when the group of four soldiers confronted him he collapsed. The passengers were held for a few hours. They were then released and the driver, B, was detained alone.
The soldiers held B for approximately five and a half hours before he was released at 5pm. Towards the end of the soldiers’ shift, just before 5pm, one of the soldiers beat B. up. He hit him repeatedly and pushed him to the ground. Then he stomped on B., kicking him all over his body. B. told the soldiers that he needed to use a toilet. So they allowed him to go into the field. He used this as an opportunity to call Palestinian DCL of Salfit from his mobile.
Upon receiving this call, the DCL phoned his office in Salfit. The office phoned Qedumim. There was no reply. The DCL waited to hear from B again.
When the shift at the checkpoint changed, the new soldiers asked B what happened. He told them. One soldier said that this should not have happened. He told B that if he was lying, he would beat him up for real. Another soldier intervened and said that B could not be lying, because he was crying, and a man will not cry for nothing. The soldiers on the new shift let B go.
B. says he will be able to identify the soldier who beat him “even from a crowd of 1000”.
B added that he thinks the soldier waited until it was almost the end of the shift, so that he could hit him and then leave.
Report written by: Somayya and Shabnam (IWPS)
Date report written on: 31 January 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 78
Summary: 500 trees uprooted at Qarawat Bani Hassan
Date of incident:- 29/01/2004
Time:- night
Place:- Qarawat Bani Hassan
Witness:- Two villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
We were called by X on the 30th of January, 2004 who told us that trees had been uprooted.
Y is the owner of 20 dunums of land in Qarawat Bani Hassan. On the night of the 29th of January, settlers from Revava arrived in many cars and two white jeeps and uprooted 500 of his four year old olive trees. They pulled the trees out of the ground and broke their roots so that they were totally destroyed and could not be replanted. They were seen by the witnesses who did not manage to get the number plates of the cars. This was the first year that the trees yielded a harvest. The destruction was found by the owner’s two teenage sons.
Three months ago the settlers also damaged some water tanks on the land. The damage is estimated at $1200.
Had these trees been allowed to grow normally, the 20 dunums would have yielded a harvest of $10 000.
Report written by: Somayya and Shabnam
Date report written on: 31/01/2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 79
Summary : 60 Hares trees stolen by Revava settlers
Date of incident:- From 2nd – 4th January 2004
Time:- night
Place:- Hares land next to Revava
Witness:- none
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
We were called by X on February 4th who told us that over the Eid period, Revava settlers had stolen 60 olives trees on his family land.
X’s aunt, Y, noticed the theft after Eid finished. She is the family member who regularly works on the land. Two months earlier, Z, who owns the neighbouring piece of land, had called IWPS because settlers were preventing him from ploughing his land.
On this occasion, IWPS took photos of the land all around Revava settlement. We witnessed the settler harassment, which included settler schoolchildren gathering at the settlement fence and shouting abuse at the Palestinians as well as settlement security chasing Z in a car. Z told us that the Revava settlers alternately prevent him from ploughing his land and ask him to sell it to them at a very low price. The settlers say that after the Apartheid Wall is built, he will lose his land anyway. He has refused to sell.
So X wanted the photos from that day because he has hired a lawyer and needed evidence that his fully grown olive trees were stolen. He also asked IWPS to accompany his aunt, Y, to tend to the land every week, starting from this Friday, and we agreed.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 4th February 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 80
Summary: Soldiers increase height of Hares roadblock
Date of incident:- 4th February 2004
Time:- night
Place:- Hares village
Witness:- Two taxi drivers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
During the night of 4th February 2004, soldiers came with a bulldozer/grader, some new rocks, a concrete block and increased the 2.5 foot roadblock at the entrance to Hares village, to the height of six feet all the way across.
They did this as collective punishment to the village, which, during Eid, lowered one small part of the roadblock by about 70cm. This was done so that a four wheel drive car bringing sweets and food could drive over it.
On 5th February 2004, about Hares 20 men and boys worked for five hours to remove some of the rocks since nobody could walk across. During this time, eight soldiers arrived. They stayed across the road but were pointing their guns at the villagers. The villagers were forced into the humiliating position of asking 3 IWPS to inform the soldiers that they were not trying to totally remove the roadblock, but only to create a level footpath for people to walk over it.
After we talked to the soldiers they said they were not interested in the roadblock. However, they stayed in the area for another hour. The police pulled up and then sped away. More soldiers came and left. By then end of the day, a small part of the roadblock had been marginally lowered.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 5th February 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 81
Summary: Army enlarges Roadblock again. A settler screaming and insulting people, soldiers backing him up.
Date of incident:- 10.02.2004
Time:- 14:00- 18:00
Place:- Hares Roadblock
Witness:-Um Fadi, Eva, Anna, Marie |Joe,
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
After coming back from Biddya i was still at Um Fadi’s house when her older daughter came in to tell us that the “Israelis are putting up the checkpoint again”, i didn’t understand immediately and thought the soldiers were, like so often, checking cars on the road that passes by Hares. After a few minutes we went out to see what was going on. The soldiers had heightened the roadblock again and the bulldozer had obviously just left.
A settler, according to witnesses called Judar, was getting out of his white jeep screaming at some men in a mix of Hebrew and Arabic obviously being very abusive due to the reactions of the men. i was told he carries a gun and which he aims at people. I was also told he comes here frequently and harasses people.
A few minutes later an army jeep pulled up and soldiers got out, observing the roadblock with binoculars and aiming towards it with their guns.
At this point umm Fadi and me were standing on the roof of her house.
I decided to go down and have a closer look and speak with the soldiers but i called the others first.
The settler kept screaming at people, threatening them as one could clearly see by his body language. The soldiers were backing him by standing around him and making sure the palestinian men he was shouting at wouldn’t come too close to him which included following him around since he approached the men and not the other way around.
When the other IWPS members arrived with a camera he got into his car calling us “sona” which in Hebrew means whore and took off.
3 IWPS members including me went up to the soldiers to ask what was going on and why they were backing him whilst he was insulting people. The soldiers said that children had thrown stones at his car.
They also said stones were more dangerous than bullets…
After a longer discussion, the soldiers left, we went back over the roadblock that the army had just then made almost impossible to cross by foot, especially for old people and small children.
About 45 minutes later we received a phone call from Um Fadi, saying that the soldiers were back. We rushed back to the roadblock.
According to Um Fadi the soldiers had come to the roadblock with another settler that had been pointing at her house, and that she had been scared they could come to her house and beat her youngest son as they had done before.
Again we went up to the soldiers who claimed someone had been throwing rocks again, pointing at a rock that was lying on the road. After about ten more minutes of arguing and listening to claims such as “i own this land, it is written in the bible” by one soldier, we decided to go back to observe the soldiers actions from the roadblock.
At 18:00 the soldiers left and so did we.
Report written by: Eva
Date report written on: 10.02.2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 82
Summary: Soldiers harrass family in Qarawat Bani Zeit.
Date of incident:- Friday 21st February 2004
Time:- Between 2 and 3 a.m.
Place:- House of Ibrahim Abu Mashdi in Qarawat Bani Zeit.
Witness:- Whole family
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
4 soldiers with their guns entered the village in their jeep, came to the house in the middle of the night and smashed a lamp outside which was above the door. Everyone was asleep but woke up from the noise. They were told to go outside into the cold, to put their hands above their heads and stand at the terrasse of the new house the family has built next door. They were outside for around two hours including the children.
The soldiers demanded to see their IDs. When the father explained the IDs were in the house and they would have to go and get them he was told to shut up. Meanwhile soldiers were going through the house, taking out the clothes from the cupboards, breaking pictures and mirrors and searching for something. They said they were looking for weapons. The son of around 20 years had a gash in his neck from the soldiers manhandling him outside. He eventually allowed to go into the house and to bring out the 4 IDs from older members of the family but did not know where one was and asked that the older brother be allowed to go in and find his own ID. He was forced to put his hands above his head and search for the ID with a gun in his back.
The Father asked for the younger boy of 9 years to be allowed to go in from the cold and go to sleep, but although the soldier outside said yes when the lad went inside the soldiers there said no and sent him back out again. The 16 year old son was taken by the scruff of the neck to the wall beside the house away from the others and asked if he threw stones and he said no. Then the 20 year old son was taken away and spoken to in Hebrew which he did not understand. He was hit when he did not answer because he could not understand. The IDs were thrown on the ground and the soldiers then left after saying that they would return every night. The Father explains that he has health problems, that the night before the soldiers had raided the house over the road in a similar fashion, that the soldiers had broken the solar panels some time ago.
The villagers reported that between June last year and a few weeks ago the soldiers were coming in 2 or 3 times a week but that now, since the killing of the last person in the village by the soldiers 10 days ago they are coming in every day. There is a fear that last year may be repeated when there were 5 killings within a few weeks.
Report written by: Angie and Karin
Date report written on: 22nd February 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 83
Summary: Soldiers burn car at Haris roadblock
Date of incident:- 23rd February 2004
Time:- afternoon
Place:- Haris village
Witness:- AF, IF, A
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 9.30 a.m. a police car came to the 505 road near the Haris roadblock and parked in the middle of the road to make a temporary checkpoint. They stayed there the whole day checking traffic and letting through some and denying access to others. IWPS witnessed them leaving at around 4 p.m. During the whole day a large army jeep with 6 soldiers was moving up and down the settler highway passing the roadblock into Haris. About 10a.m. a bulldozer from a nearby settlement appeared with the soldier’s jeep and built a second roadblock some distance in front of the first roadblock after getting the Palestinian cars waiting in the space between the two blocks to move out of the way. A mentally handicapped youth from the village started shouting at the soldiers in Arabic and getting angry with them as they made the new roadblock and some villagers took him away.
At about 3.10 p.m. the large army jeep stopped at the settler highway next to Haris fields and 5 soldiers got out. 3 soldiers stood by the inner roadblock and 2 soldiers entered the village and placed a sound bomb in a nearby car – witnesses said it was the first car they came to that had an open window. The soldier was seen to take a sound bomb out and pull something and place it under the front seat. Nearby Palestinians ran out of the way and the soldier also moved away fast. The explosion broke the window glass which was scattered around the car and over a nearby car and started a fire that completely destroyed the car. IWPS reached the scene as the fire was being put out by locals gathered around and we took pictures. The car belonged to Mamoun Amin Shamlawi and the car plate number was 4-0796-39. The soldiers were reported to have been around 27 years of age and no one knew them – they were not the regular soldiers. The atmosphere was quite tense with quite a crowd of Palestinian men gathered around the car. Some young men began gathering stones to throw at the soldiers and IWPS withdrew at 4.16 p.m.
Later at 5.26 p.m. IWPS heard shots coming from the roadblock area and so went to investigate again. There were 6 soldiers at the inner roadblock. We approached them and asked them what was happening and asked for the name of the soldier who had placed the sound bomb in the car. They said they only spoke Hebrew and told us to go away. They did speak and understand English (an IWPS woman had spoken to one at length a few days earlier) but refused to do so.
Report written by: Angie and Karin
Date report written on: 23rd February 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 84
Summary: Soldiers harrass Marda for 3 days with live fire, gas and curfews, entering the mosque and marking houses for demolition.
Date of incident:- Monday 2nd March 04
Time:- 7a.m.
Place:- Centre of Marda
Witness:- Villagers of Marda including N and AB as well as M at the Girls School and IWPS.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS received a phone call from AB in Marda at 7a.m. in the morning saying that soldiers had entered the village, had entered the mosque, were shooting and letting off tear gas bombs and sound bombs, children were too frightened to go to school and the villagers wanted IWPS to come. Karin and Angie from IWPS got to the village at around 7.30a.m. and found soldiers still in Marda. They observed that one of their jeeps had got stuck in a ditch in the centre of the village and another jeep and soldiers were all around it. IWPS noted down various numbers of the jeeps and other military vehicles present in the village during the morning (700409 and B19 and G01604) – at one point there were two low personnel carriers and three jeeps in the village. The soldiers were enforcing a curfew and said that the whole of Marda was a ‘closed military area’ and we should leave. While their attention was elsewhere we slipped past them to interview three or four villagers. We also went to the girls’ school and interviewed some of the teachers there.
We were informed at the school that several groups of girls had been scared by the soldiers who threw gas bombs at them as they were making their way to school just before 7a.m. and they had run home and were now scared to come today. The school had received phone calls from the parents saying they could not get to the school because of the soldiers and as they had just completed the roll call for the day they were able to show us that 27 out of the 243 girls were absent. Because of the soldiers’ disruptions they had started school late at 7.35 a.m. instead of at 7.10 a.m. and had missed one lesson. They also showed us their record of curfews that had been imposed during this school year and that had kept the school closed for whole days, with no pupils or teachers being able to get to the school – these curfew school days had been on 19th October, 8th and 9th November, and 15th December 2003 and also on the 2nd February 2004. They spoke of disruptions during the final school exams last year and how they had negotiated with the soldiers to leave the school in peace for 2 hours so they could complete the exam and how this had been successful with the soldiers delaying their sound and gas bombs for those 2 hours but she explained how difficult it was for the kids to concentrate with all this going on around them. Another time the soldiers had placed a sound bomb at the gate of the school that had gone off and scared the kids and she had confronted the soldiers and asked them why they were trying to scare the children by these kinds of actions. When asked why she thought the soldiers were doing this she just pointed up at the settlement of Ariel above the village and at the main settler road below the village and said that Marda was between the two and the Israelis did not want their village there.
On interviewing the villagers, we were told that 5 days ago the soldiers entered the village and after calling a curfew had marked in hebrew certain houses and streets with paint. The translation of the hebrew signs indicated that the houses would be damaged and the marks on the streets seemed to be indications to help the soldiers find their way around.
For the last 3 days soldiers had been entering the village at around 11 and 12 a.m. in the mornings and again at night between 7 and 9 p.m., throwing sound and gas bombs, calling a curfew and forbidding the villagers to come out of their houses during the night. They would stay around half an hour and then leave. Before this soldiers had been entering the village but merely to check IDs and look around – they were not calling curfews. One old woman lamented to us that they were now treating Marda as if it were a capital city (referring to the way the IDF make incursions like this in the main cities of Palestine). She could not understand why they were treating Marda like this.
Last night, before the last prayers of the evening that are held around 7.10 p.m. the soldiers had entered the village in their jeeps and ordered people into their homes and told them not to leave or they would be shot. 4 soldiers with their shoes still on had then gone into the Mosque that was open ready for the evening prayers and entered right into it laughing and making noises and had used the loudspeaker to call the curfew. The villagers were very angry and saw this as a gross provocation. One witness said that the soldiers had also recorded their own shooting on a tape recorder and had broadcast that over the loudspeaker too.
Then this morning the soldiers had entered the village between 6 and 7 (we had varying reports of the exact times) and did the usual sound and gas bombs and firing in the air and calling of a curfew. We were in the village for around two and a half hours and left after the last soldier had gone after they had managed to extract the jeep from the ditch. Whilst we were in the vicinity of the soldiers in the center we hear ourselves two separate shots being fired on two occasions that seemed to be connected to the soldiers seeing people in the streets. Once it was because three girls were trying to get to school and we stood between them and the soldiers so they could get into a side street that led away from the soldiers line of fire to the school.
Report written by: Angie.
Date report written on: 2nd March 04.
IWPS Incident Report No. 85
Summary: House occupied in Huwara, flying checkpoints set up in Salfit, houses demolished in Salfit, soldiers shoot into school at Qarawat Bani Zeid, capture people in QBZ
Date of incident: Between February 25th 2004 and March 4th 2004
Witnesses: Villagers of Salfit, Azzun and Qarawat Bani Zeid, IWPS, homeowner in Huwara
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS met a person in a taxi who said that two houses had been demolished in Salfit sometime between February 25th and February 29th 2004. She said that a third house would be demolished sometime in the next few days and gave the name of the homeowner. IWPS met the homeowner’s son-in-law who said they had heard that his father-in-law’s house would be demolished soon, but had no way of knowing if it would be this week or next month. He suspected that the soldiers would come in the night and give the family only one hour to vacate the house. He said the demolitions were happening because a member of each of the three families was in prison for military activities.
IWPS received a phone call from N in Marda on March 4th to say that the house of ML in Huwara had been occupied two days ago. The family was forced into one room and were running out of supplies. The soldiers had occupied the rooftop. At 5:30pm on March 4th, ML confirmed that the soldiers had vacated his house just hours earlier after the Israeli “Machsom Watch” group had confronted the soldiers. Machsom Watch reported that they had been told by a garage owner about the occupation and went to the house and set up media interviews with the occupied people. The Nablus Brigade Commander told the radio station that the occupation had been a “mistake”.
On March 3rd, during the morning, soldiers occupied part of a hill in the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid (QBZ) and shot into the school while it was in session. Nobody was injured or killed although some of the windows were shot. The school, which is for secondary level boys from QBZ and Kufr Eyn villages, was disrupted for the day because the students became nervous and hundreds of parents started to phone the school fearing for their children.
On March 4th, in the afternoon, IWPS encountered three flying checkpoints between Iskaka village and Zatara checkpoint in the Salfit region. One was a “hummer” pointed in the direction of QBZ. IWPS phoned QBZ to warn them that a hummer might be headed their way. We also received a call from Abu S in Yasouf village to say that everyone had been detained at one of these checkpoints for about two hours earlier on. At the checkpoint under the Iskaka bridge, the soldiers were hiding behind part of the bridge and only jumped out shouting, with guns pointed, when the taxi had almost passed through. The taxi was forced to brake suddenly and dangerously. They apologised for this when they saw an international in the taxi and immediately allowed the taxi to pass.
At 6pm, AR from QBZ called to say that directly after a group of four internationals had vacated the village, one hummer had entered from Salfit and ten hummers from Halamiesh settlement. The 11 hummers had remained in the village for two hours and captured three brothers, who were busy working on building a house. They sped off with the brothers in the direction of the Halamiesh settlement which also has a jail. This has been the site of many beatings for captured QBZ residents in the past.
At 6:30pm, MJ from Azzun phoned to say that at 4pm Israeli soldiers came to Kufr Laqif village near Azzun village. They arrested two sisters aged 24 and 19 out of their house and took them to Qedumim prison. Their uncle followed them but they didn’t allow him to enter the prison. The soldiers searched the house and didn’t find anything and also didn’t take anything away. Hamoked Human Rights Organisation said at 6:40pm that the 19 year old would be released tonight and the 24 year old would be taken to Petah Tikva prison. The 19 year old was duly released.
Report written by: Anna.
Date report written on: 4th March 04.
IWPS Incident Report No. 86
Summary: Keys and ID taken by army on agricultural road
Incident Details
Date of incident: 6 March 2004
Time: 3.15pm
Place: on agricultural road between Zeita and Kifl Hares
Witness: victims
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The victims report, that they were driving on the agricultural road between Kifl Hares and Zeita they were stopped by army. The army has put up a flying checkpoint. A few soldiers were on duty and took the ID cards of the drivers and the keys of the car and told them, that they will be back in 15 minutes. After two hours they called IWPS, who forwarded them to Inam from Hamoked. The men were waiting under the trees. After two and half hours a different group of soldiers came back and returned the ID’s and car keys.
Report written by: Karin
Date report written on: 7th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 87
Summary: Woman on way to see the Doctors detained by soldiers at Huwara and out of contact with family
Date of incident: 10th March 2004
Time: 10.45 am
Place: at the Huwara checkpoint
Witness: mother and sister of the detained woman
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
A woman from the village of Madama called F. was on her way to see Doctor Ziad Lakud in Nablus because of her serious eye problem. She was at the checkpoint with her sister and mother when her ID was taken from her and she was detained by the soldiers. The sister returned home and contacted a neighbour who rang IWPS. She had already been detained out of sight and contact of the family for over half an hour and the family were worried about where she was. By noon she had still not been located. IWPS and the neighbour phoned Hamoked who are now trying to trace her but it may take 2 or 3 days. The woman has 4 children between the ages of 2 and 8 years.
Report written by: Angie
Date report written on: 10th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 88:
Summary: Soldiers damage property at Far’ata, Qalqilia
Incident Details
Date of incident: 9th March 2004
Time: 11.30 p.m.
Place: at home of Abu Juud in Far’ata
Witness: 2 brothers of the owner of the house.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 11.30p.m. in the night soldiers appeared in the village of Far’ata and drove up and down the street in their jeeps. When they reached the east of the village outside Abu J’s house they went to the house and broke two doors. No-one was in. The owner of the house called H.S.M.S.S. was visiting his family in Hares. His brothers M & M went to the soldiers to tell them that the house was empty. The soldiers just left. At 1p.m. the soldiers returned and saw that the house was still empty and went away again. H went to the police in the nearby settlement of Kedumin at 8 a.m. in the morning of 10th March and he was still there at 11.37 a.m. on the same day. He was told the police were busy and could not deal with his complaint yet and told him to wait. He is still waiting.
