Israeli Military Assaults in Nablus, Idhna and Al Walaja

A) Israeli Military in Nablus: 18th January
ISM Nablus

Optimism for a period of peace following the elections was misplaced. In Nablus Israeli miltary aggression continues as usual. In time for the Eid celebrations beginning tomorrow the army made a special effort. At 9pm last night a large number of troops entered Nablus in unmarked vehicles and took up positions in the area. Soon after a group of medics and internationals reached Old Najah Street near the Old City, twenty military vehicles arrived. Approaching the soldiers ended in access being denied at gunpoint. As time passed, the real extent of the military operation became clearer: Troops were operating in Ras al-Ein area, close to the Ittihad hospital, in Faysal, Hittin and Nasser Street, around al-Ein camp as well as in the mentioned western part of the Old City. In the course of the night, international volunteers worked with the medical teams and ambulances as best as they could, but all were usually very limited in their action and movement by the IOF. However, here's a short, incomplete summary of what happened out here last night.

Old Najah Street: The core of IOF activity seems to have been the operation supposed to capture Hamas activist Amjad Hanawi at the western end of the Old City. This area was controlled by soldiers on foot and lots of army vehicles, while houses were temporarily occupied and access blocked. Medical volunteers and internationals several times tried to get access to a supposedly injured person in the area but failed. Also two women wanted to reach their flat, where one of them had left her six month old baby alone for a short while, but were sent away. Half an hour after midnight, negotiations lead to the permission for one woman to get her baby out of the house.

During the operation, Hittin Sports Club and several neighbouring houses were searched and inhabitants and visitors detained. Many of them were transferred to the nearby Ibn al-Haytham School, were they were interrogated and detained for several hours. Requests about the welfare of other neighbours led to a soldier's answer that they are sleeping and therefore fine. As we found out this morning, many neighbors were not evacuated and found themselves in the middle of bursting windows as the IOF blew up the house belonging to Aiman Shaka' at 4.30 a.m. Before that, soldiers unsuccessfully looked for Amjad in the house, but arrested the wanted person's father Abu Hilme Hanawi in a building few hundred meters away around 2 a.m. During the operation many explosions as well as gunfire was heard. The explosion of Shaka's house flattened it completely, damaging also several neighbor houses severely.

Ittihad Hospital: In the hours before midnight, approximately 20 military vehicles, later on even supported by a tank, sourrounded a small building close to the hospital on the northern mountain of Nablus. They were looking for a Hamas activist, Ahmed al-Bireh. Soldiers occupied several houses around the targeted building and lightely damaged some flats before they entered it and sent more than a dozen women, children and men away. Ambulances, medical teams and internationals were kept and not allowed to come closer to the house. Around 2 o'clock, the army withdrew from this area and soon after, gunfire intensified in the close-by al-Ein Refugee Camp. From this camp, we don't have clear information about the happenings. Definitely the army was surrounding the camp and heavy shooting was heard for several hours after midnight.

Ras al-Ein: Late in the evening, military vehicles sourrounded the home of Ahmed and Hamed Amoudi, two Hamas activists. Both of them were arrested. Their mother - her husband died as a shaheed - is being told by the soldiers to take care for the remaining son so as he wouldn't become a terrorist.

Eastern Old City: IOF troops arrest Kamal Ratrout from the Al-Aqsa-Brigades in Hittin Street and 16-years old Hamza Kadri from Zafer Masri School area. Besides the reported six arrests, also Hamas activist Omar Musleh
was arrested. Although al-Jazeera is talking about 14 people being arrested, we are unclear about their identities.

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B) Idhna house occupation, Jan 14 2005
By Larry

On 13 January 2005, a reporter friend of ours rang. He had been told that Israeli army jeeps had driven through Idhna (a small town to the north-west of our apartment in Hebron, southern Palestine) and announced a sudden curfew. Two years ago when there was armed resistance in this area, anybody out of his or her house during curfew risked being shot on sight by the army. Nowadays things are quieter and the main punishment for breaking curfew is immediate arrest and detainment without charge.

This particular curfew was declared because the Israeli army wished to enter a few Palestinian houses in the town. Testimony of former Israeli soldiers indicates that the decision on which house to enter is generally left entirely to those entering with no need for specific orders or suspicions.

There are two main reasons for the army to enter a house;

1) If the soldiers want to search a house then the family is taken out into the street and held at gunpoint until the search is over.
2) If the soldiers want to use the house as a temporary sniper position then they must be more discreet, entering the house quietly, usually at night and locking the family in one room. This is where internationals can be useful.

The Israeli army has illegally occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967 and throughout this occupation Palestinian civilian casualties have gone largely unreported in the western press, last year (2004) there were 950. However, Israel has learned through experience that a harmed international means floods of enquiry into / comment upon both army procedure and state policy. Neither of which are welcomed and so the army has general orders to be careful around Internationals. Because of this it is sometimes possible to enter an occupied house (an act which would likely get a Palestinian shot) and offer food, medical aid or supplies to the families inside. Internationals involved and observing often spells the end for illegal army activities like these and that is why the road to Idhna had been blocked.

We couldn't get in.

This morning, the road was opened and we arrived in Idhna. The army had driven back to their base a few hours earlier having searched and occupied two houses in the town for about 30 hours. We were taken to the houses.