Report written by: Angie
Date report written on: 10th March 2004
Incident Report No. 89
Summary: Soldiers shoot school boys, wounding two
Date of incident: 9th March 2004
Time: 7:15am
Places: in the main road of Qarawat Bani Zeid village
Witness: hundreds of villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 7:15am soldiers entered Qarawat Bani Zeid in a hummer from the direction of the Halamiesh military base. Since school only starts at 8am, not all the schoolboys were walking in the main road yet. Soldiers went to the centre of the village and opened fire with rubber bullets. M.A. (14) was shot five times outside his front door: twice on the shoulder, in both hands, and on the leg. He was shot at very close range – from five metres.
The soldiers then started to leave the village. At the bottom of the main road, near the school, they opened fire on N.A. (19), a university student, hitting him twice in the chest.
Soldiers then threw three teargas bombs at the crowd of boys who had gathered and left the village. The village took both the wounded youth to Salfit hospital and they were discharged, bandaged, a few hours later.
The soldiers returned at 1am in the morning and after driving through the village, they left.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 10th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 90
Summary: Soldiers open fire on village wounding one man and damaging a significant amount of his property
Date of incident: 9th March 2004
Time: 7pm
Place: main street of Kufr Dik village
Witness: dozens of villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
12 soldiers crept through the olive groves of Kufr Dik village on foot and suddenly appeared in the main street. They then opened fire up the main street with live ammunition. The Kufr Dik Boys Secondary School Arabic teacher, M.A.K. (44) was driving his car down the main street and was hit twice – in the hand and in the leg. His windscreen was shot out and the glass flew into his face. The next day, seven bullet holes were visible in his car.
The soldiers also shot into three houses, leading to the explosion of a gas canister in one house when it was hit by a bullet. In another house, the bullet entered through a window directly where the family washes their hands and ricocheted off a wall.
Two more cars, a tractor and an agricultural vehicle were damaged by bullets
As soon as the soldiers had finished shooting, witnesses say a large army truck arrived to pick them up. The soldiers loaded M.A.K. into the truck with them and shouted to the villagers that they were taking him to hospital in Israel.
The next day, the Maths teacher of Qarawat Bani Zeid Boys Secondary School (who lives in Kufr Dik) told IWPS what happened. We phoned Physicians for Human Rights and asked them to locate M.A.K. and find out his medical condition.
A few hours later, M.A.K.’s son told us that his father had been moved to Rafidiya hospital in Nablus. The Maths teacher made further calls to M.A.K’s family and discovered that the hospital cannot remove the bullets from his leg and his hand and will discharge him in two days.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 10th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 91
Summary: A private unit of Israeli soldiers in Palestinian cars fire at local people in Salfit, killing one and injuring four.
Date of incident: 8th March 2004
Time: 7pm approx.
Place: Salfit
Witness: people in the vicinity
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Monday 8th March 2004 around 7 p.m. in the evening 2 Palestinian cars full of Israeli soldiers allegedly from a ‘private unit’ entered the town of Salfit and began firing live ammunition at people. A man called K.M., of around 35 years of age, was shot in the stomach and died later that evening. Another man is still in a critical condition after two operations. The other three who were wounded are now recovering, including a child of 10. One of the wounded men was then arrested.
The soldiers had allegedly entered the town to arrest people who lived in the town. They arrested 6 men altogether (including the wounded man mentioned above) all of whom were released without charge on Wednesday 10th March 2004.
During the incident a regular unit of soldiers were waiting on the outskirts of the town of Salfit. They left after the incident.
Report written by: Angie
Date report written on: 10th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 92
Summary: Twenty students held for over 10 hours at Beit Iba Checkpoint on their way to university in Nablus.
Incident Details
Date of incident: 12th March 2004
Time: 1pm – 10.30p.m. approx.
Place: Beit Iba.
Witness: Brother and family members of one of the detainees who was able to speak on the phone with the son being held.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS got a call from T Z at about 9p.m. on 12th March 2004. His brother, a student (19 years old) of Najar University in Nablus, was being detained by soldiers along with 20 other students. They had been held for many hours, since 1 p.m., at the Beit Iba checkpoint (which is around 2 kilometers North West of Nablus). The students had been trying to get to University. The soldiers were still holding them and not letting them go. It was getting cold as it is in the mountains and night-time. The student had rung his family on his mobile phone. The brother informed us that his mother was crying because she was so worried for her son. IWPS rang Israeli Machsom Watchers and the DCL and after a Knesset Member intervened by phone to the army the students were released at around 10.30 p.m.
Report written by: Angie
Date report written on: 12th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 93
Summary: Three men from Kafr Ein kidnapped from their homes between midnight and 1 am by Israeli soldiers
Incident Details
Date of incident: 13th March 2004
Time: Between midnight and 1am
Place: Kafr Ein village
Witness: Family members
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
A teacher from Kufr Eyn village met IWPS in Bir Zeit and told us that between midnight and 1am the previous night, 30 Israeli soldiers had come on foot through the olive groves into the village and gone into the houses of two brothers and their cousin and dragged them outside. Israeli military hummers approached to pick them up and the soldiers shot several times into the air and at the surrounding houses before climbing into the hummers with the Kufr Eyn men and driving off.
It was not known where the men were taken. By 1:30pm on 13th March 2004 there was still nobody in the village who knew where the men were.
The teacher said that more than 20 Kufr Eyn men are still in prison, having been imprisoned since the beginning of the second intifada, and most are serving renewable six month administrative detention sentences.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 13th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 94
Summary: Two shepherds arrested near Apartheid Wall
Date of incident: 19th March 2004
Time: 8am
Place: Kufr Sur village, Tulkarem region
Witness: Two other shepherds
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
K.D. and A.K. were walking on their land at 8am with their goats, who were grazing. The Israeli army came through the gate in the Apartheid Wall further down from where they were walking, and arrested K.D. and A.K.
They were blindfolded and taken to a jeep where they were bundled into the back. The jeep drove for some time and stopped at the Tulkarem checkpoint. K.D. and A.K. were taken out and made to sit at the checkpoint for five hours.
After this they were released. Their goats were left alone for all this time and when K.D. and A.K. returned to the village they were too afraid to fetch the goats back. They were trying to find some other villagers to go with them back to the land to do this.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 19th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 95
Summary: Flying checkpoint delays on the Kedumin road near Hares – 2 people – man and woman – held by police and soldiers.
Date of incident: 22nd March 2004
Time: 7-9 am
Place: Hares, near the roadblock on the shop road before the Kedumin junction.
Witness: villagers by the roadblock.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
U.F. phoned IWPS at 7 a.m. to say that some people had been arrested by the soldiers near the roadblock. We arrived at the roadblock at 7.15a.m. to see 1 police jeep with 4 soldiers outside on the road and 1 inside the jeep – these soldiers were stopping all passing Palestinian traffic and checking IDs and keeping some of the yellow Palestinian taxis waiting. There was also a police jeep detaining two Palestinians by the jeep. We went down the grassy slope to the road and a soldier informed us that the man and woman had not been arrested but were being detained as they had Jordanian ID and were not allowed into the occupied territories. We stayed and watched taking notes and photos and by 7.30am they were released. The woman was crying and was hugged by another woman in the taxi with great relief. The soldier then called me over and said the people had been released – why were we staying. I said we would stay until they left……he said did we know about the Sheikh (Sheikh Ahmad Yassin – spiritual leader of Hamas – had been carbombed by the Israelis) and that there would be trouble. I said that him being there could create more trouble as it could be seen as provocative. We stayed at the roadblock for a further hour and a half. There were many soldiers coming up and down the road and at one time around 15 soldiers with guns looked as if they were ready to enter the village. Meanwhile a large group of men and boys had gathered at the Hares roadblock, a black flag was showing there too. The schools were closed for the day in mourning and from the mosque came verses from the Koran. Our presence was made very visible as we came back to the roadblock and the men and boys dispersed back into the village. After another 10 minutes (at 8.38a.m.) the soldiers took up the flying checkpoint and moved it up to the top of the slope by the bus stop, thus removing the soldiers presence from just near Hares. We left.
Report written by: Angie and Liz.
Date report written on: 22nd March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 96
Summary: Man wounded by settler firing randomly into village of Hares; his ambulance later attacked by settlers at Zatara checkpoint.
Date of incident: 23rd March 2004
Time: 4.15 pm aprox.
Place: Hares, outside the restaurant next to Abu Fadi’s house.
Witnesses: villagers in the restaurant at the time.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At approximately 4 p.m. a ‘settler’ man around 35-40 years old who was described as being quite tall, with short, black hair and with black side-locks and possibly a long black beard and dressed in a black short-sleeved t-shirt parked his car (a white Fiat Freemo – model 98) on the tar road in front of the mud access road to the road-block at the entrance to Hares village. He got out of the car and went to the roadblock and stood by the concrete block and fired two shots from an uzi gun. One shot struck the side of Abu Fadi’s front door. Abu Fadi’s young son Ali (of 8 years) was standing right by the door and was narrowly missed. B.A.A.D. – a young man of around 22-24 was walking along the road when the first shot rang out. He ran towards the nearest building, the restaurant next door to Abu Fadi and was shot through his left upper arm before he could actually enter the restaurant for shelter. His blood was on the ground. He was taken to hospital by his cousin.
Report written by: Angie and Barbara.
Date report written on: 23rd March 2004
Second incident
The victim of Tuesday’s settler attack is out of hospital. The bullets fired by the settler were apparently dumdum bullets that explode on impact. If the victim had been hit directly by the bullet, he would likely have been killed. Fortunately for him, the bullet ricocheted off a metal doorway and exploded before entering his left upper arm.
On the day of the incident, he was taken in a private car to Kifl el Haris where a doctor administered first-aid. He was then taken by private car towards Nablus to go to the hospital for treatment. The car was held up at Zatara checkpoint,and so he got inside an ambulance that happened to be passing as it was coming back from Ramallah with two patients inside who are residents of Nablus. The ambulance made its way through the checkpoint and after they had all had their ID’s checked by the soldiers and were passing through Zatara, two settlers came, one carrying a short M-16 gun. One had long black hair, tied with an elastic band into a ponytail, a light beard, white skin. He was wearing a short-sleeved mid-green t-shirt. The other, unarmed, had fine, black hair, white skin and was wearing a short-sleeved white t-shirt. Both of them started hitting the ambulance with their hands to prevent the ambulance from moving all the while shouting threats at those in the ambulance. This lasted for about half an hour. Eventually the ambulance was allowed to leave.
The victim was in hospital for three days and is now home with a bandaged arm in a sling. We do not yet know what the long-term effects will be.
Report written by: Barbara
Date report written on: 29th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 97
Summary: School Janitor kidnapped in the middle of the night
Date of incident: 19th March 2004
Time: 1am approximately
Place: Kafr Ein village
Witnesses: about 20 other villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At about 1am in the morning, Israeli soldiers came to Kufr Eyn village. They forced about 20 people out of their homes and into the street. They then searched the homes and destroyed a lot of goods in the process. They finally arrested a 22 year old man who is the janitor at a school in a nearby village. They took him away in the night and two days later, nobody knew where he was.
Report written by: Anna
Date report written on: 24th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 98
Summary: Settlers attack Sawiya and Luban schools.
Date of incident:- 26th March 2004
Time:- 3 p.m. approximately
Place:- Boys school in Sawiya village
Witnesses:- approx. 6 villagers including the Head of the School who was called in during the incident.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At around 3 p.m. a large group of young male settlers, arrived in 14-17 cars and entered the Boys School at As Sawiya. They broke a pipe and thrust it through a window breaking the metal mesh protecting the window and smashed the glass. They broke many windows in 4 separate buildings including all nine of the windows in the not quite completed new library. They broke the doors to several classrooms throwing chairs and tables around, tore down posters, including a religious verse from the Koran and put a stone on it. The action lasted for about 20 minutes. The men had guns but did not use them. The police and soldiers were soon at the scene after the villagers called the DCO. The police took photos of the settlers and pushed them out and away, none were seen being arrested. No pictures were taken of the damage nor was an assessment of the damage done carried out by the police. When AA tried to speak to the police they told him to go away and keep his mouth closed in a very rude manner. When the Head Teacher tried to talk to the police about the settlers they did not take a statement from him but just told him to tell his schoolchildren not to throw stones on to the road and that if they continued then the school would be closed down. The Head Teacher said that a month ago settlers had been speaking to the soldiers and that they had said they wanted to set fire to the school.
Just down the road also by the side of the main settler road the Girls School of Luban had also been attacked. When we visited it a half hour later there was a small fire in an outside wooden cupboard that was smouldering and beginning to set the cupboard itself on fire. Stones had also been thrown at many of the windows in this school too and the locks had been forced on some of the classroom doors and the rooms broken into and windows smashed from the inside where the upper windows protected by wire meshing had foiled the outside stones. There was broken glass and stones on many of the floors of the classrooms and garbage cans turned upside down. The caretaker of the school who was checking on the damage done was very upset about what to do in case the settlers came back.
While two IWPS members went to the scene to take this report, another called one of the soldiers at the scene, named Elad. She was told that the police were there at the school and that some of the settlers had been arrested. Palestinians at the scene did not report that any arrests had been made.
Report written by: Angie and Janne
Date report written on: 26th March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 99
Summary: House demolition in Biddia
Date of incident:- night 27/28. 03. 04
Time:- 10.30pm – 4am
Place:- Biddia village close to centre
Witness:- victim family and neighbours
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The affected family and witnessing neighbours told IWPS:
At approximately 10.30pm on March 27th 2004 approx. 2 big and 6 small Jeeps entered the village of Biddia and a large number of soldiers (witnesses say hundreds) surrounded the house of the family A.L. At 10.50pm 10 soldiers knocked on the door of the house. The 16 year old son opened it. One soldier asked if he knew why they had come and then explained that they had come to demolish the house because the boy’s brother, who has been in prison for two weeks, killed 3 Israelis in Ramat Gan. The father reminded the soldiers that his son is in prison and that he and his family did not do anything. The soldiers said that they will demolish the house because his son was living there. The house has two parts and the family was living in the new part, and the grandmother in the old part. The father tried to negotiate in order that the soldiers would only demolish his part of the house and not the house of his elderly mother.
The soldiers gave the family 20 minutes to take some things out of the house. After 15 minutes they stopped them. Everybody had to leave the house and for about 4 hours the soldiers made holes in different parts of the building and filled them with dynamite. The family and the neighbours were told to go away, and only returned one hour after they heard the explosion.
It is the first house demolition in Biddia during this second intifada. 12 people were living in the house, 9 children with their parents and grandmother. The new part of the house was built around 10 years ago. The old part had been built during the 60′s. All the adjacent houses suffered damage due to the explosion: broken windows, cracks, and debris.
The son A.R., whom the soldiers claimed had killed someone, is 19 years old, works in Israel with his father and was arrested about 2 weeks ago. The family has not been able to contact the boy since the arrest and know nothing about the accusations that he is held responsible for.
Report written by: Karin & Janna, IWPS
Date report written on: 28. March 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 100
Summary: Shooting by army in Hares in early hours
Date of incident:- March 30th, 2004
Time: 3 to 5:30 am and afternoon 5 pm on
Place: Hares
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The army entered the village of Hares in the early hours of March 30th, 2004. Around 50 soldiers on foot started shooting towards a house near the roadblock, breaking the lock on the damage and causing property damage. The family in the house being shot at were forced to come outside and wait in the cold. The father was made to strip down to his underpants and had to wait for the permission of the soldiers to dress again and go back into his house. This was two hours later.
The soldiers told the sleepless villagers that they would come every night.
11am the evening prior a flying checkpoint was set up in front of the mosque inside the village. Any young men walking along were stopped and beaten by the soldiers.
This type of incident is quite regular and often not reported. We have decided to neverthless publish this report because of course army invasions are not normal and should be reported.
The army again made an incursion into the village of Hares. We received word of it around
5 pm. Apparently youths had earlier thrown stones at the security pick-up truck of a nearby settlement and the driver of the van had responded by shooting live bullets at them from the truck. The army entered the village shooting, moving lower down into a residential compound. One of the IWPS team was an eye-witness to a soldier crouching down a couple of meters from small children and pointing his gun at them terrifying them. There were 6 soldiers who later told another team member that they were there to set an ambush for someone they knew by sight.
Report written by: Barbara
Date report written on: March 30th, 2004
IWPS Incident Report No. 101
Summary: Settlers provoke incident at water source in Yasouf
Date of incident:- Saturday, March 27th, 2004
Time: 2 to 4 pm
Place: Water source in Yasuf
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Settlers have consistently harassed villagers in Yasouf. This pattern of harassment has recently increased and in the last six months villagers have been regularly harassed twice a month on average. Generally, the settlers cause property damage by breaking windows and damaging cars.
On Saturday, 27 March, some teenagers from the village of Yasouf were at the water source in the village which is set in a pleasant park and a meeting spot. In the early afternoon, several settlers arrived, carrying weapons. There were reports of shooting, however no injuries were reported. The settlers and youth threw stones at one another. Then more settlers arrived bringing their final number to twelve. The settlers also brought 3 to 4 dogs. Eventually the army was called and broke up the fight. The situation lasted about four hours.
Again, on Saturday, 3 April settlers (4 men and 1 woman) approached the village on the agricultural road of the Palestinians, again bringing their dogs. They threw stones at Palestinians there and then left.
This pattern of settler violence against Palestinians has been witnessed and documented by IWPS in several villages in the Salfit area. This is only one of many abuses that have been witnessed by IWPS in the village of Yasouf and the neighboring village of Jamai’in (see also House Report 47, Incident Report 62) as well as Yanoun and Hares (see Incident report 50). The Salfit governate has the largest number of settlers in the West Bank and such harassment is common. These settlers act with complete impunity and are rarely held accountable for their crimes. This is a clear violation of the basic Human Rights of the Palestinians which have the right to be protected against such attacks under Articles 3 and 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Report written by: Barbara
Date report written on: March 30th, 2004, updated April 3rd, 2
Human Rights Report No. 102
Summary: Army incursion into Kufr Ein
Date of incident: April 2nd and 3rd, 2004
Time: from 12:30 am to 6 am
Place: Kufr Ein
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Approximately 20 jeeps, with 100 soldiers, entered the village of Kufr Ein just after midnight on 2 April, 2004. The soldiers threw sound bombs as well as rocks at some of the houses causing property damage. Around 20 houses were invaded by armed soldiers. There are around 270 families in the village with a population of around 2,500 inhabitants.
Villagers were woken up by the sound bombs and the sound of the rocks being thrown at their windows and doors. Soldiers ordered them to open up their doors and forced the families outside. Meanwhile, soldiers entered the houses, searching each room and, in some cases, overturning wardrobes, emptying closets, tipping the contents of cupboards onto the ground, overturning furniture and throwing out rugs. One home lost over 400 litres of olive oil when soldiers emptied four barrels of oil onto the ground and then tipped flour into the oil. Clothes were ruined by being soaked in the oil, which spilled out into the yard and even onto the street.
The soldiers screamed abuse at the villagers in Hebrew telling them that ‘this is nothing; just wait to see what we will do’.
The army was reportedly looking for an 18-year old from the village had been arrested three months earlier and then released. After trashing the house, the officer said to the father of the wanted teenager, that this time nothing had been done. The next time, he threatened worse to come, including arresting the five brothers of the wanted man.
The next night, 3 April, the army again entered the village at approximately 11 pm staying until the early hours of April 4th. There were around 22 jeeps, 2 large personnel vehicles. Villagers estimate there were over 100 soldiers.
Villagers reported soldiers throwing stones at front doors, forcing the people out of their houses, not allowing them to be dressed warmly and keeping them outside for one hour or more while they searched the houses.
These nighttime raids form a pattern of ongoing abuse by the IDF of Palestinian civilians throughout Palestine. We have witnessed raids that follow this pattern as well as other villages in the area. These raids constitute Collective Punishment. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.
These nighttime raids also violate the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 which prohibits outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment. This cruel and degrading treatment is also a violation of basic Human Rights under Art. 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, under which no derogation is permitted. This basic right to personal dignity also constitutes a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Art. 5 as well as Art. 12 which prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, home and family.
Report written by: Barbara and Amy
Date report written on: April 3rd and 4th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 103
Summary: Curfew imposed on Hares
Date of incident: 9th April 2004
Time: 3 a.m. to 11.30am.
Place: Hares
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 3a.m in the morning two jeeps of armed soldiers noisily called a curfew over the loudspeakers as they drove up and down the streets inside Hares. When the mosque began the early morning prayers about 4.30 am the soldiers did not allow the Sheikh to use the mosque loudspeakers to call the adhan. At approximately 7a.m. IWPS walked through the village, which was deserted, and spoke to the soldiers in one of the two jeeps. When asked why they were imposing a curfew on a whole village and why they had kept everyone awake for hours, the soldiers replied that kids had lit a tyre in the middle of the road and had thrown stones at a passing bus. We asked if we could have the details of the bus and to get more information on the incident but he had no further information. We later heard from the DCL that stones were thrown at a car and nothing about tyres being burnt, contradicting the earlier report. Neither report was verifiable.
The IWPS asked the soldiers in village why an entire village was punished for an individual action/s and were told that the village had to learn how to keep its children under control otherwise they would all suffer. Another group of soldiers at the roadblock admitted that this was collective punishment [1]. We spoke to soldiers about the settler who had burnt out a car (see IWPS Report Number 83)and another settler who had shot and wounded a man in Hares (see IWPS Human Rights Report number 96). The soldiers were asked why the village was being collectively punished for the possible actions of a few children while these other crimes had not even been investigated.
When the soldiers were asked about these illegal actions and were aked, “Where is the Rule of Law?” One particular solider understood this injustice, however his officer did not. The IWPS then spoke to another group of soldiers (we counted 14 soldiers in total) who were with a jeep at the shop on the road 505 and in conversation said they understood the problems and were just carrying out orders. One soldier was especially sympathetic and gave his phone number so we could send him the incident reports of the two recent settler attacks, unfortunately he was gone by the time we printed the reports for him.
At around 11.30 the white jeep of the Israeli DCO turned up outside Abu Rabia’s door and after a conversation with around 4 armed soldiers went off again. We were informed by Abu Rabia that they had negotiated that the Haris roadblock would come down. The roadblock was later cleared to a width big enough to allow one car through.
Report written by: Angie and Amy.
Date report written on: 9th April 2004.
Human Rights Report No. 104
Summary: Army incursion into Kifl Haris
Date of incident: April 10th, 2004
Time: 12:45 p.m.
Place: Kifl Hares
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS received a report of the army entering the village of Haris. Upon investigating, we discovered that the 3 jeeps had driven right through the village and gone to Kifl Haris. The three jeeps parked outside the municipal office and told those in the building via loudspeaker to come out of the building. One employee was asked if there were any gunmen in the municipal office. There were none. There is a second office and a private apartment in the municipal office building.
The soldiers never left their jeeps, they took everyone’s ID card, checked them and then gave them back.
Report written by: Barbara
Date report written on: April 10th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 105
Summary: Continuing Collective Punishment Abuses in Kafr ’Ein
Date of incident: 11 April 2004
Time: 1.00 AM – 3.30 AM
Place: Kafr ’Ein
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Over the last six months the small mountain hamlet of Kafr ’Ein has been harassed by the IOF. For the last two weeks the IOF has come to the village nightly making the villagers leave their houses and stand in the street. Last night approximately 20 IOF soldiers entered the village at 1.00 AM and made the inhabitants of 32 houses stand in the street as two of the houses had all of the contents of the houses emptied into the street.
The captain reportedly said, “Tomorrow we will force you to take the doors and windows outside.”
This collective punishment is part of a systematic pattern of constant abuse suffered by Kafr ’Ein. This small village of perhaps 1,500 inhabitants has suffered the occupation by the IOF of specific houses with its inhabitants turned onto the street while ad-hoc checkpoints have been set-up in the road through town (see IWPS Human Rights Report no. 60). IWPS has witnessed the IOF herding the villagers, approximately 275 men and boys, into the schoolyard and then making arrests en masse (25 were arrested; see IWPS Human Rights Report 61). The male villagers have been kidnapped and held (see IWPS Human Rights Reports 93 and 97). Thus this latest incident is only one incident in a long line of collective punishment abuses by the IOF.
This is part of a pattern of ongoing abuse by the IDF of Palestinian civilians throughout Palestine. We have witnessed raids that follow this pattern as well in other villages in the area. These raids constitute collective punishment. [1] Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.
These nighttime raids also violate the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 which prohibits outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment. This cruel and degrading treatment is also a violation of basic Human Rights under Art. 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, under which no derogation is permitted. This basic right to personal dignity also constitutes a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Art. 5 as well as Art. 12 which prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, home and family.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 11 April 2004
Human Rights Report No. 106
Summary: Nighttime incursion and kidnapping of internationals in Kafr Ein
Date of incident: 13-14 April 2004
Time: Beginning at 11.45 pm-3.30 am
Place: Kafr Ein
Witness/es: Three internationals, several villagers.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
In the late evening and early morning hours of 13-14 April two internationals (one an IWPS Volunteer) were kidnapped by soldiers who were attempting to inflict further collective punishment on villagers in Kafr Ein.
Two armored personnel carriers entered the village of Kafr Ein at 00.41. There they encountered three internationals drinking coffee in front of a house where there has been consistent use of collective punishment by the Israeli army. The jeeps pointed headlights and search lights at the internationals. The internationals showed that they were unarmed and asked if there was a problem. After a few minutes the internationals were asked to come to the armored cars.
The internationals were told that this was a closed military zone and that they were preventing the soldiers from doing their work and ordered to leave immediately. The internationals pointed out that no such zone had been announced and if one had been ordered then they would like to see the order, furthermore there was nowhere to go to at this hour of the night and they therefore said they were going to stay.
The soldiers announced their intention to speak to the Rifai’ family and the internationals said that they would go with the soldiers to interview the family. The soldiers told the internationals that they did not understand the situation and that a son of the family was either a suicide bomber (but the soldiers could not give any details) or had fired shots into Israel (but again could not say where) or had thrown petrol bombs at the armored car. IWPS has not been able to substantiate any of these claims although several follow-up calls have been made to the Israeli army’s DCL regional office.
The internationals maintained that it was not a village or group that did any of these things and that punishing a large extended family for the accused criminal behavior of one person was collective punishment and illegal. [1] One of the soldiers responded, “They are all terrorists.” One of the soldiers mentioned that they did not want to be here and did not want to do this and the internationals reminded him that he is individually responsible for his actions and that Superior Orders are no defense.[2] The conversation continued in a calm manner until the captain decided to use force to remove the internationals from the area.
The only male and eldest of the three internationals was handcuffed with plastic cuffs and put in the back of one of the armored personnel carriers where he was tightly blindfolded. One of the female internationals was also forced into the back of the armored personnel carriers. They attempted to push the third international into the vehicle but were unsuccessful. She was left at the scene.
Once inside the vehicle the two kidnapped internationals[3] were driven through the neighboring village of Qarawat Bani Zeid and after 15-20 minutes the vehicle stopped in a field. The female international requested that the blindfold of the other international be removed as it was unnecessary however this request was denied and one of the soldiers said they could not remove the blindfold, “because he looks beautiful.” The Captain said to leave the internationals in the field to which the female international objected. The soldier who had previously said that he did not want to be there spoke to the captain and finally agreed to both remove the blindfold and handcuffs and return the internationals to the village after recording their identity information.
The soldiers returned the internationals to the village and requested identity information from the third international which was not provided. The soldiers received a telephone call and left.
The soldiers returned at approximately 10.00 that night and entered the passageway between two family homes and interviewed the father of the ‘wanted’ young man [the IWPS has not yet been able to find out the charges against the young man from the army]. Invitations to be interviewed by the regional commander were issued for the father of the young man, his younger brother (aged 17) and his uncle. The father and the brother attended the interview and were released within three hours. The uncle recently suffered a heart attack and excused himself from the interview.
Report written by: Amy and Janne
Date report written on: 17 April 2004
[1] Collective Punishment Collective Punishment is penalizing a group as whole with no regard for individual responsibility and is illegal under Article 33 as well as Article 50 of the Hague Convention. For more on Collective Punishment see www.alhaq.org.
[2] Superior Orders do not constitute a defense see Prosecutor v. Drazen Erdemovic, Case No. IT-96-22-T, 9 (1996) (I.C.T.Y.); see also the Charter of the International Military Tribunal of Aug. 8, 1945 , art. 8, annexed to Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, Aug. 8, 1945, 59 Stat. 1544 (“The fact that the defendant acted pursuant to order of his government or of a superior shall not free him from responsibility, but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribunal determines that justice so requires.”)
[3] The Israeli army has no legal authority to arrest or detain internationals.
Human Rights Report No. 107
Summary: Cultural Property destroyed as a means of collective punishment
Date of incident: 14 April, 2004
Time: 9.30-15.30
Place: The base of Harek Mountain
Witness/es: IWPS, ISM and villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Soldiers destroyed cultural property including 40 graves and a large oak tree associated with a local legend on the top of Harek Mountain . The destruction seemed designed to impose collective punishment and incite violence from the villagers.
Soldiers entered the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid at approximately 9.30 am with 10 jeeps and a bulldozer. The convoy made its way to Harek Mountain . There the army uprooted a large ancient oak tree of great cultural significance to the villages of Qarawat Bani Zeid and Kafr Ein.[1] The tree is known by the name Sheik Ibrahim. The soldiers also disturbed about 40 graves that are located on the same mountain, which is owned by Palestinians from the local villages.
One woman from IWPS saw the tree fall from a window in the village of Kafr Ein . The villagers almost immediately began discussing a march to the top of the mountain. Two internationals (IWPS and ISM) decided to take a car to the spring at the bottom of the mountain to investigate. The two internationals and three Palestinians began to walk up the mountain until they were stopped by an armored personnel carrier, which blocked the road.
The internationals spoke to the soldiers who refused to let them pass. One soldier said that he did not want to do this but he had to do his job. He was reminded that Superior Orders are no defense.[2] Another soldier swore that they were not doing anything wrong and offered his hand to promise that nothing was happening. The internationals said they would shake his hand after they saw that nothing had happened. The jeep followed the group of internationals very closely as they descended the hill and parked at the bottom of the hill.
By the spring at the bottom of the hill a large group of angry young men had gathered. The group rapidly grew in size as more villagers arrived. The villagers asked the internationals to stay with them to protest the destruction of their cultural property. IWPS said that she would take part in the demonstration if there was no violence and no rock throwing.
The armored car was joined by another armored car, and a police vehicle was seen parked on an adjoining road.
The internationals then took part in a peaceful impromptu protest demonstration of about 50-100 villagers. Many villagers continued to arrive in shared taxis and other vehicles and the numbers swelled. Many women came to join the protest. The protest non-violently resisted the destruction of the cultural property of the village and after approximately 1.5 hours the soldiers left. As the armored car was leaving several rocks were thrown. Some protesters continued up the mountain.
Report written by: Amy and Angie.
Date report written on: 16 April 2004
[1] Under the law of armed conflict, cultural property is protected against any act of hostility (destruction, theft, requisition, confiscation, acts of reprisal, etc.) In addition, the use of cultural property in support of military action is prohibited (Article 53 of Additional Protocol I and Article 16 of Additional Protocol II).
[2] Superior Orders do not constitute a defense see Prosecutor v. Drazen Erdemovic, Case No. IT-96-22-T, 9 (1996) (I.C.T.Y.); see also the Charter of the International Military Tribunal of Aug. 8, 1945 , art. 8, annexed to Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, Aug. 8, 1945, 59 Stat. 1544 (“The fact that the defendant acted pursuant to order of his government or of a superior shall not free him from responsibility, but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribunal determines that justice so requires.”).
Human Rights Report No. 108
Summary: Man badly beaten and 50 IDs taken at Huwara checkpoint
Date of incident: 17 April 2004
Time: 14.40
Place: Huwara
Witness/es: Other people at the checkpoint
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At Huwara checkpoint soldiers beat a man, took another unidentified man into custody, and confiscated the IDs of another 50 people waiting at Huwara checkpoint.
Officials in the Nablus area DCL ops room deny the beating and deny taking anybody into custody. The army said that there had been a delay and that IDs have been confiscated.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 17th April 2004
Human Rights Report No. 109
Summary: Farmer beaten by 12 settlers in Deir Istiya
Date of incident: 17 April 2004
Time: around noon
Place: Deir Istiya land
Witness/es: none
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The farmer was ploughing on Deir Istiya land close to Revava settlement. Twelve settlers attacked him beating him with wooden sticks on his head and back and threatening to kill him if they see him again.
They stole his plough and other equipment for ploughing.
The injured man rode his horse back to the village, traumatized and with bruises to his body.
Report written by: Barbara
Date report written on: April 17th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 110
Summary: Kifl Haris village taken over by army and religious settlers all night
Date of incident: 17 April 2004
Time: all day and night until dawn.
Place: the ancient tombs of the prophets in Kifl Hares
Witness/es: none
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS was called in to Kifl Haris after a curfew was called due to the expected presence of Hassidic Jews who would be entering the village that night. Tensions were heightened by the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi just hours before. The Israeli army had been present on the streets of the village most of the day and towards dusk no Palestinians from neighbouring villages were allowed into Kifl Haris, not even those requiring the medical attention of the Doctor living in Kifl Haris. The roadblock of huge concrete slabs had been removed to allow easy access for the army and for the Jewish pilgrims. It was dark when three of the IWPS team approached the centre of this old Canaanite town and saw the tomb of Kalib bin Yaffna who is known as Kifl in the Koran and is respected in the holy texts of all three monotheistic religions of the region.
There were several jeeps patrolling the town and keeping the people at home in their houses and off the streets. Soldiers were seen aiming their rifles at the few people who ventured out, in order that the soldiers could see them properly through night-viewers. The soldiers told any villagers found in the streets to go home. When asked why they had invaded the town and were keeping local people shut in their houses, IWPS was told that around 7-800 Jews would be entering the village that night and they had been ordered to keep the village clear of any Palestinians from other villages. When we asked about the recent desecration of the tomb with Hebrew graffiti scrawled on the walls and the signs of fresh concrete covering a hole that had been freshly made in the side of the tomb, a reservist soldier admitted that it was “upsetting” and that some of the Hassidim were a bit “funny in the head.” The villagers had also reported to us the loss of an ancient stone from the tomb that used to tell the history of their village. They say it disappeared after they were prevented from leaving their houses and whilst one of these Jewish religious events was taking place.
Throughout the night from 12 midnight until around 6-7 a.m. at least 8 large Israeli coaches were seen coming up to the tomb and then passing through the village in the direction of another ancient tomb, that of Yosha (also known as Joshua).They then made their way back out past Kaleb’s tomb again. Helicopters were patrolling the skies overhead droning away for several hours. Some small groups of Jews were seen getting out of the coaches and wandering around the site.
It was reported by local villagers that once a week the roadblock is lifted in this manner to allow Jews into the village at night. The Palestinian villagers reported incidents during previous visits that included armed Jewish visitors shooting their pets and animals, breaking their car windows and throwing stones at their houses. Reportedly, the Jewish visitors often make noise during their late evening and early morning ceremonies, dancing and singing loudly.
The Palestinian villagers fear that the Jews who are coming into Kifl Haris are trying to claim it as an exclusively Jewish site, in an attempt to deny them their history. One Palestinian observer of the night’s events said that the prophets are for all religions to share, not for one religion to dominate. Residents of this small Palestinian village trace their ancestry back to the Prophet Kifl and many of their family names descend from the prophets Abraham and Ishmael who belong to all the three religions. These names include: Jacob, Kaneen, Bouzeiah, Brahim, Saliyeh and Obeid. Villagers reported that genuine pilgrims have always been welcomed into Kifl Haris and that in the past they had many people visiting the tombs, many Jews and Christians and even more Palestinians. Now, however, the vast majority of Palestinians that would like to visit the tombs are not able to travel to Kifl Haris due to the illegal Israeli imposed barriers.
International human rights law guarantees all rights should be protected regardless of religion.[1] Neither Jews, Moslems or Christians should be denied access to their holy sites. The temporary lifting of freedom of movement restrictions, such as the roadblock barrier that was moved only for the buses carrying those making the pilgrimage and immediately replaced in order to impede the movement of the villagers, is discriminatory. Palestinians also have a right to be able to visit their religious sites and are being denied freedom of movement and freedom to access their sites in other villages and towns, especially their most important sites in Jerusalem .
Report written by: Angie, Amy and Sally.
Date report written on: April 18th, 2004
[1] For more on the prohibition of discrimination based on religion see the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Art. 18; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Art, 4; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC) Art. 2 nor is this discrimination permitted on basis of racial characteristics such as race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin. For instance see International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to which Israel is a party.
Human Rights Report No. 111
Summary: One Palestinian and one German international detained by army after yet another army raid on the village of Kufr Ein
Date of incident: 19 April 2004
Time: 10.45 pm
Place: Kufr Ein
Witness/es: Two German internationals and several villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 10.45p.m. 2 army jeeps came into Kufr Ein letting off 5 or 6 sound bombs and a few light bombs. They then went straight to the house of a Palestinian farmer and father of 8 who was detained by the army along with one German international, a 60 years old social worker from Munich . A young boy of 14 from the same Rifai family was briefly detained and then released.
Just after midnight the Palestinian farmer was released. The army took the German international to an army outpost and then at 12.41 am the German international was released from Israeli army custody. .
The village has been suffering from repeated illegal collective punishment measures.[1] The villagers have been experiencing night time army raids almost every night for the last 3 weeks. The farmer and father of eight has been taken in for questioning over 20 times. Reportedly, the army is looking for information regarding the whereabouts of one of his sons who had previously been imprisoned for three months and released. However, the army has not been able to confirm why they are attempting to locate the youth.
Report written by: Janne, Sally and Amy
Date report written on: 20 April 2004
Human Rights Report No. 112
Summary: Shots and Sound bomb in Hares
Date of incident: April 20, 2004
Time: 14.00 and 21:30
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Six internationals and local residents.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Six shots were heard at approximately 14.00 in the village of Hares. The IWPS and a visiting international delegation investigated. Several villagers indicated that the shots originated near a water supply source in a field behind the mosque. Several village youths accompanied the internationals to the location. No shells or evidence of shooting was found.
According to several villagers, 10 soldiers in two jeeps came to the water supply area, possibly to check the water level. The villagers said that the soldiers shot into the area as they were leaving.
IWPS received a call from a local after she heard a sound bomb. IWPS saw three jeeps leave from the village at 21:55 via the opened roadblock.
Later that evening IWPS received reports from a villager living close to the opened roadblock and the restaurant owner next door that a sound bomb was thrown and exploded close to their homes. The incident was reported as it scared children outside of the house.
Report written by: Megumi and Amy
Date report written on: April 29th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 113
Summary: Army incursion into Kafr Ein
Date of incident: 23 April 2004
Time: 00.30-1.30 AM
Place: Kufr Ein
Witness/es: Two internationals (one IWPS)
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
In the middle of night on 23 April one armored vehicle with the number plate 639802 carrying at least 8 soldiers entered the village. Four of the soldiers trotted into the darkness and 4 soldiers parked their armored vehicle outside and focused a search light onto the internationals. The soldiers called the farmer and father of eight came out to the street followed by his sons. After the men were on the street the soldier asked (in Hebrew) if there were any other people in the house. The women, small children and babies were made to come out and stand on the street for more than an hour while each of the males was interrogated repeatedly. The soldiers also searched the house and the roof. This is only one in a long line of such incidents.
The soldiers spoke with the internationals and told them that these collective punishment measures were Superior Orders and that such techniques had worked in the past, specifically in Tulkarem. The soldiers were once again reminded of their individual responsibility and that Superior Orders are no defense: each soldier is individually responsible for his actions.[1] The soldiers also told the internationals that the villagers would not be released unless the internationals relinquished their passports. Once again, the soldiers were unable to give any details regarding the accused, the indictment or the origin of the order.
The village has been suffering from repeated illegal collective punishment measures.[2] The villagers have been experiencing general abuse for an extended period of time and night time army raids almost every night for the last 3 weeks, some have been especially brutal. The farmer and father of eight has been taken in for questioning over 20 times. Reportedly, the army is looking for information regarding the whereabouts of one of his sons who had previously been imprisoned for three months and released. However, the army has not been able to confirm why they are attempting to locate the youth.
[1] Superior Orders do not constitute a defense see Prosecutor v. Drazen Erdemovic, Case No. IT-96-22-T, 9 (1996) (I.C.T.Y.); see also the Charter of the International Military Tribunal of Aug. 8, 1945, art. 8, annexed to Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, Aug. 8, 1945, 59 Stat. 1544 (“The fact that the defendant acted pursuant to order of his government or of a superior shall not free him from responsibility, but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribunal determines that justice so requires.”).
Report written by: Amy, Janne and Anne
Date report written on: 23 April 2004
Human Rights Report No. 114
Summary: Army incursion into Kafr Ein uses Human Shields as protection
Date of incident: 27 April 2004
Time: 23.00 – 00.45
Place: Kafr Ein
Witness/es: Two internationals
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Two armored personnel carriers entered the village at 23.00. The entered the village slowly and stopped close to the mosque. Two or three shots were fired as the jeeps entered the village.
At approximately 23.10 the two jeeps arrived at the house of N.R. and 3 soldiers searched the interior and exterior of the house including the garden across the street. The soldiers used a searchlight over the houses. One of the soldiers pointed a gun at G.. When the internationals objected on the basis that he was said he was nonviolent, the soldier moved his weapon only to have it replaced by another soldier?s gun. N. came out of the house and all three soldiers went into the house again and searched a second time.
At approximately 11.40 a third armored car arrived with a burning Molotov cocktail still alight on its hood. The Molotov cocktail burned out of its own accord. According to the internationals eyewitness accounts, the soldiers then ?made a fog?, probably a smoke bomb, so that it was difficult to see.
At approximately 11.50 the armored personnel carriers started to move towards the mosque and the international observers followed about 50 meters behind. The international observers witnessed the soldiers knocking on the doors of several villagers. According to local villagers, the soldiers took 4 men (2 fathers and 2 sons) out of the houses and used them as human shields. The human shields were forced to walk, at gunpoint, in front of the armored cars. The human shields were also forced to remove debris from the road.
According to local villagers, the three armored cars stopped at one house near the school on their way out of the village and forced the residents of the house to come out and stand in the street.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 27 April 2004
Human Rights Report No. 115
Summary: Shots Fired into Hares and Soldiers enter the Village on Foot
Date of incident: 27 April 2004
Time: 19.30-22.30
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Villagers, Amy & Meg
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved ? we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At approximately 19.30 two jeeps were conducting random checks on the road by the bus stop in front of the roadblock. The IWPS spoke to the soldiers who said that they would be leaving soon and were just there ?just to be seen?. Approximately 45 minutes later the jeeps moved closer to the road block and three soldiers reportedly entered the village on foot.
Two rounds of shots were heard fired into the village of Hares between 21.30 and 22.30. The shots were fired close to the roadblock, although we have not been able to discern their exact location.
Report written by: Amy and Meg
Date report written on: April 29th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 116
Summary: Army incursion in Deir Istiya, curfew declared, one man beaten and arrested and the uprooting of trees by army
Date of incident: 28 April 2004
Time: around 9 pm
Place: Deir Istiya
Witness/es:
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved, we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Around 20 army vehicles, hummers and jeeps, border guards and police entered the village of Deir Istiya around 8 pm on the evening of April 28th, 2004. A soldier announced through a loudspeaker that the jeeps had been exposed to Molotov cocktails along the road to Kedumim and so the village was being put under curfew. Everyone was to clear the streets and go home. The soldiers threatened they would shoot anyone who was found on the street. They found two men closing up their businesses. They entered the store of one of the men, named A.A. and shot around him terrifying him. Fresh bullet holes were also seen in the faهade of a house close by. They then beat A.A. with the butts of their guns, smashed his head against a metal door and kicked him repeatedly, while he was crying out that he had not thrown any molotovs. He is the owner of an Internet cafى and was closing up his doors after hearing about the curfew. IWPS received a report that something was thrown from the roof of the building where his store is. Border guards took the store owner, A.A, away and he is currently in prison in Kedumim. The captain of the border guards took away A.A?s cellphone and the man?s brother called the phone and spoke to the Captain asking him why he was hurting his brother. The captain replied that he had not been there when the man was being beaten.
Around the same time, witnesses related how soldiers opened a well and shot inside it ? it is not clear what damage was done nor why this was done.
Soldiers also started uprooting thirteen trees at the West entrance to Deir Istiya. The soldiers said that these trees were being uprooted because they obscured the view to the road and molotovs had been thrown from this area.
The curfew lasted until the next day, Thursday, April 29th, 2004. There was no army announcement as to when the curfew was at an end and school children who had gone to school early in the morning of Thursday were given ten minutes to get home by the soldiers implying that the curfew was not at an end. But later people started going out and by the evening the army was not preventing them.
IWPS received a report that the army came back into the village around 3 a.m. on April 30th, 2004, throwing sound bombs and shooting from their M16 guns.
IWPS was told that recently there have been many army incursions with the soldiers firing into the air and throwing sound bombs in areas where people gather.
Report written by: Barbara and Angie.
Date report written on: April 29th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 117
Summary: Man shot dead by army in Hares
Date of incident: 29 April 2004
Time: around 20:15 pm
Place: Hares
Witness/es:
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Description of Incident
At approximately 20.15 a young man was shot dead by the Israeli army in the village of Haris. The victim was shot in the chest. IWPS received a report around 20.00 of two shots being fired. IWPS witnesses heard a third shot about 15 minutes later. It is not clear which shots killed the young man.
IWPS spoke to soldiers at the scene of the shooting approximately a half hour after the shooting took place. The soldiers refused to provide any details regarding the shooting instead saying, “We do not speak English.” They were seen searching with flashlights. An IWPS witness saw the soldiers at the scene shaking hands with an armed settler who had parked his pick-up truck on the road at the entrance to the village.
Earlier that evening, soldiers were seen around the entrance to Hares. Witnesses reported seeing no vehicle; however between four or five soldiers had been spotted lying on the ground the far side of the road to Kedumim. According to witnesses they looked ?ready to shoot?
Earlier in the late afternoon, IWPS received word that some olive trees had been set alight close to the nearby settlement of Revava. The land belongs to Palestinians who no longer have access because of the proximity of the land to Revava. IWPS went to check the land and noticed smoke coming from two lots of land affecting around a dozen trees.
A phone enquiry by an Israeli citizen elicited the information that youths had been throwing stones at the army. There was no explanation as to why the soldiers were positioned around the entrance to Haris nor why live ammunition was used in response to possible stone-throwing.
Report written by: Barbara and Amy
Date report written on: April 30th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 118
Summary: Army Incursion into Hares
Date of incident: 3 May 2004
Time: 1.00-4.00
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Several Villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved ? we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Two army jeeps and perhaps a dozen soldiers entered the village and detained two people. The two were handcuffed before being escorted to the jeeps. The soldiers were thought to be looking for a third person to arrest but this person was not in the village at the time.
This practice of penalizing a group for the crimes of an individual is collective punishment and is against international law[1]
[1] The above Israeli measures violate international law. Collective Punishment is penalizing a group as whole with no regard for individual responsibility and is illegal under Article 33 as well as Article 50 of the Hague Convention. For more on Collective Punishment see www.alhaq.org. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 3 May 2004
Human Rights Report No. 119
Summary: Army enters Hares for another arrest of a young man.
Date of incident: 4 May 2004
Time: 2.30 a.m.
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Father, Mother and three siblings.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At around 2.15 a.m. the soldiers entered the village and then came to the house of YS and surrounded it. There were 6 soldiers at the door, 2 hiding nearby to the south of the door and others (around 20) in the streets. The army jeeps were parked at the school and then the soldiers came on foot to the house, with camouflage of dark paint on their faces. The soldiers banged on the door and demanded that the house be opened. The father of the wanted man opened the door and the soldiers asked for the son by name. YS came to the soldiers and was taken away. The soldiers did not enter the house this time. Previously, on the 30th January 2004, the soldiers had entered the home, searching all the floors of the house. The young man of 24 has been arrested two times previously, the first time when he was only 18 when he was taken to Jalamiin for 15 days and the second time in October last year when he was taken for 4 days to Kedumin. No charges were made either time. The father has no idea why his son has been arrested yet again.
The previous night, two close relatives of the young man had also been arrested in the middle of the night. Their families were terrorized and damage done to their homes. These arrests are part of increasing army activity in the village of Hares and come just a few days after the killing of a young man by a soldier on the 29th April.
Report written by: Angie and Barbara.
Date report written on: 4 May 2004
Human Rights Report No. 120
Summary: Man detained, then dumped by IDF
Date of incident: May 4th/5th, 2004
Time: 2 pm (May 4th) to 1:30 am May 5th, 2004
Place: From Jericho to Hares
Witness/es: A family in Hares near where he was dumped and where he was taken in.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The victim is a Palestinian policeman who was on his way from Jericho to Nablus. At the checkpoint near Jericho, he was detained by Israeli police around 2 pm. He was handcuffed and blindfolded and left for several hours in a holding cell near the checkpoint.
Later that day, after it was dark, Israeli soldiers drove him to the junction near Hares, dumped him out of the vehicle and then, via loudspeaker, proclaimed very loudly in Arabic over and over that he was a spy.
The young man, 23 years old, is diabetic. The soldiers gave him an insulin injection and then threw away the needle and insulin. They took all the money that he had on him which was around 48 shekels.
The victim entered the village on foot and banged on a resident’s door for assistance. His first question was “What village am I in?”
The witnesses related how his hands were still discoloured from having been tightly bound with the plastic handcuffs. A kind neighbouring woman gave the man 50 shekels so he could get home again.
Report written by: Barbara and Angie.
Date report written on: May 5th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 121
Summary: Army incursion/s into Kafr Ein
Date of incident: 5/6 May 2004
Time: 22.30 on 5th May 2004 and 1.00 6th May 2004
Place: Kafr Ein
Witness/es: Internationals & Villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 22.00 on the 5th May 2004 two jeeps and 10 soldiers attacked the village cafى of Kafr Ein. The soldiers stood all of the customers against the wall, confiscated their ID’s and proceeded to break tables, chairs, 50 coffee cups and 10 nargila pipes. The soldiers told the cafى owner to take down all of the posters of Rantisi and Yassin and drew Stars of David on all of the posters. The soldiers threatened the cafى owner M saying, If you do not take down the posters we will come back and burn down the cafى. The entire attack lasted about 15 minutes.
The soldiers returned a few hours later in the early hours of the next day at about 1.00 with at least one armored vehicle and one jeep and attacked the home of a villager, M.R. The soldiers threw rocks at the house and brought the entire family including women, children and the elderly outside. The father of the family was made to remove his shirt and then put it back on again. The soldiers treated the father of the family roughly, grabbing him by the shirt and throwing him against the armored car. The family was told to produce the ‘wanted’ man (S.R.) from the village within 48 hours or else ‘something bad would happen’.
The soldiers also fired 5-6 shots into the village and threw about a half dozen sound bombs. At least one of these sound bombs was thrown at the home in which the internationals maintain a presence.
This continued abuse is a continuation of the pattern of collective punishment that has been taking place in this village for over 6 months now. It is a violation of international law to collectively punish a group of people for the alleged crimes of a single individual.
Report written by: Amy and Angie.
Date report written on: 7 May 2004
Human Rights Report No. 122
Summary: Israeli Army raided offices and took office files and computer in Qarawat Bani Hassan, Salfit.
Date of incident: May 6th /7th, 2004
Time: 10 pm May 6th 2004 to 1 am of May 7th in one office, 1 am to 3 am on May 7th 2004 in another office
Place: Qarawat Bani Hassan
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
7 army vehicles, 3 hummers and 4 jeeps, with around 30 soldiers entered the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan on May 6th 2004. A further 4 jeeps stayed at the Qarawat roadblock. Soldiers stopped a young man walking along the road, took his ID and ordered him to call the manager of the Jamia al Islamiyye lil Irathit al Eytam wal muhtajeen – The Islamic Society for the Care of Orphans and the Needy.
The young man went to the manager’s home, but he was not there. However the manager had heard from other people of the army at his office and went there immediately. When he arrived he found the soldiers who had broken the lock on the door to the office. The manager was told to sit and the soldiers took all the office files, the office computer, the stubs of cheques and letters waiting to be mailed out. He was questioned about paying money to the orphans of those who had been killed in the intifada. The society has a policy of supporting orphans no matter how the parents died.
The soldiers left around 12:30 to 1 am and then went to the Zakat Committee, an organization that distributes money donated by families to help the poor. Paying Zakat is one of the obligations for a Muslim. The funds are used to support 220 orphans.
The manager had been alerted by telephone and was instructed to drive to the office and the army jeeps would follow. On arrival, the manager opened the door for the soldiers. The officer and soldiers took away all the files and the computer from the office. The captain asked for the cellphone number of the manager in order to call him once they had finished with the files.
They stayed in this office until around 2:15am.
Report written by: Barbara and Angie.
Date report written on: May 8th and 12th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 123
Summary: 3 arrested in Marda
Date of incident: Thursday 13 May 2004
Time: 10.30a.m.
Place: Marda
Witness/es: Villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Around 15 soldiers arrived in three jeeps at the house of two of the detained men. R, his brother A, and the father A. were all standing outside their house. The soldiers demanded their ID’s and the papers for the two cars standing outside the house. The father asked why they had come, and they said that they suspected that the cars were stolen. All three men were handcuffed and the two sons were told to get into a jeep. The father was not told to get into the jeep.
One of them had just had a plaster cast taken off his leg because of a broken ankle and it was still bandaged. He was still not able to walk properly. His mother asked the soldiers not to be rough with them because of the broken ankle and the officer replied that he would break the other ankle. The father and his two sons were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. They were so tight that after a time their hands became black. They were all punched, beaten in the head, chest and abdomen, and kicked.
The officer examined the car papers, the cars and the ID’s. The father gave them the phone number of his brother who was the owner of the cars. The brother was called by the officer and asked if he were the owner of the cars. He confirmed he was the owner and said that the cars were in Marda for repair. The officer said that all was in order and he and all the soldiers left. They went to the school, drove around the school, then interrogated two teachers about their cars. One of the teachers was arrested and his car taken away.
After one hour the soldiers came back to the house of A. and took away the two sons.
Report written by: Barbara, and Amy
Date report written on: May 15th, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 124
Summary: 3 incursions and 1 arrest in one day in Kafr Ein
Date of incident: 17 May 2004
Time: 8.00-9.30; 17.00-1800 and 1.00-2.00 AM
Place: Checkpoint to Ramallah & village
Witness/es: Various villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
A.M.B., a teacher, was arrested at a checkpoint on the eastern road to Ramallah at approximately 8.00 on Monday morning. After the soldiers arrested A.M.B they entered the village of Kafr Ein at approximately 9.00 with two Humvees and searched his house. Soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs at a group of civilians; three injuries were reported. Two boys aged 13 and 14 years old were injured by a rubber bullets. One woman, K.B., was hit in the neck with a sound bomb and later treated in the hospital in Salfit. The two Hummers left at approximately 10.30.
Later that day 1 large armored vehicle carrying about 10 soldiers re-entered the village at approximately 5 pm and left around 6. Once again, tear gas and rubber bullets and sound bombs were fired.
In the early morning hours at approximately 1.00 two Hummers returned to the house of N.R. The soldiers collected two extended families and gathered them into one room before they searched the house. The soldiers chided the family saying, ‘Where are your volunteers now?’ The soldiers left around 2.00.
This abuse is part of a continuing pattern of Collective Punishment in the village of Kafr Ein.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 19 May 2004
Human Rights Report No. 125
Summary: Three water tanks shot and damaged, shots fired in the middle of the night, one arrested in Kafr Ein
Date of incident: May 28-29, 2004
Time: 8:30 a.m. until 2:45 a.m.
Place: Kafr Ein, near the mosque
Witness/es: Kate and Sue of IWPS, D.R., several villagers, family of A.K., other villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At approximately 8:35 a.m. on Friday, May 28, 2004, while waiting for a car at the crossroads between Kafr Ein and Salfit, two IWPS members witnessed a Humvee driving into the village of Kafr Ein. We followed it. Before we reached it, we heard three volleys of shots. Near the mosque, we encountered the Humvee driving out. The driver slowed when he saw us, but then drove on and out of the village. Beyond where the Humvee was coming from, there was a roadblock of medium sized rocks, such as kids in villages often make. Later we learned that three water tanks near the mosque had been hit by the shots. Two of the tanks belong to the family of M.A.F.
IWPS member Kate called the IDF Spokesperson’s office and was told by a manmore dripping.jpg (38342 bytes) named Iftah that “The army was searching houses in Kafr Ein during the night, and when they were driving out a crowd confronted them. They fired warning shots to disperse the crowd, and one of the shots hit one of the hot water tanks.” This story cannot be correct because: (1) The Humvee was not driving out of the village but into it; (2) no house in the village was searched during the night; (3) there was no crowd near the vehicle (it being Friday, very few people were on the street at that hour); and (4) we photographed at least six holes in two different tanks, plus one which was dripping from the bottom, so it could not have been a stray shot that hit the tanks.
At about 2:10 a.m. on Saturday morning, we heard more shots, also from near the mosque. Someone told us that there were three jeeps driving around the village. The following morning we learned that a young man, Amjad K., had been arrested, and some of his family’s glasses and other household items had been broken.
Report written by: Kate and Sue
Date report written on: May 29, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 126
Summary: Long detention of several hundred workers at Beit Amin checkpoint
Date of incident: 29th / 30th May 2004
Time: Continuous for 2 days
Place: Beit Amin checkpoint
Witness/es:
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Sunday, 30th May someone called and said that there were hundreds of men being held at the Beit Amin checkpoint, many of them for over 24 hours. He said they had no food or water, and that when they asked for water, one of the female soldiers laughed at them and said, “And now they want water.” We attempted to get someone to go and investigate, but no one was able to do that. On 31st May, three from IWPS went to the checkpoint and met a group of about ten men who were being detained there. Most had been stopped on the road by Az Zawiya, where they were attempting to go around the checkpoints into Israel to work. A few had been arrested inside Israel. Their IDs were confiscated and they were told to go to Beit Amin and wait there to get them back. They said that they were not allowed to take a car but forced (one said at gunpoint) to walk the four or five kilometers to Beit Amin. They also told us that on May 29th “3000″ people had been held at the checkpoint, and that many had to sleep there overnight. Some, according to the witnesses, were there for 48 hours. They were from Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and villages in this area. Soldiers gave them only warm water to drink. They said that tear gas had been thrown at the crowd, and we found a tear gas canister nearby.
We gave the men our cards and Hamoked’s and asked them to let us know if they or others are held again for long periods of time.
IWPS previously documented the policy of this type of collective punishment of people attempting to work in Israel without permits. See HR Report No. 55, filed in September 2003.
Report written by: Sue and Kate
Date report written on: May 31, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 127
Summary: Young man shot in Kafr Qaddum
Date of incident: 21 May 2004
Time: 15.00
Place: Kafr Qaddum/Qalqilya
Witness/es: Family members and villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At approximately 15.00 on a Friday afternoon K.Y., a person who is handicapped, was standing in front of his brother’s house in the street in Kafr Qaddum when a jeep with 4 soldiers beeped twice and stopped about 100 m away, then called someone on the phone. After, one soldier proceeded to get out of the jeep and shot K.Y. in the leg.
The soldiers refused to allow the family of the victim to approach him. When one brother attempted to transport the victim to the hospital, the brother was threatened, “Don’t take him or I’ll shoot you too.” After about 15 minutes a Red Crescent ambulance arrived and only the ambulance worker was allowed to approach the victim.
According to family members, the Captain responsible for the soldiers came to see the family and apologized approximately one half hour later. The Captain reportedly said, “Soldiers are new and don’t know the area” and offered to take K.Y. to a hospital in Israel. The victim was transported to a hospital in Kfar Saba in Israel. However, the hospital called the victim’s brother and asked for payment of 3,000 to 4,000 shekels per day, which the family cannot afford. The hospital’s director spoke to the hospital in Tulkarem to where the patient was transferred briefly. However, the Tulkarem hospital does not have the resources to treat him so sent him on in the ambulance to the Rafidiya hospital in Nablus.
Report written by: Amy
Date report written on: 31 May 2004
Human Rights Report No. 128
Summary: Settlers and army invade spring at Yasouf
Date of incident: 4th June 2004
Time: 3pm – 5pm
Place: Yasuf
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
We were informed by villagers at approximately 3pm that some 30 settlers, accompanied by several jeeps, had come to the spring in Yasouf. When we arrived in the village at 4 pm, we heard shots being fired. Some boys and young men were throwing stones in the direction of the jeeps on the agricultural road. The villagers said that the settlers had tried to come to the village, but had been prevented from entering. They had stolen a donkey. At 4.20pm a jeep came up the track into the village from the direction of the spring and met an ambulance coming down, which the jeep prevented from continuing. At 4.40pm 2 sound bombs were heard coming from the centre of the village. We went to see but were persuaded not to by the villagers as they were worried we would be mistaken for settlers. We saw a jeep parked across the main road in the centre of the village – stones were being thrown from the houses on either side. At 5pm the jeep drove past us along the road – more stones thrown. Two jeeps passed us twice more, more shots were fired and more stones were thrown. Then the jeeps seemed to leave the village. Susy called the IDF spokesperson’s office and learned that the settlers had received permission from the army to bathe in the spring.
On Saturday, we returned to the village and saw a jeep parked at the intersection between the agricultural roads, blocking access to the village from the settlement. There were no more problems that weekend.
The previous week, the settlers had also come to the spring on Friday and Saturday, Sunday and Monday there was a curfew in the village. The army was in the village last Friday and Saturday.
People also reported that settlers have been burning the wheat fields where people were working, coming into the village and throwing stones and breaking windows. Once they attempted to burn the mosque with people inside it.
Report written by: Sue W.
Date report written on: June 6, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 129
Summary: On going violence by IDF to demonstrators at Az Zawiya
Date of incident: Starting Monday 7th June continuing
Time: During day
Place: AzZawiya
Witness/es: IWPS, Villagers, Other international and Israeli demonstrators
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Sunday, June 6, 2004, at approximately 10:30 p.m., IWPS learned from the DCL for Salfit and the mayor of Az Zawiya that bulldozers had arrived in the village and immediately begun to uproot trees to make way for the wall. The next morning, IWPS participated in a demonstration in the village which began about 9:00 a.m. Before the protest began, border police drove to the school where the Tawjihi exams were taking place, and demanded ID from all of the young men taking the exam. The mayor intervened to enable the Tawjihi to continue.
Hundreds of villagers, accompanied by internationals, tried to reach the land where the trees were being uprooted. Bulldozers were working in several areas. The men of the village were at the front of the demonstration. They were fired on with tear gas as they approached the army who were protecting the bulldozers. A small group of women found another way to the olive groves and reached the bulldozers. The army refused to stop the bulldozers from working, though women and children were standing only a few feet from the blade of the digger. Eventually, about 15 women, Palestinian and international, managed to sit under some bulldozers and stop the work. The IDF threw tear gas very close to the women after about half an hour and the women were forced to leave.
There have been demonstrations in the village every day, attended by hundreds of villagers, Israelis and internationals. As soon as the demonstrators are within several hundred meters of the bulldozers, the IDF fires dozens of canisters of tear gas at them. There have been young children, women and elderly people in attendance at the demonstrations.
Around 200 people have been overcome by tear gas. Several people have been injured by rubber bullets, beaten or hit by exploding sound bombs. 15 people on one day had to be taken to the hospital in Biddya and 2 people sustained severe injuries and had to be taken to hospitals in Ramallah and Nablus for treatment. One journalist was badly burned by a sound bomb. Live bullets have also been found on the ground near the protest sites.
Doctors at the clinic report that people injured by tear gas are displaying unusual and severe symptoms such as paralysis and convulsions. IWPS has asked Physicians for Human Rights to analyse the substances being used in order to ascertain whether other forms of gas are also being mixed with the tear gas.
Border police, army and civilian police have incurred into the village repeatedly since June 7. At least four villagers have been arrested and released.
Az Zawiya is one of three villages – along with Deir Ballut and Rafat – that will be completely enclosed by the wall within the Salfeet region of the West Bank.
Report written by: Carolyn
Date report written on: Wednesday June 17th
Human Rights Report No. 130
Summary: A woman who was nine months pregnant lost her baby 5 days after being tear-gassed.
Date of incident: 10 June 04 (tear-gassing), 15 June 04 (baby born dead)
Time: daytime; approx. 2hr00
Place: Az Zawiya
Witnesses: villagers, internationals, Israelis; doctor in Nablus and family members
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action. The family is available for interviews. Contact IWPS for further information.
Description of Incident
On Thursday, 10 June 2004, the Israeli army threw tear gas at hundreds of non-violent demonstrators in the village of Az Zawiya in the Salfit region. The villagers were protesting the wall that will take 90% of their land if completed as planned.
One woman who was nine months pregnant was badly tear gassed, and sustained bruises on her arms. She was together with other women of Az Zawiya.
Four days later, on Monday, 14 June 2004, she entered Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. The baby apparently had died in utero and was born on Tuesday, 15 June at approximately 2hr00. The baby was born blackened and his blood was black as well.
The woman returned home on Wednesday morning. The baby was buried later that day, at approximately 13hr40.
(See “How Israel Disperses Demonstrations: Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?”)
Report written by: Sue
Date report written on: 17 June 04
Human Rights Quarterly Summary no. 4, April to June 2004
Human Rights in Palestine
The basic and fundamental human rights of the Palestinian People have been both directly violated by the state of Israel and the basic protection promised to Palestinian civilians under the Geneva conventions have been denied. Israel, as the occupying power, has undertaken obligations to ensure the protection of the civilian peoples living under Israel’s occupation under the Geneva Conventions. The state of Israel has ignored these obligations, which they voluntarily accepted, and the continuing abuses constitute Grave Breeches under the Geneva Conventions.
Despite having signed and ratified a multitude of human rights treaties – including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – the state of Israel has in reality not respected these treaties and has both committed grave human rights offences and has not fulfilled its obligation as an occupying power to protect the civilian population from abuses of human rights.
Furthermore, the construction of the Apartheid Wall has been condemned by the International Court of Justice which has judged that it is an illegal barrier and has said that reparations must be made to the Palestinian people who have suffered as a consequence of the Wall. Furthermore, the Wall is considered to be an illegal barrier by the United Nations General Assembly (GA Resolution A/ES-10/14).
Additionally, the deportation and harassment of Human Rights Workers and persecution of journalists has seriously inhibited the documentation and publication of human rights abuses. This persistent and grave disregard for human rights has led to international condemnation of Israel’s human rights record.
Fourth Quarterly Report
This is the Fourth IWPS quarterly summary of violations in the Salfit area, in which IWPS operates. This report covers the time period from 1 April 2004 to 30 June 2004 and covers the IWPS Human Rights Reports numbers 101 to 130. During this period the IWPS compiled 38 reports on human rights violations in 11 villages in the Salfit region. IWPS does not attempt comprehensive documentation, and these are likely to be only a tiny proportion of the violations taking place in the area during that period. In addition to the incidents summarised below, the apartheid wall involves violations of all forms of human rights.
Summaries of human rights violation documented are given below under the following categories: Killings by IDF, Injuries by IDF, Settler Violence, Property Damage and Incursions by IDF, Arrest/Detention, and Restrictions on Movement. (Numbers refer to the relevant IWPS Human Rights Report).
Killings
29 April Man shot dead by army (117)
15 June stillbirth following tear-gassing by army (130)
Injuries by IDF
April 17 Beatings by army and confiscation of ID cards at Huwara checkpoint (108)
May 17 several injuries during raids (124)
May 21 man shot in leg by army Kafr Qaddum (127)
7-10 June tear-gassing and beating of anti-Wall protestors (129)
Settler Violence
April 17 farmer beaten by settlers Deir Istya (109)
April 17 night raid by army and (110)
4 June theft of livestock and damage to spring (128)
Property damage by military
April 14 army destroyed ancient trees and graves (107)
April 28 army uprooted trees during raid Deir Istya (116)
May 28-29 water tanks shot at by army (125)
7-10 June } army bulldozed land and trees for the Wall (129)
IDF incursions
(most of these took place at night and included house raids, beatings, detentions and property damage)
Detention
13-14 April two internationals detained during military raid (106)
19 April international and Palestinian detained during raid (111)
3 May and 4 May detentions during army raids (118, 119)
4-5 May policeman dumped in following detention (120)
13 May three men detained and beaten Marda (123)
Freedom of Movement
9 April curfew imposed on for several hours (103)
28 April curfew imposed on Deir Istya (116)
29-30 May hundreds of people detained for 24 hours + at checkpoint Beit Amin (126)
IWPS Human Rights Reports Summary July 2003 to June 2004
This annual summary of human rights violations recorded by IWPS in the Salfit area covers the 12 months July 2003 to June 2004. It shows a steady increase in the number, and also the seriousness, of human rights violations reported to IWPS.
IWPS does not attempt comprehensive documentation, and these are likely to be only a tiny proportion of the violations taking place in the area during that period. In addition to the incidents summarised below, the apartheid wall involves violations of all forms of human rights. It should also be noted that the highest number of incidents reported are from Haris and its neighbouring villages – this is a reflection of the fact that IWPS-Palestine is based in Haris and therefore that more of the incidents happening in Haris are investigated and reported. In fact, Haris is not the most seriously abused village by any means. The reports made are more a reflection of where IWPS has the most contacts and therefore from whom they receive the most calls asking them to witness and document.
Quarterly reports containing summaries of each violation reported, and separate reports with details of each violation, are found on the IWPS website.
IWPS Human rights reports 2003-04 by type of violation
| Jul-Sep 03 | Oct-Dec 03 | Jan-Mar 04 | Apr-Jun 04 | |
| Killings | 1 | 2 | ||
| Injuries (army) | 4 | 3 | 4 | |
| Denial of medical treatment | 2 | 2 | ||
| Settler violence | 1 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| House demolition | 2 | 2 | ||
| Property damage | 2 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| Raids/closures | 2 | 7 | 17 | |
| Movement restrictions | 7 | 3 | ||
| Detention | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| Denial of education | 4 | |||
| Total reports | 14 | 24 | 35 | 39 |
| Total | 112 | |||
IWPS Human rights reports 2003-04 by village
| Jul-Sep 03 | Oct-Dec 03 | Jan-Mar 04 | Apr-Jun 04 | 2003-2004 | |
| Haris | 4 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 23 |
| Kafr Ein | 2 | 2 | 13 | 17 | |
| Kifl Haris | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| AzZawiya | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 | |
| Qarawat Bani Zeid | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Marda | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Deir Istya | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Huwara | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| Jamai’in | 3 | 3 | |||
| Zatara | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Yasouf | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Deir Ballut | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Mas’ha | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Salfit | 2 | 2 | |||
| Jubara | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Sawiya | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Qarawat Bani Hassan | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Others* | 3 | 8 | 2 | 13 | |
| Total | 14 | 24 | 35 | 39 | 112 |
* Other villages are A-Ras, Azun, Ras Atiya, Kafr Dik, Luban, Bidya, Farata, Kafr Sur, Kafr Laqif, Beit Iba, Deir Sharaf, Beit Amin, and Kafr Qaddum.
Human Rights in Palestine
The basic and fundamental human rights of the Palestinian People have been both directly violated by the state of Israel and the basic protection promised to Palestinian civilians under the Geneva conventions have been denied. Israel, as the occupying power, has undertaken obligations to ensure the protection of the civilian peoples living under Israel’s occupation under the Geneva Conventions. The state of Israel has ignored these obligations, which they voluntarily accepted, and the continuing abuses constitute Grave Breeches under the Geneva Conventions.
Despite having signed and ratified a multitude of human rights treaties – including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – the state of Israel has in reality not respected these treaties and has both committed grave human rights offences and has not fulfilled its obligation as an occupying power to protect the civilian population from abuses of human rights.
Furthermore, the construction of the Apartheid Wall has been condemned by the International Court of Justice which has judged that it is an illegal barrier and has said that reparations must be made to the Palestinian people who have suffered as a consequence of the Wall. Furthermore, the Wall is considered to be an illegal barrier by the United Nations General Assembly (GA Resolution A/ES-10/14).
Additionally, the deportation and harassment of Human Rights Workers and persecution of journalists has seriously inhibited the documentation and publication of human rights abuses. This persistent and grave disregard for human rights has led to international condemnation of Israel’s human rights record.
Human Rights Report No. 131
Summary: Tapuach settlers set fire to Yasuf land.
Date of incident: 4 July 04
Time: 3:00 pm
Place: Yasuf
Witnesses: villagers, taxi drivers at Yasuf roadblock
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Sunday, 4 July 2004, just before 3:00 pm, Palestinians at the Yasuf roadblock saw a fire raging in the olive groves below. One Palestinian reported that he saw a settler from the Tapuach settlement near the fire as it began to spread with the wind.
The fire began in a valley where new trees had recently been planted, and it spread upwards over many dunums of land, almost reaching the settlement itself. Some witnesses say there could have been two different fires.
One Palestinian fire truck from Salfit was able to get to the lower area around 3:30, although the roadblock at Yasuf prevented it from getting to roads where it would have been able to easily extinguish the whole fire. Settlers reportedly came and fired warning shots near the people who were trying to put out the fire. An Israeli fire truck extinguished the parts of the fire threatening the settlement above.
Villagers guess that approximately 150 olive trees (about 10% of the trees in that area) perished in the fire, along with large stretches of agricultural land. The damaged land belongs to 6 or 7 different people.
Witnesses called the Palestinian DCL in Salfit, who called the Israeli DCL for the Salfit area. The Israeli DCL promises to look into the matter, though many Palestinians think it is unlikely that the Israeli DCL will do anything. The settlers from Tapuach are known for their attacks on nearby villagers and village land.
Report written by: Hannah
Date report written on: 5 July 2004
Human Rights Report No. 132
Summary: IDF raids village of Rafat at night.
Date of incident 5 July 04
Time: 2:30 am – 9:30 am
Place: Rafat, Az Zawiya
Witnesses: hundreds of villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 2:30 am on Sunday night, over 200 soldiers and border police reportedly entered the village of Rafat with dozens of jeeps. Two police cars accompanied them. The army declared curfew and threw several sound bombs.
In one area of town the IDF ordered everyone (approximately 100 people, 40 of whom were children) to open their windows and leave their houses. Soldiers took the group to the street, not giving them time to put on more clothes than they were wearing. The soldiers took 3 men and 2 women aside for separate interrogations. One of the women is pregnant, and the other is breastfeeding. The second woman was not allowed to get her baby when she heard it crying. These 5 people were relatives of M, a wanted man (the family does not know why the army wants him).
M was not in the village that night, and his wife was sleeping in another relative’s house. The soldiers demanded that relatives open the empty house. They took one brother upstairs, ordered him to open the windows, and threatened to blow up the house – with him in it – if he didn’t share information.
One man was reportedly forced to carry a white bucket of explosives from one house to M’s house, and place it on the wall outside the garden. The soldiers photographed this parade before blowing up the garden wall. Witnesses report that the bucket, as well as the explosives inside the bucket, came from the jeep and not from the village.
Villagers suspect that the soldiers will try to use these staged photographs in court. They also suspect that the IDF wants to connect these explosives with an alleged bomb found in a car near Azzawiya on Sunday afternoon. In fact, say villagers, nothing had been found in the car. The bag soldiers had claimed carried a bomb actually contained nothing but school books. Still, the soldiers had closed the Palestinian roads for at least 3 hours. Human rights observers had been surprised that the IDF had not closed the Israeli road directly above this alleged bomb, considering the potential danger if there really had been a bomb in the car. The IDF had arrested the two men in the car.
At a different place in the village of Rafat on Sunday night, soldiers reportedly took 2 families (including a 5 year old deaf boy) out of their homes around 3:00 am. These families were also related to M. About 30 soldiers entered one house with dogs, and found nothing. The soldiers would not let the oldest man drink water or take precautions for his diabetes.
Soldiers also entered the house of one of the men who had been arrested from the car on Sunday. They entered around 5 am Monday, ordering everyone to leave the house. They proceeded to rip the family’s couches apart and break glass and vases. They allowed the family to return just after 8 am.
At approximately 7 am on Monday, one man was taken from Rafat to the nearby village of Azzawiya where his aunt lived. The soldiers were still looking for M, and reportedly beat the three children in the Azzawiya house (ages 9-12), and threatened to take them if they did not give information about M’s whereabouts.
At approximately 9:30 am in Rafat, the soldiers allowed the 100 people to return to their homes. People found broken glass everywhere, particularly near and inside the house that was targeted. The army had fired bullets into the walls of the house as well.
Villagers fear that the army may return in the coming days.
Report written by: Hannah
Date report written on: 5 July 2004
Human Rights Report No. 133
Summary: New settlement at Einabus
Date of incident: July 12th 2004
Time: 3pm
Place: Village of Einabus
Witness/es: Donia, Carolyn, Fawzi
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Rabbi’s for Human Rights called to ask if we could go and photograph a new settlement outpost in the village of Einabus. We met Fawzi from the village, who walked us to the outskirts of the village and up the mountain through the olive groves. We were able to get about 2 thirds of the way up the mountain before Fawzi said it was too dangerous to go any further. About half way up the mountain there was a disused camp site covered in rubbish that Fawzi said was left by the soldiers. We photographed a tent and a watch tower used by soldiers, as well as a caravan type structure. We were informed that they had been put there in the past couple of days. The outpost has been set up by settlers from Itamar near Nablus. There are already 2 outpost settlements on neighbouring hilltops, one of which was established 3 years ago and the other 2 years ago. The new outpost is probably an extension of these two outposts. For the past 2 years Fawzi said that he had been unable to reach his olive groves which are located on the other side of the mountain. The farmer on whose land the outpost is illegally located has had many of his olive trees cut and is also not able to reach the land. Fawzi reported the army and settlers come into the village and attack the houses located closest to the outpost on numerous occasions.
Report written by: Carolyn
Date report written on: 16th July 2004
Human Rights Report No. 134
Summary: West Bank Closure Enforced by Mobile Checkpoints
Date of incident: 14th July 2004
Time: from 7pm until 12pm
Place: Mas’ha, Az Zawiya
Witness/es: Carl, Ardna, R.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS received many phone calls on the night of the 14th July after a day of flying checkpoints and village closures. Internationals from the ISM were stopped about a kilometer from the turn off to Az Zawiya at 8pm. There were about 200 villagers, including children and old people from Mas’ha and Az Zawiya who had been waiting for up to 5 hours and who were not being allowed to return home. Eventually at 10pm the soldiers left.
We also received several phone calls from R. who reported that he had heard shooting from the West Gate at Mas’ha. We contacted an Israeli supporter who made several phone calls and confirmed that there was shooting from soldiers in the village. She contacted a member of the Knesset. At about 12pm that night she received a phone call from a villager to say that the soldiers had left the village.
Report written by: Carolyn
Date report written on: 16th July 2004
Human Rights Report No. 135
Summary: Elderly woman shot and critically wounded by army in Hares
Date of incident: 21st July 2004
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Hares village, near the school
Witness/es: Family members of Lamiya Qasem Kleeb
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Witnesses reported that an army jeep entered the village from the east and remained in the village for an hour. Children threw stones, and the soldiers threw sound bombs and three canisters of gas. After the crowd had been dispersed by the gas, the soldiers, standing in the street, fired into the house of Lamiya Qasem Kleeb, who was seated in her stairwell. Kleeb is 60 years old.
Kleeb’s nephew took her by car to Huwara checkpoint, where she was transferred to an ambulance which took her to Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. Kleeb’s husband was forbidden by the soldiers to accompany his wife to the hospital. According to witnesses, the soldiers threatened to shoot anyone who tried to follow the car which drove Kleeb out of the village. Her nephew reported that the car was delayed at Zatara checkpoint and the ambulance was also delayed at Huwara, and that it took her one and a half hours to reach the hospital. If you do not have to wait, it takes about 30 minutes to reach Nablus from Hares.
Doctor Samir, an emergency room physician at Rafidiya, said that Kleeb was shot twice in the back and once in the abdomen. She sustained 70% damage to her kidneys, and has lost at least seven liters of blood. “Her intestines are outside of her body,” reported Dr. Samir.
Family members showed IWPS seven separate bullet impact points in the stairwell where she was shot. Numerous shell casings were recovered from the scene. Three families, comprising 20 people including 10 children live in the house where Kleeb was shot. The soldiers also shot and damaged water tanks on two houses neighboring Kleeb’s.
According to Dr. Samir, the prognosis for her survival is not good.
Report written by: Kate and Carolyn
Date report written on: July 22, 2004
Update, July 22, 2004: Rabbi Arik Asherman from Rabbis for Human Rights spoke to the IDF (Army) spokesperson’s office and they denied that they were in Hares on Wednesday evening. They demanded “proof.” The family asked IWPS to help them get in touch with an Israeli lawyer, which we will do.
Human Rights Report No. 136
Summary: Army invades Marda and closes roads
Date of incident: 22/07/04
Time: 12.30 a.m.
Place: Marda
Witnesses: NK, Kate, Carolyn, Ruth
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At about 12.30 a.m. on Thursday night, N. from Marda rang to say that soldiers were throwing sounds bombs and using a bulldozer to uproot trees in the village. IWPS got a car to the western entrance of Marda where there were 2 jeeps of soldiers and a bulldozer working about 100 metres inside the village. We could not see clearly what the bulldozer was doing. The soldiers stopped our car and told the driver to turn around. The driver argued that there were only 3 international women in the car going to Zaatara. The soldiers said it didn’t matter and that the driver should go back. The driver turned back towards Hares. We asked him to stop when we were out of sight of the soldiers and walked back to the checkpoint. The soldiers stopped us and asked us what we were doing. Kate went to talk to them and find out what they were doing in the village. One of the soldiers informed Kate that there had been an accident in that area earlier and they were ‘doing some work’.
We rang an Israeli activist who rang the District Civil Administration Office (Israeli). They informed her that someone had thrown stones at a settler’s car which had caused an accident. They also said that the ‘action was over’. Later Nasfat told us that the soldiers had said that someone from Marda had put stones on road 505 which passes Marda, and a settler’s car was upturned as he drove over the stones unaware.
The soldiers allowed us through and we got to the eastern most entrance of Marda. We walked through the village and then went to N’s house. From his roof we were able to see the soldiers come to the middle entrance with the bulldozer. N informed us they were closing that road also. Our Israeli contact told him that the army said Marda was a closed military zone. About half an hour later we saw the army searchlights coming from the eastern most entrance by which time it was clear they had closed all three roads leading into the village.
N. received several phone calls from villagers at about 2am informing him that soldiers were walking through the village.
The following morning there were soldiers at the western entrance to Marda who questioned us briefly but we did see villagers leaving the village from other entrances. When we asked the soldiers why they had blocked the village, one of them said, “Because we want them to suffer.”
Kate and Ruth went to investigate the situation later in the day. All the roads remain blocked, and the village was officially under curfew, but the soldiers were no longer there. About 10 trees had been cut, not uprooted and therefore not replantable. The trees that were cut are at least 200 metres away from the site of the accident, and they belong to two farmers, who are not specifically suspected of having caused the accident.
Late that afternoon, as Kate and Ruth were leaving the village, six soldiers were dropped off at the middle entrance and set up a checkpoint. Kate and Ruth asked them why they were there, and they said to check for suspicious people walking out of the village, because “two men put stones in the road which caused an accident, and three people were injured.” Kate asked how they knew it was two men, and if they knew who they were, and they replied, “Well, actually, we do not know who put the stones in the road.”
Report written by: Carolyn and Kate
Date report written on: 23rd July 2004
Human Rights Report No. 137
Summary: Army invades Hares and shoots sound bombs and ammunition.
Date of incident: 25/07/04
Time: 7-8.30 pm & 2:30-3:30am
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Donia, Ruth
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Sunday evening Donia, Lynn and Ruth returned home from Nablus at about 7p.m. Three jeeps were stationed at the entrance of the village. About fifteen soldiers were standing by the side of the road, some checking the ID of incoming and outgoing villagers, others with guns pointed toward Hares. Donia and Ruth asked them why they were there and what they were doing. They replied that “a stone was thrown at one of their jeeps”.
IWPS spoke to them for about twenty minutes; then one reservist said they were going to leave and they left. Ten minutes later, as we walked back into the village, two army jeeps returned and entered the village. We tried to block their passage on the main road but they bypassed us. They arrived by the mosque, threw some sound bombs and shot in the air as they took a left turn. They stopped briefly to shoot their guns and as they turned around one of the soldiers was laughing.
They drove to the entrance of the village and stopped. Donia and Ruth followed them to ask more questions. One of the soldiers asked “did you get some nice photos?” We asked them why they were collectively punishing an entire village for one stone and why they had come back when they said they were leaving. One soldier replied that “they had to learn their lesson about throwing stones”. IWPS asked whether shooting in the village haphazardly would teach the villagers anything; we added that women and children were terrified. He replied “then maybe the mothers will keep their children indoors and stop them from throwing stones”.
The soldiers left and IWPS asked whether they were planning to return again that night. “Most likely” was the response.
At 2:30 am, IWPS received a phone call from a villager informing us that four army jeeps were in the village. Donia went out to see what they were doing and found them about 25 meters from the Mosque on the main road using their spotlights on the villagers’ houses. They shone their spotlights on Donia as well for approximately five minutes. After about ten minutes, three army jeeps turned around on the main road, and a couple of soldiers made seemingly dismissive comments at her in Hebrew.
Donia walked behind the jeeps, only to hear a few minutes later, screams coming from the road. As she turned the next corner on the main road, she found one jeep stationed with its lights out blocking the path to the road above. Donia tried to get past the jeep to see who was screaming and why, but the soldiers prevented her with guns drawn. She talked to one soldier but never received any reasons regarding their presence in the village. They finally left shortly after 3am and Donia went up the road to check on the villagers. It did not look like anybody was hurt or in pain, and everything seemed okay.
Report written by: Donia, Ruth and Lynn
Date report written on: 25/07/04
Human Rights Report No. 138
Summary: Secret Police takes young Palestinian man out of his home in the middle of the night in Az Awiya.
Date of incident: July 30th, 2004
Time: 4:15 am
Place: Second house after the junction in Az Awiya (to be clarified)
Witness/es: The Abdel Mni’m family
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Witnesses reported that 7 army jeeps entered the village of Az Awiya at about 4:15 am Friday morning and surrounded Hassan’s house, looking for his brother Said. Said had returned home to Az Azawiya on a break from his work as a Palestinian soldier stationed in Salfeet, on Thursday July 29th at about 5 p.m. Said is 21 years old.
The army banged on the family house’s door and ordered them to open it, asking for Said. Hassan told them that Said was not home but they replied “You’re a liar, Said returned home, we know.” The Israeli secret police, who was also present, questioned Hassan as to Said’s whereabouts. They seemed to know that Said was actually sleeping at his uncle’s house, and they took one of Hassan’s younger brothers (13 y.o.), to lead them to the house in question.
They arrived at the uncle’s house. Said was sleeping downstairs. They took Said out of his bed. They hit him a couple of times, put a bandana over his eyes and a black hood over his head. The army did not tell the family why they were taking Said away, but IWPS was told that this is a regular practice when it comes to Palestinian soldiers who return home for a break. It was also reported that five days prior to the incident, the army had come in the village, asking about Said.
It is not known where he is at this time.
Report written by: Donia and Carolyn
Date report written on: August 2nd, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 139
Summary: Villager’s house invaded in Marda and 12 year old child taken by army.
Date of incident: 01/08/04
Time: 8.30pm
Place: Marda
Witness/es: Nasfat and his family Carolyn, Donia, Ruth, Mother of Nadim.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Nasfat from Marda called at 8.20pm on Sunday night 01/08/04 to say that soldiers were in his house and to ask us to come immediately. We managed to get there 20 minutes later but by that time the soldiers had left and were stationed at the east side of the village. Nasfat reported that 4 soldiers had entered his house at about 8pm. Another 4 soldiers were stationed outside in one of the two jeeps. Nasfat said the soldiers searched all the rooms, under the beds and in the cupboards. They said they were looking for the boy who had thrown a stone at a car several hours ago. They threatened to throw Nasfat over the roof of his house, and tried to take his mobile phone by force as he was calling us. There were around 15 young children and several women in the house including N’s elderly mother. Nasfat was down the road at a neighbour’s when the army invaded his house and ran back when he saw the jeeps and heard crying and screaming. Carolyn called Dorothy, who contacted the army and the Knesset.
About an hour later Nasfat received a call from another family in the village who said their 12 year old son, Nadim, had been taken by the army. This family is related to the family who had their olive trees cut last week (see human rights report 136). When we arrived, the mother was extremely distressed, crying and wailing about what would happen to her 12 year old son. She was sitting in a room with several other women including her daughter, and some young children, when we arrived. When the soldiers came to take her son she had been alone in the house with her younger children. Nadim is her oldest child.
She told Donia that one of the soldiers had put a gun to her head. He had spoken Hebrew, which the mother doesn’t understand. She tried to explain to him that her son had been on the second floor of the house, working, at the time the stone had been allegedly thrown. Later she explained to Donia that Nadim was the only source of income in the house as her husband was very ill, and that he had been sitting on the second floor of her house sewing all day.
IWPS again contacted Dorothy and Suzy to try and trace where the boy had been taken. About an hour after we arrived at the family’s house, the jeep came back with the young boy and a man who turned out to be the neighbour, who had insisted on going with Nadim in the jeep. The boy was tearful and clearly frightened. The soldiers shouted at us to get back and then continued at intervals to tell the neighbour to tell us to go back into the house. We remained close enough to act as witnesses as the soldiers continued to question the boy and the neighbour, and an uncle, who had come out of the house and run down to his nephew.
Carolyn approached one of the soldiers and spoke to him about the inappropriateness of taking a 12 year old boy in an army jeep late at night. The soldier said, as he pointed at the boys family and friends ‘ None of them are people’ although when questioned about this he replied ‘ some of them are ok but most of them are not’. He also threatened to call the police.
The army commander continued to talk to Nadim and his neighbour for about half an hour while the uncle stood by. At one point the commander called over the boy’s mother and spoke to her in Arabic.
After the army left, Donia overheard the boy tell his mother that the soldiers had been drinking alcohol in the jeep. Carolyn rang Dorothy to report this and Dorothy contacted the army.
The neighbour also later reported that the jeep had driven to a checkpoint where they had stopped and interrogated the boy, trying to get him to admit that he had thrown a stone at a passing car several hours before. Nadim stuck to his story that he had been working on the second floor of his house at that time. They had then changed into another jeep, driven around and eventually driven back to the village.
Later Nasfat mentioned that the soldiers had come into the village earlier that day and disrupted a party that the boys were having at the school and complained the children were taking photos of their jeeps. He also said that the neighbour who had been in the jeep with Nadim, reported that the soldiers had said they were intending to find and kill some ‘wanted’ men in Salfeet and Marda.
Report written by: Carolyn and Donia
Date report written on: 02/08/04
Human Rights Report No. 140
Summary: Special Report on rounding up of Young Men in Salfeet Region
Date of incident: Month of July
Time: Various
Place: Villages of Rafat and Az Zawiya
Witness/es: Families of Shabbab; Donia and Carolyn interviewed families.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
2 sons taken from family in Az Zawiya
Fahdi, who is 23 years old, was detained and later arrested at the Huwarra Checkpoint on the 20th of July, on his way to a hospital appointment in Nablus. He did not have the letter from the doctor with him at the time as he had forgotten it at home. IWPS saw the medical documents pertaining to Fahdi’s eye condition. He has a trauma and cataract in his eye and needs follow up to an operation. The family contacted Hamoked who said that he had been moved from Huwarra military prison to P’tach Tikva. Fahdi studies computer programming and works in a telephone shop in Az Zawiya. No-one from his family has ever been in prison before.
Rami is Fahdi’s older brother and the only other son in the family. He is 24 years old. He works in Jericho in a factory and was detained and later arrested at the Duke Checkpoint on the way to Jericho on July 30th. Rami is in a prison in Qedumim. Both brothers are the main source of income for the family. No reasons have been provided by the Israeli authorities for arresting these two brothers.
Talal is 22 years old and lives in Rafat. He was arrested about 1 month ago, on his way to university, at a flying checkpoint under the bridge on the way to Az Zawiya. He has previously been in administrative detention in 2003 for 1 year. He is currently in Askalon Prison. All of Talal’s brothers are in prison and the family has no source of income. Talal’s oldest brother Badran blew himself up at home in 1997. The father said that the army took the body and brought it back 7 months later. Since then, the IDF have arrested the other 2 brothers.
Billal was arrested 7 years ago and is in Gilboa Prison. He was 17 at the time of his arrest. His father has not been allowed to see him or the other brother Zahran during all this time. Only his mother is allowed to visit. He has been moved prisons many times and the authorities do not inform his mother until she arrives for a prison visit. Her last visit was 2 weeks ago. She reported that Billal had a broken nose and very bloodshot eyes. He has to be taken to the prison hospital in Ramle every week for treatment for his eyes and his lungs. His mother states that the injuries are from torture.
Zahran, the third brother, was arrested in 1999. He was sleeping at his sister’s in Mas’ha at the time. The army came at 2am. He was 24 at the time of his arrest. He has a 13 year sentence. He is currently in Ashkalon.
A’wadala A.A.A., their father, has also been in prison 3 times.
Mohammed is 28 years old, married with 1 child from the village of Rafat. Mohammed has disappeared sine the 4th of July 2004. The family thinks that he was arrested outside Rafat, possibly Huwarra checkpoint, shortly after Talal and another youth Sabe’r were arrested driving in a car under the bridge on the way to Az Zawiya. The family read a short report in Al Ayam newspaper about a man being arrested at Huwarra. The family thinks it must be Mohammed as they have not heard from him since the date mentioned in the newspaper article. The newspaper article connected this arrest at Huwarra, with those arrests made on the road to Az Zawiya (Talal and Sabe’r) but did not mention any names. The article reported that the army assumed to find a bomb in the car on the road to Az Zawiya, but they did not find it. IWPS has photos of the car and Talal’s schoolbag which the IDF tore to shreds in their efforts to find bomb making materials. The family has contacted Hamoked and the International Red Cross but neither organization is able to gain information about his whereabouts.
Sabe’r from the village of Rafat was arrested with Talal on the road to Az Zawiya one month ago. He is 31 years old and has 4 children, 2 little girls and 2 little boys.
The IWPS did not have time to interview the family so there are currently no details as to where he is being held.
Update to HR Report 138 about the arrest of Said.
The army came in the middle of the night and threw heavy stones at the door to wake up the family who were sleeping in the front room and upstairs. Said’s brother who is 20 was sleeping in the front room along with 9 other people downstairs. 4 people were upstairs. There were also 2 small children sleeping downstairs and 2 upstairs. Said’s 97 year old grandfather was also present in the house at the time of the army invasion. There were 7 jeeps outside and 12 soldiers throughout the house. Said is a student of economics at the Il Quds Open University in Salfeet. He is 21 years old. He has been taken to Qedumim.
Report written by: Carolyn and Donia
Date report written on: 3/08/04
Human Rights Report No. 141
Summary: 3 houses, 5 tents, 4 water pool for animals and a chicken farm destroyed by bulldozers in Azzun ‘Atma.
Date of incident: August 4, 2004
Time: 4:00 am to 12: 00 pm
Place: Azzun ‘Atma
Witness/es: Abdelsalaam O., Mahmoud O., Habeth; Kate and Donia of IWPS; Raz, Jonathan, Francheska, Mariano.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS received a call at 7am Wednesday August 4th from Raz, informing us that there were bulldozers in Azzun ‘Atma since earlier that morning and that they were demolishing houses. Donia investigated the matter over the phone and was told that 9 bulldozers were in the village, and 6 houses had been destroyed. Witnesses also reported that there were over 20 jeeps inside Azzun ‘Atma.
Kate and Donia arrived in Azzun ‘Atma a little bit before 10am. They managed to enter the village through the roadblock on 505 as the gate to Azzun ‘Atma on the road from Beit Amin was closed, and the town was under curfew. The villagers were inside their homes. IWPS was confronted to the border police just after 15 minutes of walking inside the village.
The police threatened Kate and Donia with arrest if they refuse to turn around and leave the village. IWPS asked them why they were not allowed to walk through the village, and they replied that the town was under curfew. When the police were asked about the house demolitions, they responded that the people “did something bad, they were not allowed to build”, and thus their houses had to be destroyed. Then, 2 other border police jeeps showed up and they followed Kate and Donia to the village exit on 505, while shouting on their loudspeakers that the town was under curfew. One of the border police groups seemed to enjoy turning their sirens every time Kate and Donia were on the phone, and in fact, they did behave throughout that morning in an immature and offensive manner. That same border police group guarded the entrance to the village in their jeep, keeping internationals out f the village. IWPS, along with an Israeli and a Spanish journalist, had to wait until about 12:15 pm when the curfew was lifted.
The first house that we went to, a yellow house, was partly demolished. The owners had built another half to their tiny house, and it was now a wreck. The owner of the house, R.A.M., is in Jordan and will return the second week of August.
IWPS moved on to the next house, which had been completely demolished. The owners started building the house 4 years ago and they wanted to add a second floor to it. They proceeded to apply for a permit to build a second floor at Beit El’s court. The owners reported that the court first refused to give them a permit, claiming that one cannot build in area C. However, the court did give them a building permit, stating that since a part of the house was in area B, the owners could build a second floor provided they follow the floor plans drawn by the court, and they did just that. Nevertheless, the house was completely demolished. Six people lived in that house, 4 men and two women. The 4 men were present during the demolition, they were taken out of their house, handcuffed and forced to witness the demolition from about 4 am to 12 pm. Their personal belongings and furniture were spread on the street when IWPS got there.
IWPS met with Ali K.M.A. whose water pool for the animals and the two rooms underneath were partly destroyed.
Donia documented this fourth demolition in which a water pool for animals and a room annexed to it, by the greenhouses, were destroyed.
The next 3 demolitions were documented by activists Raz and Johnny.
Muhammad A. had 2 rooms and a toilet between the greenhouses. He is from the town of Sannaria but because of the fence and the checkpoint, he can no longer access his land in Azzun ‘Atma easily. Thus he built himself a flat in which he lived while he worked on his land.
Zaid M. is a Bedouin born in Hebron, but for the last 35 years he has been living around Azzun ‘Atma, more precisely South-West of Sannaria. He had about 5 tents that were completely ruined. Each tent had a fenced space for the animals, and the rest of the room was inhabited by people.
Hani A. from Mas’ha, owns agricultural land and a chicken farm in Azzun ‘Atma. The bulldozers destroyed 2 water pools of his, used to collect water for the animals, and the chicken farm. Hani said that the army had left him a notice about 6 months ago in regards to the demolition, and that he was in the middle of the process of getting the permits, when they decided to raze it all.
Report written by: Donia
Date report written on: August 4, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 142
Summary: Israeli soldiers occupy top floor of a residential building at the entrance of Haris.
Date of incident: 16.8.04
Time: 6:30 AM
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Donia, Charlotte, and Ryvka
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 6:00 AM we received a phone call from Um Fadi that soldiers were occupying a house at the entrance to the village. We arrived at the building at around 6:30, and saw that the soldiers had hung a camouflaged tarpaulin over two outside walls of the house. There are several families living on the first two floors of the house. The top two floors are not yet completed and therefore vacant. When we arrived, we went up the staircase between the second and third floor and saw that the soldiers had blocked the staircase off with some old furniture. We asked the soldiers what they were doing, and informed them that they were breaking international law. The commander said ‘yes I know I am’. He informed us that he would shoot if we tried to cross the line of furniture. Some villagers who were outside the house, told us that the soldiers had been there since 5 AM, that they had come in with food and water, and that there were 6 or 7 of them. The jeep that dropped them off had a red and white flag, which someone had previously informed us, is a new unit in the area. Upon reflection, IWPS thinks that they may have been doing training exercises. When we came later in the afternoon, around 3:30 or 4:00, the soldiers were still there.
This house is at the entrance to the village and has been occupied several times before.
Report written by: Ryvka, Carolyn
Date report written on: 16.8.04
Human Rights Report No. 143
Summary: Bomb explodes in house in Kufr ‘Ein, killing one and injuring six family members.
Date of incident: 17.08.04
Time: 11p.m.
Place: Kufr ‘Ein
Witness/es: The family
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On the morning of the 19th, IWPS received a phone call from Daoud of Kufr ‘Ein, telling us that a young man had been killed in a bomb explosion two days earlier. That evening Charlotte, Donia and Ruth went to the village, arriving at around 10 p.m., to document the incident. We spoke to Daoud Rifa’i, Daoud B and Najeh B who gave us the following information:
At 11 p.m. on 17th of August, Daoud B. both heard and felt the impact of an explosion not far from his home. He later learned that a bomb had exploded in the house of the Irfai’s, killing the oldest son Majdi Youssef, aged 26 years. Majdi worked as a chemist and was preparing for his wedding party, which was to take place in a week.
The mother, Fatriya, has sustained severe injuries resulting in the loss of one of her eyes and damage to her brain. Doctors fear she may lose her second eye. The father was injured lightly. Both are currently in Al Quds hospital. The older sister Maissoun sustained serious injuries to her head and chest and has already undergone surgery in Ramallah. The other family members were lightly injured.
According to the villagers, the mother had found a strange bucket containing two unidentifiable objects next to the fig tree just outside the courtyard of the family home. She handed the bucket to her son, who picked up one of the objects, which then immediately exploded. The uncle then kicked the other bomb into the garden, where it exploded. The younger brother later described the bomb as small and compact with the appearance of a car part or gas tank lid. The villagers claimed that the bomb could not have been made by a Palestinian as it would have required access to high technology.
About an hour after the explosion, the army arrived at Kufr Ein and told villagers who were surrounding the house to leave. The injured family members were taken to hospital in Jerusalem. Daoud said that there were 40 soldiers with dogs who searched the house for three hours. After the soldiers left, the villagers were left to clean up body parts, which had been widely scattered. Next day, the army returned to the house both before and after the funeral, once again forcing people to leave the house. They stayed for about an hour each time.
According to the villagers we spoke to, the family has no history of political involvement and had never previously been targeted by the army up until a few days ago when one of the sons was arrested, Wissam who is a teacher. He is now being interrogated. No reason was given for his arrest.
Report written by: Ruth and Charlotte
Date report written on: 20.08.04
Human Rights Report No. 144
Summary: 15 year old boy injured by army fire in Qarawat Bani Zeid.
Date of incident: August 19, 2004
Time: 1 am
Place: Qarawa Beni Zeid
Witness/es: Abu Rabia, Arar, and his family.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Friday August 20, Ruth, Charlotte and Donia visited with Abu Rabia and his family in Qarawa Beni Zeid. They reported to IWPS that during the latest army incursion in their village, a 15 year old boy (a member of their extended family) had been shot in the leg.
At 1 am on August 19th, 2 army jeeps entered Qarawa Beni Zeid and one other jeep stayed on the outskirts of the village by the school. The jeeps went around the village and shot Oujdi I’med Arar in the right lower leg. The bullet went inside his leg and came out on the other side. The boy was rushed to the hospital and is awaiting an operation. Abu Rabi was not sure as to whether or not Oujdi had thrown a stone at the army jeeps.
Abu Rabi’ recounted for IWPS several incidents in which villagers, mainly schoolboys, had been killed (see HR Reports 40, 44, 45, 59), wounded (see HR Report 89) and harassed (HR Report 82). He explained that the road the army uses to get into the village first brings them to the school. Often, the schoolboys are provoked by the army and some throw stones. The organization Al-Haq sponsored a case study on the subject-matter: “Provocation to Kill: The Use of Force as a Response to Provoked Stone Throwing – A Case Study of Qarawa Beni Zeid.”
Report written by: Donia
Date report written on: August 20, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 145
Summary: Olive trees cut down in Marda.
Date of incident: 21.08.04
Time: Around 1 PM
Place: Marda
Witness/es: Several villagers from Marda
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 1.45 PM Carolyn, Donia and Sara met Nasfat at the prisoner solidarity tent in Az Zawiya. Whilst there, Nasfat received a phonecall from Marda informing him that soldiers were in Marda cutting down trees by the side of the road. Carolyn, Ruth and Ryvka arrived at the scene with Nasfat about half an hour later and saw one hummer jeep driving away. We were informed that 2 other jeeps, a bulldozer and one border police vehicle had left several minutes before our arrival.
Four trees were cut down near the road 505 which is the main road to Tel Aviv. The villagers told us that the reason they were given for the uprooting of the trees was an accident that had happened a few weeks before. It is unclear whether they were referring to the accident on road 505 several weeks previously (see HRR 136) or to a new incident.
Nasfat informed us that the land on which the trees were cut is owned by an absentee landlord residing in Nablus . Nasfat believes that the army is strategically cutting down trees from the side of the road in order to improve its visibility from the Ariel settlement. IWPS members speculate that more trees will be cut down in Marda soon in preparation for the building of the wall. Only a few days before this incident, the army showed up and gave villagers plans to cut down 20 more trees. The owners of these 20 trees have taken the order to court, and are waiting to hear the results of the case.
Report written by: Ruth and Ryvka
Date report written on: 21.08.04
Human Rights Report No. 146
Summary: Army invades Marda several nights in a row, threatens mayor and others
Date of incident: 23-24.08.04
Place: Marda
Witness/es: Nasfat, Shaher K., Tayseer, Ben, Lou
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At about 2:30 a.m. on Monday, August 23, two jeeps and a Humvee drove into Marda and threw two or three sound bombs. Soldiers banged on the doors of one house, and made one of the women come out and take them to the home of Shaher Khufush, the mayor. They surrounded the mayor’s house; he reported there were at least 20 soldiers present. The captain told him that if he did not stop people from throwing stones onto the road, the army would cut down all the trees in the village, and that they would also round up all the old men in the village, take them to the mosque square and shoot them.
The captain said that they were going to come back to Marda every night.
On Tuesday morning, at 3:00 a.m., jeeps again drove into the village, threw sound bombs in three areas of town, and left. On Tuesday night, they did the same at 10:00 p.m.
Report written by: Kate
Date report written on: 25.08.04
Human Rights Report No. 147
Summary: Army reportedly hits man at flying checkpoint, throws sound bombs in village
Date of incident: 01.09.2004
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Abu F. and other villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At about 8:30 pm on Wednesday, September 1, Abu F. called to tell us there was a problem at the entrance of the village. The army had set up a checkpoint and was stopping all Palestinian cars. One taxi driver from outside of Hares had apparently been hit in the nose by one of the soldiers, probably with the barrel of the soldier’s gun.
By the time we got to the village entrance, the man was gone, but at least 10 soldiers remained, checking Palestinians’ IDs. The soldiers we spoke with denied having hit anyone.
Several villagers told us that the army had entered the village twice earlier that day, throwing sound bombs. The soldiers confirmed this, saying that someone had thrown a stone at them outside Hares, so their ‘non-obtrusive’ response was to throw sound bombs inside the village. According to some, the army may have also used tear gas.
The soldiers maintained the checkpoint at the village entrance for at least two hours.
Report written by: Hannah
Date report written on: 02.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 148
Summary: Follow up Report on targeted family in Rafat – see HR reports 132 and 140
Date of incident: August 20
Time: 3:00 am and 5:30 pm
Place: Rafat
Witness/es: ‘Ayesh Family
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS visited the ‘Ayesh family in Rafat for the third time. This family has been targeted since the 4th of July by the Army when Mohamad ‘Ayesh disappeared (see HR reports 132 and 140). The Army on Friday 20th August came at 3:00 am and 5:30 p.m of the same day to question the ‘Ayesh family members as to Mohamad’s whereabouts.
Witnesses reported that many soldiers with dogs harassed Youssef ‘Ayesh’s house next to Mohamad’s empty house during both army incursions. They banged on the main door of both houses with a huge sledgehammer damaging both doors. IWPS saw the latter and the new bullet holes on the small garden’s wall. Each time the army stayed for a couple of hours asking the ‘Ayesh family for their IDs.
1. Family is still looking for an eye-witness of the arrest of Mohamad
2. Abu ‘Ayesh also checked with the PA if they have Mohamad and they denied any knowledge of Mohamad
3. Khaled A spoke to Arnon from Ha’aretz newspaper on Thursday 2nd September about his article that mentioned Mohamad, but no new information was provided by Arnon.
Report written by: Donia and Kisna
Date report written on: 5-Sept-04
Human Rights Report No. 149
Summary: Army throws tear gas in Hares
Dates of incidents: 03.09.2004
Place: Hares
Witness/es: Um F., Abu Y., I.S., Kate and Kisna from IWPS
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At around 4:30 p.m., Um F. called to tell us that soldiers were at the entrance to the village throwing tear gas. As we went out, we heard more gas being fired. Villagers told us that the army was by the mosque, but by the time we got there, they had driven out. A group of young men walked up to us and they were coughing and showed other effects from the gas (eyes out of focus, walking unsteadily, faces flushed). Someone said that the army had fired the gas at a wedding party at the entrance. Later in a phone call, our neighbor I.S. was told that a group of young men had been hanging out at the youth center, the jeeps had come by, the young people threw some stones at the jeeps and the army fired gas at them.
Um F. told us that the army had been driving in and out all day, beginning at 5:30 in the morning, and twice had thrown sound bombs near the entrance to the village. She did not know if it was always the same soldiers or different groups.
Report written by: Kate
Date report written on: 06.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 150
Summary: More incursions into Marda; 15 year old taken from home; trees uprooted (see also Reports 146, 145 and 139)
Date and time of incident: 05.09.2004, 11:10-11:50 p.m.
Place: Marda, near the west entrance
Witness/es: Abu M., N.K.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Shortly after 11:00 p.m. on , N. called to tell us that the army was in the center of Marda throwing sound bombs. A few minutes later, he called and said that the army had taken a fifteen-year-old and left the village. The boy was Mohammed Said.
About half an hour later, Mohammed’s mother called and said that the army was cutting olive trees near the west entrance to the village, and she was very afraid of what they might be doing to her son. We decided to send a group to Marda to investigate and spend the night.
When we got to the village, the army was gone. They had cut four trees, two on each side of the road. People reported that two jeeps had entered the village, gone to the center and thrown sound bombs for some time, and then gone to the west side of town, where they had taken Mohammed from his house.
Shelley Nativ called the army Office for Humanitarian Affairs and was first told that a boy had been arrested for stone throwing and that a soldier was hit in the head. The police at Ariel told her that he was being transferred to a SHABAK facility. Ten minutes later, a female soldier from the army office called to say that the boy had been released. We confirmed that Mohammed was released and arrived home shortly after 1:00 a.m.
The next morning, we met Mohammed’s father. He reported that 12 soldiers had come to his home with two jeeps. He was sitting with adult members of his family on his porch, and the officer said, “You have a 17-year-old son who threw stones. He puts stones in the road which cause accidents.” Abu Mohammed said no, he did not have a 17-year-old and none of his children had thrown stones; they were at home. He recalls that the officer then said, “You all say that. We know that everyone throws stones.” The soldiers demanded that he bring all his children out onto the porch. As soon as they saw Mohammed, they handcuffed and blindfolded him. Abu Mohammed went to try to talk to the officer, but one of the soldiers tried to hit him.
They drove Mohammed to the west entrance and stayed there about 15 minutes. They then took him somewhere and held him in a room. He told his parents he did not know where he was because he was blindfolded the entire time, but they were driving about 20 minutes. He said that both in the car and wherever they held him, they asked him who threw stones. His father said the soldiers hit Mohammed in the stomach, back, legs and arms.
Mohammed reported that the soldiers dropped him at the eastern entrance to the village, the furthest from his family’s house, which is at the west entrance. He says they told him, “We know your house and your face, and if you come out of your house at night, we will take you.”
On our way out of the village, we saw the four trees which had been cut.
Report written by: Kate
Date report written on: 06.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 151
Summary: Brief incursion into Hares, army enters IWPS house (see Addendum following)
Date and time of incident: 07.09.2004, approximately 3:30 pm
Place: Hares, IWPS house and other parts of village
Witness/es: IWPS women and guests, S. family, other villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At approximately 3:30 pm, U.R. came to our door and told us that soldiers were outside and were demanding that everyone leave the house. We looked out the window and asked the three soldiers, “What’s the problem?” “Leave the house now,” they responded. When some of us went downstairs, one soldier started to explain that there might be someone who wants to hurt them, and they need to come into our house. Another soldier told the first not to talk to us or explain anything.
The soldiers apparently became tired of waiting and began to walk up the stairs as Hannah was talking on the phone with Arik from Rabbis for Human Rights and Kate was locking the door. The soldiers tried to hang up the phone and take the house key. Hannah said to one soldier, “There’s a rabbi on the phone who wants to talk with you.” The soldier responded, “I don’t care about any rabbi. Do you want me to hurt you?” He threw the phone on the ground, took the house key from Kate, and began to push us down the stairs. We stayed on the stairs and the soldiers went to the roof for about one minute and then left. Kate asked them for the key, and they left it on the stairs on their way out. The soldiers walked through the olive groves behind our house towards the road, apparently searching for something or someone, and returned to their jeep parked at the junction about 200 meters away.
Diana from Rabbis for Human Rights called back to say that the army spokesperson told her somebody threw a Molotov cocktail in the area.
We went to the roof and saw another jeep drive up the road and park at the entrance to the village. We went to see what the army was doing, and on our way many children were yelling at us that the army was in the village. We were almost to the entrance of the village when two jeeps and a hummer drove past us. The army vehicles all parked at the entrance and about 30 soldiers got in and out of the jeeps, talking with each other and on phones to others. A taxi parked at the entrance asked if he could drive through and was told no, he had to wait. After about ten minutes, most of the vehicles left. One jeep remained for about five more minutes, still not allowing the taxi to pass. Then they left too.
There were rumors in the village that the army had been shooting, but we did not hear any shots.
Report written by: Hannah
Date report written on: 07.09.04
Addendum:
At about 10:45 p.m., jeep # 610945 and Hummer #703846H entered Hares and drove up and down the main street several times throwing sound bombs. They threw at least nine sound grenades. IWPS tried to talk to them, but they did not respond. Villagers reported that earlier in the day, someone had thrown paint on one of the jeeps.
Written by: Kate
Date written on: 07.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 152
Summary: Army enters school in Hares, shoots live bullets in village, throws sound bombs at night
Date and time of incident: 09.09.2004
Place: boys’ school in Hares, other parts of village
Witnesses: hundreds of children, teachers, villagers, IWPS
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 12:15, U.F. called to tell us soldiers were at the entrance to the village and had gone to the boys’ school (4th grade and older) and thrown tear gas and sound bombs. Two of us went to the school, and by the time we arrived, the soldiers had gone. The boys were running around in the streets. School usually ends at 1 or 1:30, but because of the disruption, children were already going home at 12:15.
According to the director of the boys’ school in Hares, at 11:30 am soldiers broke the door of the school and entered the courtyard with one jeep. Children began crying and screaming, and the director instructed them to stay calm. The jeep parked in the courtyard until a couple boys threw stones at it, at which point the jeep left. Around 11:45, the jeep returned and threw sound bombs and tear gas in the courtyard, where the children were gathering. The jeep left again, and school ended for the day.
At 3:30 pm, Hannah heard 3 or 4 shots fired and went outside. About 50 meters away, a jeep (#610794) was driving down the road, and soldiers threw a sound bomb out the jeep’s window into the yard of a home. The jeep then turned around and left the village. No injuries were reported.
At 10:15 pm, we heard sound bombs again. We went to the roof and saw that they were by the school and further up in the village. We heard people screaming and Kate and Cliona decided to go out. A jeep (#610945) and a hummer drove out of the village throwing sound bombs. They stopped, blocking the entrance to the village. The hummer left, and the jeep prevented cars from entering for about a half hour. A.R., who was in one of the cars, was told by soldiers that there was an operation in Hares. Dorothy Naor called the army to ask how long the village would be closed, and they told her the village was always closed at night, which is not true.
After standing in the entrance singing for a while, the soldiers got into their jeep and drove away.
Report written by: Hannah and Kate
Date report written on: 09.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 153
Summary: Army briefly takes 13-yr-old boy
Date and time of incident: 10.09.2004
Place: Hares
Witnesses: IWPS women and villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Around 6:30 pm U.F. called to tell us that the army had been coming in and out of Hares for some time. We were out of the village, but arrived at the entrance between 6:45 and 7:00. A hummer (#703846) and a jeep (#610945) were parked at the entrance, and the soldiers were standing outside talking. Two more jeeps drove by the entrance of the village. After about 5 minutes, the soldiers got in their vehicles and began to drive into the village. An older man tried to cross the road as the hummer was approaching, and the hummer revved its engine to kick up clouds of dust.
The soldiers drove into the village, and three IWPS women followed slowly toward the center. When we arrived, villagers told us that the soldiers had taken a young boy from near the school. The soldiers started coming back down the road and we stood in front of the jeep to try to talk to them and ask them about the boy. The jeep stopped, but then revved its engine and started to move forward, and we moved out of the way. The hummer approached next. The driver pointed to his eyes, apparently as a warning, and then again kicked up dust clouds on all the people standing nearby. The soldiers then left the village.
Villagers told us that 5 or 6 soldiers were walking on foot near the olive groves above the school, but we looked for them and did not find them. Someone reported that they had gotten into a jeep and left.
We went to the boy’s house – at this point he had been returned – and talked with him and his family. He is almost 13 years old, and was taken from near the school. The soldiers drove him to a nearby settlement and asked him a couple questions in Hebrew. He didn’t understand Hebrew, and after a few minutes, the soldiers drove him back to the entrance of Hares and let him go. He was detained for a total of approximately a half hour.
Report written by: Hannah and Cliona
Date report written on: 10.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 154
Summary: During Rosh Hashana holiday, army sets off sound bombs in Hares and invades wedding in Az Zawiya
Date and time of incident: 17-18.09.2004
Place: Hares and Az Zawiya
Witnesses: IWPS women and villagers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Thursday, September 16, 2004, the first day of the Rosh Hashana holiday (the Jewish new year), an army jeep (#610998) and a hummer (#703846) entered Hares at about 5:30 p.m. IWPS was alerted by U.F. and went to the school, where we saw the hummer standing on the main road. According to people on the street, they were making a checkpoint there. We saw the jeep parked around the corner and took video of it and the hummer. Shortly after we arrived, they set off two sound bombs and then drove out toward Kifl Hares.
On Friday, September 17, 2004, at 9:00 p.m., T. called from Az Zawiya to say that his brother’s wedding was in progress and there were two army jeeps standing outside. The house was full of children, who were afraid because of the army’s presence. Dorothy called the civil administration, who said that the soldiers were “looking for something” but that they should not bother people at the wedding and people shouldn’t worry. However, T. reported that the army had demanded first his father and then his brother (the groom) to come out of the house. After Dorothy called the civil administration back, T. reported that the jeeps left.
Report written by: Kate and Hannah
Date report written on: 18.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 155
Summary: 11 army jeeps and 2 bulldozers destroyed 4 houses and 9 animal pens at a Bedouin camp near Salfit.
Date and time of incident: 20.09.2004
Place: Hills near Salfit
Witnesses: Bedouin families
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
The Israeli army destroyed 4 homes and 9 animal pens at a Bedouin camp on the mountains near Salfit today. A.S. who lives in the camp reported that 11 jeeps, 2 bulldozers, one police car, and one security vehicle were there from just after 11 o’clock in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon. The soldiers told the families to vacate their homes by Friday, four days from now.
Forty people (five families) and at least 600 goats live on the land, and the families have lived there for 15 years. They received a notice to leave 4 years ago and another one at the beginning of this year. The reason given was that they are on Israeli ‘state land’. According to N., who informed us about the demolitions, the land is owned by a man in Salfit who has papers to prove his ownership and is happy to have the Bedouin families living on the land.
UN representatives also went to the site to assess the damage. They say UNRWA may be able to help with rebuilding costs, because the families, originally from Beer Sheva, are refugees.
The families plan to stay on the land.
Report written by: Sarah and Hannah
Date report written on: 20.09.04
Update 23.09.04: N. reported that the Bedouin family decided to move to a spot closer to Salfit, into a tent provided by the UN, so no further support from IWPS is needed at this time .
Israeli District Coordinating Liaison Says Collective Punishment Is Army Policy
In a meeting with International Women’s Peace Service volunteers on Sunday, September 19, 2004, Lt. Meydad Ashkenazi of the Qalqilya District Coordinating Liaison stated that the policy of the Israeli army is to use tear gas and sound bombs indiscriminately and “as much as possible,” in order to “pressure communities to stop kids from throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.” He stated that although “98% of the people in the villages of the West Bank want peace and oppose stone-throwing,” the army will continue to punish the entire villages because they believe it is an effective way to stop stone throwing and other acts of resistance.
In particular, the DCL stated, the army will continue to set off sound bombs at night in the villages of Marda and Hares, in the Salfit district, “and that is okay with us.” According to Meydad, the DCL’s responsibility is “taking care of the civilian population who are not involved in the fighting.” IWPS has documented at least 9 incidents in September involving sound bombs and/or tear gas in Marda or Hares.
When IWPS members pointed out that this is a policy of collective punishment, which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, Meydad said, “Well, it is not exactly collective punishment. It is a policy of pressuring the population.”
The army’s policy, according to Meydad, is to “make our presence felt in all the villages” of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, so that “terrorism doesn’t walk free.”
Report By: Kate and Hannah
Report Date: 19.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 156
Summary: Hundreds of Palestinians detained five hours near Funduq and denied water
Date and time of incident: 26.09.2004
Place: Road between Jit and Funduq
Witnesses: Kate and Hannah of IWPS, Neta G.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
Shortly before noon, IWPS received a call from the ISM Media Office saying that many people were being detained in the sun without food or water on the road between Qedumim and Funduq. After verifying the information with Neta, who was on one of the detained buses, we went to the scene to monitor the situation.
There were seven buses and a long line of cars and trucks waiting to go through. The people from the first bus were allowed to get back on just as we arrived, but in a minute, they were all told to get off again. People said that this was the third or fourth time they had been told to get on and off. Neta reported that before we arrived, some passengers were forced to stand in a line in the sun, looking straight ahead and not talking, and that soldiers kicked people’s possessions.
We asked the people waiting if they had gotten any water from the army, and they said they had not. The soldiers assured us that if anyone asked them for water, they would give it to them. However, when a passenger with small children asked for water, the soldiers told her they did not have any. One border policeman told Kate that he had sent for water. Dorothy called the Civil Administration and asked about the situation, and was told that someone was already working on it. However, during the next two and a half hours, no one brought any water for the detainees.
We asked the soldiers why everyone had to get off the bus again. One of them said that they had checked the people but not the bags. They had apparently arrested someone who was on the bus when they first stopped it, and they claimed that he had been carrying a bomb. Neta, who saw him taken away, said that the soldiers did not do anything to disarm him and that in the hours the bus was detained, they never carefully checked other passengers’ bags. In fact, we saw them tell people to take their bags out of the compartments, but they did not look in most of them. Men in some of the service taxis were made to take everything out of their bags, and a few were told to lift up their shirts and turn around, while other cars were allowed through after a soldier looked at the IDs. One young man was being held separately from everyone else, crouching in the sun with a soldier guarding him most of the time. He told us that he had been taken off simply because he has ID from Nablus.
About an hour after we arrived, one of the soldiers brought a bag of sodas for the other soldiers. Hannah reminded them that the Palestinians had not had anything to drink, and he said, “Soda is only for soldiers.” At that point, Kate called Dorothy to call the Civil Administration again. Neta asked again for water for her children, and this time, one of the soldiers told her to get it from the bus driver’s cooler of water in the luggage compartment.
As we initially approached the checkpoint, a settler car stopped us and said that a soldier was telling us to stop, and that we needed to follow their orders, which were for our own safety. He said that if we did not, he had the authority to take our cameras away. The soldiers, on the other hand, did not seem that concerned about us being there and were not yelling at us to stop. Shortly after we arrived, a man drove up in a white van that said it was a gift from the “One Israel Fund.” He filmed us for several minutes, and then sat in the van watching the footage.
About 1:00 p.m., five women and one man from Women in Green, a settlers’ association, came with ice cream and sodas for the soldiers. They approached us and told us in Hebrew that we should leave and should not take pictures of the soldiers because we were making their jobs hard. One of them had a bullhorn and was chanting in our ears, “Shalom. Go home. You are bothering the soldiers.” We tried to get away from her and she followed us very closely, sticking like glue. The Palestinians urged us to hide among them, but she followed us into the crowd, so we got on the bus. Several soldiers gave them “thumbs up.” One of the young women told Hannah that the army had called them, and that “they call us every day.” The soldier then nudged the woman and whispered something in her ear. Neta observed that the soldiers called this woman by name.
Hannah suggested to the Women in Green that they give some drinks to the Palestinians, who were very thirsty. They replied, “Protecting them is not our job. We are here to protect the soldiers.” We decided to go to Funduq to get some drinks and cookies for the detainees. When we returned, the Women in Green had left.
Soon after we got back from the store, two officers of the DCL arrived (Rami and Rami). Kate asked one of the soldiers how much longer it would be and he said, “I promise you this, by 2:00 they will be gone.” It was then 2:25 p.m. Palestinian time, and 1:25 Israeli time. Several people came to tell us that they or their relatives on the buses were sick and needed to get to hospitals. We took them to talk to the DCL, whom most of them knew and who reassured them that it would only be a little longer. The DCL had a Hamas banner and some Arabic literature, and he and two of the soldiers seemed to be reading from someone’s notebook.
Shortly before 3:00 p.m. (Palestinian time), everyone’s IDs were returned, including the young man from Nablus, and the buses were allowed to leave. The total time of the detention was about 5 hours.
Report written by: Kate and Hannah
Date report written on: 26.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 157
Summary: Curfew in Hares, olive trees uprooted
Date and time of incident: 27.09.2004
Place: Hares
Witness/es: IWPS
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 6:00 am on Monday morning, soldiers entered Hares and announced curfew. Over the next two hours, at least two sound bombs were thrown in the village. Just before 8:00, IWPS women spotted an army bulldozer uprooting olive trees near the main junction at the bottom of Hares. Hannah and Stacey went to take pictures and asked the soldiers why they were destroying trees. One soldier stated that a bomb exploded in that spot the night before, and that the trees needed to be cleared so they could gather information about the bomb and “so that it won’t happen again.” Several army jeeps and police vehicles (border police and civilian police) were blocking the road and enforcing curfew in the area. Between 15 and 20 soldiers and police officers were there at any given time, and they would not let Hannah and Stacey return up the road until the bulldozer left and they finished searching the olive groves. Even after clearing the trees, it seemed that the soldiers did not find any evidence for the cause of the explosion.
The bulldozer uprooted a total of 12 trees.
Report written by: Stacey and Hannah
Date report written on: 27.09.04
Human Rights Report No. 158
Summary: Incursion into Qarawat Bani Zeid
Date and time of incident: 6 October, 2004, 1:30 – 8:00 a.m.
Place: Qarawat Bani Zeid
Witness/es: J.A., D.R.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
J.A. called from Qarawat Bani Zeid at 4:45 a.m. to say that 18 jeeps and at least one bulldozer had entered the village and declared curfew. When we checked back after two hours, the curfew was continuing and J.A. did not know what was happening, because the operation was not near his house. We called at 8:30 a.m. and were told that the operation was over. Later that day, we received this report on the phone from D.R., who is a teacher in the village.
The jeeps entered about 1:30 a.m. and invaded several houses, gathering all the residents in one house while they searched the others. About 30-40 people were affected. One young man was arrested, and they inquired about another, who was not in the village.
The curfew was declared at 4:00 a.m. and lasted until 8:00. The announcement said that the school would be closed, but since the army left at 8:00 a.m., the school opened late.
Report written by: Kate and Karin
Date report written on: 6.10.04
Human Rights Report No. 159
Summary: Olive grove vandalized in Marda
Date of incident: 14 October 2004
Time: Between 18:00 and 20:00
Place: Marda next to Route 505
Witness/es: Drivers passing
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
In the evening after dark, a bulldozer accompanied by several soldiers drove off the highway and into the olive grove belonging to N. Eight olive trees and four fig trees were uprooted. The trees were then vandalized and broken into pieces making it impossible to replant. The road which is the main highway between Tel Aviv and Ariel was temporarily closed. Drivers who saw the military action informed N. He informed the IWPS volunteers in Marda and drove with them down to his lands. The soldiers had left by the time they arrived.
The trees were laden with fruit and ready for harvesting and it may still be possible to salvage most of this crop. N valued the produce of each of these 60 year old trees at between 150 and 200 shekels. There appears to be no reason for the attack.
The next day, volunteers from IWPS visited the scene, took statements and photographs.
Report written by: Maggie and Cathi
Date report written on: 14.10.04
Human Rights Report No. 160
Summary: Incursion and curfew in Qarawat Bani Zeid
Date and time of incident: 12 October, 2004, 2:00 am – noon
Place: Qarawat Bani Zeid
Witness/es: J.A.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
J.A. called from Qarawat Bani Zeid at 8:00 a.m. to say that many jeeps had entered the village, declared curfew and taken two young boys (13 years old) from their homes. Susy called the Civil Administration to ask about the boys. After five hours, they were returned. The curfew lasted until noon. Though neighboring Kufr Eyn village was not under curfew, jeeps blocked the road and did not allow anyone to harvest olives or attend school. Late in the afternoon, Susy was told by the Army spokesperson’s office that “there was an operation in the village and the army feared the lives of the boys might be in danger, so they took them into their custody for protection.”
Report written by: Kate and Hannah
Date report written on: 10.15.04
Human Rights Report No. 161
Summary: Farmers attacked while harvesting olives in Yasouf
Date and time of incident: 10.10.04, morning
Place: Fields of Yasouf (An Naqar)
Witness/es: Abu F.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Sunday morning, October 10, 15 Palestinians were getting ready to pick three olive trees in an area where settlers had burned 400 trees several months ago. These three trees were the only ones remaining in the area. They had been there a few minutes when 7 or 8 settlers came with sticks and metal bars. The Palestinians retreated down the mountain, and the settlers threw stones at them. The Palestinians threw stones back. Further down, there was another couple picking. The settlers took their ladder, destroyed coffee and tea pots, and set fire to the woman’s dress, which she had laid on the ground nearby. They burned about 10 trees; about 50% of the olives on those trees were lost.
Security from Tapuach came with weapons to put out the fire, then the army also came to put out the fire. The settlers went home.
Ha’aretz and Israeli radio reported that three youths were arrested by the army for setting the fire. They had charcoal on their faces when they were arrested. According to Ha’aretz, they initially said that they set the fire in self-defense.
Report written by: Kate and Hannah
Date report written on: October 16, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 162
Summary: Young man from Hares arrested at Huwara
Date and time of incident: 6 October, 2004
Place: Huwara Checkpoint
Witness/es: H.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Wednesday, 6 October, H. stopped Kate, Hannah, and Marie Jo on the road and told us that his nephew, Darar Jamal Ali, who is a student at An Najah University in Nablus, had been detained at Huwara checkpoint that morning. No one had heard from him for several hours, and his phone was closed. Kate called Dorothy Naor, who learned that he was being held at Huwara military base. The army would not say why they took him.
As of 16 October, 2004, Darar is still being held. He was originally scheduled to be released 13 October, but then he was given an 18-day administrative detention. No reason has been given for his detention.
Kate spoke with H. and suggested he contact Addameer about representing Darar. He will come to get the information from A.R. in a couple days.
Report written by: Kate and Hannah
Date report written on: 16 October, 2004
Update 19 October: PCATI contacted us after receiving human rights report and is interested in representing Darar. We put them in touch with H.
Human Rights Report No. 163
Summary: Tapuach settlers attack Yasouf man
Date and time of incident: 18 October, 2004
Place: intersection of 505 and road to Yasouf (near Zatara)
Witness/es: T., Palestinian driver, possibly Israeli soldiers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On Monday, October 18, between 1 and 1:30 pm, 25-year-old T was returning to Yasouf from the school in Turmus Aya where he teaches. According to T, he was waiting for transportation at the bus stop on the road to Yasuf when a car stopped near him. An armed settler got out of the car and began to punch T. A second car pulled up, with about 4 or 5 settlers inside. One settler some kind of chemical in T’s face, and T fell down. The settlers continued to beat him.
A Palestinian driver found T a few minutes later and took him to the hospital in Salfit. From there he went to Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus, and was home by evening. He sustained injuries to his thigh, stomach/ribs, shoulder, and nose. He will return to the hospital next week to determine whether his nose is broken and to have any necessary operations or treatment.
T has spoken with the Palestinian DCL (District Coordinating Liaison). The Red Cross visited him at his home today and will follow up with the Israeli DCL to find out what they are doing about the attack. The Israeli army has stated that they will try to find the perpetrators. T is sure he can identify two of the settlers whom he saw clearly, one of whom he has seen before. He believes they are from Kfar Tapuach.
Report written by: Hannah and Kate
Date report written on: 19 October, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 164
Summary: The Israeli army entered Marda, announced curfew and threatened the head of the Village Council.
Date and time of incident: 27 October, 2004
Place: Marda
Witness/es: Villagers, Head of Village Council
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
IWPS received call from N. in the village of Marda that the Israeli army had imposed curfew on the village and had visited the Head of the Village Council. The army made several threats, such as to destroy the olive oil at the press, and people. Four IWPS volunteers went to N’s home, arriving at about 6:30 p.m., without having encountered any army vehicles, or people in the streets.
We met with N., with S., the head of the Village Council, and another member of the Council. Army jeeps had driven through the village announcing curfew around 6 am, but the villagers chose to ignore it by carrying on with their daily routine. Around 4 pm, however, the army came to S’s home. The army stated that they wanted to “clean out” perpetrators of unspecified offences from the village. They threatened S. personally, as well as saying that if he did not stop the perpetrators, they would enter homes, round up everyone and take them for interrogation. They also said they would spill the olive oil being processed at the local press and would shoot children.
The army arrested two males, ages 16 and 26, and uprooted olive trees. S. said that the army had taken an 8 year old boy questioned him, and hit him.
On the morning of Thursday, October 28, we left N’s house at 6:45 a.m. and walked around, observing that children were leaving home for school and the army was not present.
Report written by Sherrill and Jo
Date report written: October 28, 2004
Update: 15 Nov 04 – phoned N. having learned from an NGO that on 9th November the soldiers had raided the village and held six residents. N confirmed that six people were taken, boys aged 14 and 15. Two have been returned but four are still being held and the village is working on their release. It would seem that there is a link with the two arrested on 26 October. Their position is not clear.
Human Rights Report No. 165
Summary: Olive trees cut by settlers at the village of Kufr Thulth
Date of incident: November, 10th, 2004
Time:
Place: Village of Kufr Thulth
Witness/es: Reported to the IWPS on the 10th of December, 2004 by Mayor of Kufr Thulth. Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On the 10th of November, the settlers from the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Shomron who have established an illegal outpost on the land owned by villagers from Kufr Thulth cut and destroyed several hundred trees on the land of Hamid Dheeb.
In the past three months, settlers from both the illegal settlement of Ma’le Shomron and the illegal outpost had cut over 300 olive and almond trees on the land owned by Mr Dheeb and other villagers from Kufr Thulth.
The November 10th incident was in retaliation against a demonstration organized by the village on November 7 to protest the illegal outpost, the cutting of trees and illegal settler access roads being established on their lands.
Report written by: Kim
Date report written on: December, the 3rd, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 166
Summary: 16 year old boy detained. Medical care needed.
Date of incident: November, 7th, 2004
Time:
Place: Village of Marda
Witness/es: Reported to the IWPS on the 2nd of December, 2004, by the boy’s family.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
On the 7th of November, soldiers entered the village of Marda and took 5 boys among whom was N. During the arrest, the boy was pushed off a jeep and felt on his knee which was injured. The boys were taken to Ariel settlement and were released shortly later except N who was detained in Qedumin settlement. On 2nd December, a co-detainee was been released and spoke to N’s family. The injured knee is in bad condition and no medical care seems to be given. A lawyer from a prisoners’ organisation visited N and said that the boy has been “tortured” on his knee and admitted, under duress, that he had thrown stones.
Report written by: Marie Jo
Date report written on: December, the 3rd, 2004
Human Rights Report No. 167
Summary: Man arrested at Zatara Check point
Date of incident: the 6th of December 2004
Time: 1.30 PM
Place: Zatara Check Point
Witness/es: Marie Jo (IWPS)
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
A bus, heading to Nablus, was stopped for one hour for I.D. checks. Finally, the I.D.s were returned to all the passengers but one. The man, around 25 or 30 years old, was arrested and taken away by the police. The man is NG from the village of Jayous (Qalqilya). The DCL of Salfit and Hamoked were informed, but could not do anything without the ID number.
Report written by: Marie Jo
Date report written on: 9th of December 2004
Human Rights Report No. 168
Summary: Work on the Wall in Deir Ballut restarted
Date: 14th December 2004
Place: Deir Ballut
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
IWPS was informed by the DCL that bulldozers were working in Deir Ballut.
In Deir Ballut, Abu F (the mayor) and KD (owner of land in the area) led Marie Jo to the place where the Israeli bulldozers were working. It is located south of the village, about 4 km away, deep in the valley.
On the way back, IWPS saw several marks with numbers indicating the line of the wall to be. The fence is going eastward, according to the Mayor, and could be as close as 2 km from the village, at some parts.
Previously, works for the wall took place from May to August 2004 north of the village. They are not finished there. About 400 olive trees have been uprooted.
The village has instructed a lawyer to take court action.
The village was informed one week ago that works were scheduled for today.
Report written by: Marie Jo
Date report written on: 14 December 2004
IWPS Human Rights Report No. 170
Summary: Army questions man and keep his family outside in Yasouf
Date: end of November 2004
Summary:
About one month ago (I was unable to determine the exact date of the incident) the army knocked on the door of Mohammed E of Yasouf. This was at 3 am. Everyone was told to come out into the cold and stand in the street. Mohammed asked that his 80 year old mother and 2 month old son be left inside, as it was cold outside. But the soldiers insisted that everyone come out into the middle of the street.
They were kept there for half an hour while the soldiers, with dogs went around his house and his neighbours place checking it out. They did not enter the house
Then they let the rest of the family back into the house and kept Mohammed for another half hour outside. A major from the Shabaak questioned him about his work, his brothers and his neighbours. They then let him go back inside and went away.
Report written by: Fatima G
Date report written on: 27th December 2004
Human Rights Report 171
Summary: Soldiers preventing students from attending final examinations in the Nablus Area.
Date of incident: 10th to 25th December
Time: continuous.
Place: Nablus Region.
Witnesses: ISM, IWPS, Anarchists.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
For two weeks prior to 24th December, soldiers put up flying checkpoints on both the roads leading out of Talluza: between Talluza and Al Badhan, and between Talluza and Asira Ash Shamaliya. The effect of these checkpoints has been severe as the road is a main route for students attending final exams being held at the An-Najah University in Nablus and at the Alals-American University in Jenin.
One week before IWPS arrived, a curfew was imposed on Talluza and food and medicine supplies were being withheld. A joint effort by ISM and Anarchist activists meant that by midweek some food was being allowed into the village. We were told that the reason for the curfew was that soldiers were searching for wanted Palestinians, and that in April 2004 the army had killed two people from the village as it was suspected that a suicide bomber lived there. However the action of the army in the present circumstance was inconsistent with this, and was a violation of the right to freedom of movement. Internationals witnessed many cases of soldiers holding students at the checkpoints for four hours at a time, resulting in the students being late or missing their exams. Many of these students were girls.
When IWPS arrived ISM and Anarchists were monitoring the situation and preparing to checkpoint watch on 25th December to help students if necessary cross from Talluza for their exams. On the 25th December the Army arrived in Talluza at 9 a. m. They set up a flying checkpoint between Talluza and Al Badhan for 2 hours, and then drove around the village for no apparent reason. IWPS witnesses an incident where a soldier from the army vehicle struck a youth and took his ID, but returned it to the boy before leaving the village. ISM were to remain as a presence in the village for a further week.
Report written by: Sarah R.
Date Report Written: December 29 2004.
Human Rights Report 172
Summary: Military incursion in Hares, boy taken
Date: 28 December 2004
Time: 4 p.m.
Place: Hares village
Witnesses: IWPS, residents
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At around 4 p.m. we received a call from a resident that around 40 soldiers had entered the village in three jeeps, and had stopped outside the school. As three IWPS members approached the main road youths were running towards the entrance of the village. They told us that the soldiers had taken a young boy with them to the nearby industrial settlement of Burqan. We followed the youths to the main road where we saw two jeeps parked at the bus stop. They had taken the youth into the front jeep.
We approached the soldiers and asked them what was happening. One of them told us that it was about a stolen car. Another was very rude and told us that it was not our business and to clear off. We ignored him and stood in front of them for another five minutes. In the meantime the second jeep drove off leaving six soldiers on the ground, snooping around.
We waited for about 20minutes on the main road and then walked back to the area to see if the soldiers on the ground were still there. They were not so we then went back to the village to get an account from a villager.
When we got back to the house the mother of the boy who had been taken was with our neighbour. We questioned her and then the boy returned. He told us that the soldiers barged into his home and took him to his uncle’s place of work in Burqan. It was alleged that the uncle’s car was stolen. After they took his uncle into custody they released the boy. As yet we do not know what has happened to the uncle taken into custody.
Report written by: Fatima G
Date Report Written: December 28 2004.
Human Rights Report 173
Summary: Arrest of youth in Kafr Ein
Date: 27 December 2004
Time: 3 a.m.
Place: Kafr Ein
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 3 a.m. on 26 December 2004, a house in the village of Kafr Ein was invaded and searched by the army. The family reported that between 30 and 50 soldiers entered the family house and ordered the family outside. The father, mother, three sons and daughter were made to stand in the street while the soldiers searched the house and took from it two cellphones. The youngest son, Y., was then arrested, and no explanation for the arrest was given to the family. The ID cards of all three sons were taken by the soldiers.
IWPS visited the family on 29 December and spoke with the father and mother. The father said that his son was being held at Ofarim Prison in Bitunia and he still had had no information on the reasons for his son’s arrest. The family were very concerned that the ID cards of the two elder sons had not been returned, and that without these the young men, aged 26 and 28 years, could not travel to work.
IWPS gave the family the number of Hamoked.
Report written by: Sarah R
Date report written on: 29th December 2004
Human Rights Report 174
Summary: Arrest of youth in Deir Ghassana
Date of incident: 30th December 2004.
Time: 5 a.m.
Place: Deir Ghassana.
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
Description of Incident
At 5 a.m. on December 30th 2004, the army invaded the village of Deir Ghassana. They surrounded many homes and forced the families out onto the street while they ransacked their belongings. A curfew was imposed on the village from 5 a.m. until 1 p.m. At one particular home the soldiers detained a 17 year old youth called A. The soldiers then went to all the surrounding houses and broke down many of the doors. It was reported that the soldiers used hand grenades to break down some doors. All houses were searched. The army remained in the village until 1 p.m. It is believed that the youth was taken to Ofarim Prison. This information was obtained from the boy’s mother.
Report written by: Sarah R .
Date report written on: 29th December 2004
IWPS Human Rights quarterly summary Oct to Dec 2004
In the fourth quarter of 2004, IWPS documented 16 violations in 11 villages in the Salfit area.
Settler violence
Oct. 10th, Yasouf: settlers attacked farmers causing injury and destruction of trees and other property (161)
Oct. 18th near Yasouf, settlers attacked man who required hospital treatment (163)
Nov. 11th Kufr Thulth: settlers cut down several hundred trees (165)
Army raids
Oct. 6th, Qarawat Bani Zeid: night raid (158)
Oct. 12th Qarawat Bani Zeid: raid, curfew and detentions (160)
Oct. 27th Marda: raid, curfew, several youths detained (164)
Nov. Yasouf: night raid on house (170)
Dec. 27th Kufr Eyin: raid, house searches and detentions (173)
Dec. 30th Deir Ghassana: night raid, curfew, boy detained (174)
Detentions
Oct. 6th Huwara: man detained (162)
Nov. 7th Marda: 16-year old injured and detained in settlement, apparently without medical attention (166)
Dec. 6th Zatara: man detained (167)
Dec. 28th Hares: boy detained for several hours (172)
Movement restrictions
Dec. (throughout) Talluza and surroundings: army prevented students from travelling to attend final examinations in Nablus (171)
Destruction of property
Oct. 14th Marda: olive groves bulldozed and trees destroyed (159)
Dec. 14th Deir Ballut: land bulldozed for wall (168)