The first was in an apartment block, on the second floor. Soldiers had arrived around 3 or 4 in the morning, run up the stairs and shouted for the door to be opened. The family had been told to leave and sleep one floor down in an empty apartment. This first floor apartment was empty because it was still being built. It had no windows or door, the rooms were bare cement from floor to ceiling and there was no bathroom. The mother of the family had pleaded with the soldiers and eventually they were allowed one blanket each to take downstairs and wrap themselves in while they waited in the dark for the soldiers to finish.

They showed us their main bedroom. The army had pulled the double bed apart, the mattress was ripped open and the floor was piled with the contents of all the cupboards. The large fancy sofas in the living room were all upended with the lining cut out, the cupboard door in the kitchen hung from their hinges with the pots and pans spread over the floor. Down on the ground floor was the family's grain store and main source of income. We waded in. In the corner were five or six bags that were untouched but there must have been hundreds slit from top to bottom, the grain inside them now spread 1-2ft deep over the floor of the room and now worthless, unusable. The army had left this house after one night, finding nothing.

The second house in the town had suffered far worse. The soldiers had arrived here too at about 3 or 4. We entered as they had, through the front door and were shocked by what we saw. The house was smashed. Everything in the house was smashed. The large, thick glass coffee table in the sitting room was smashed. Settees and sofas had been ripped to pieces. The floor was multicoloured with discarded Israeli chocolate bar wrappers and plastic soft drinks bottles. The mirror in the hallway was smashed. The children of the family tugged on our sleeves pointing out more and more points of interest in their destroyed home, demanding we take pictures; The massive fourty inch telly with the screen kicked in, the pulled apart speakers on their hi-fi. The cooker had been wrenched out five feet from the wall, flour was poured deep over the floor, another full length mirror in the kitchen, snapped. In each room the family had cleared a path through their broken belongings. Framed pictures of family members with the glass broken and the frame snapped, crushed ornaments, crockery, everything that could be broken had been broken. The mother of the family gave a constant commentary, fragmentarily translated by those in our group who spoke Arabic: 50 soldiers had entered the house, forcing the family into the garden.

After 7 hours, 27 of the soldiers left and the remaining 23 had occupied the house for a further 24 hours. Light bulbs were smashed and sprinkled on the stairway (to warn those soldiers upstairs of anyone approaching). The mother of the family also pointed at the broken mirrors and glass tables "what could have been hidden there?" she asked. She showed by play-acting how the soldiers had ripped shelves off the walls. Loss and anger mingled in her voice as she picked through the debris in every room explaining what the pieces had been only two days earlier. One member of our group was informed that the lady's husband (a man of about 60) had been separated from the family, stripped of his clothes and forced to lie prone out in the street, sandwiched between two sheets of corrugated iron. We asked where he was now. The army had taken him after finding an old rifle in the house. He was still with them.

Even with their home in ruins and their father detained it was still important to the family that they were able to offer their guests tea. An envoy was sent next door to fetch cups. We sat with them and drank the tea, thanked them and promised to tell people back home what we had seen.

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C) Israeli Military destroys Twelve Structures in Al Walaja

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2005

The Israeli military destroyed five homes and seven chicken coops and barns today in the village of Al Walaja on the border of Bethlehem and Jerusalem districts. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli military and bulldozers entered the village at 7:00 AM today and began bulldozing the structures. Israeli authorities claimed that the buildings were destroyed today because they were unlicensed or substandard. It was unclear if Israeli authorities had given demolition orders to the owners of the buildings in advance of the demolition.

ISM volunteers, media and other activists from human rights organizations were denied entry to Walaja by the Israeli military until today's demolitions were completed.

Residents of Walaja, a village of approximately 2000 people, were unsure of the reasons for today's demolitions. However, Walaja is located on the expected path of Israel's West Bank Apartheid Wall, though the Wall's exact route in the area is unknown. According to staff from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), the demolition orders employed today were signed by Amitai Levi, an Israeli police official responsible for affairs relating to the Wall. This lends credibility to the probability that today's demolitions were carried out in anticipation of the construction of the Wall in Walaja.

The Israeli military did not demolish one additional home in Walaja when residents were able to produce a court order at the last minute. It is unclear if Israeli authorities plan to demolish additional homes in Walaja. The Israeli government has demolished over 4,000 Palestinian homes over the last four years according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

From Walaja: Wa'el Al Araj: 052-22-48-707
Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions: Meir Margolit; 0544-345-
503
ISM Media: 054-6-253-451 or 059-676-782


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D) Tearing Down Al Walaja
January 17th, 2005
By Aaron

Just one half hour outside the bustling city of Jerusalem, and just across the deep green valley, lies the small Palestinian village of Al Walaja. It is a sunny and peaceful day. It is so clear that you can see the sprawling Israeli settlement of Gilo just on the adjacent hilltop, and so quiet that you could hear a pin drop amongst the lines of lemon trees.

However, this morning that peace and serenity will be broken. Our team of international activists has received word that the Israeli occupation forces have permits to demolish dozens of houses in Al Walaja, and they're going to get started bright and early.

It is apparent that the Israeli authorities love acting under Kafkaesque terms in the West Bank. Everything here boggles the mind once it appears before your eyes. For instance, on our way to Al Walaja, we hear the army has declared the area an official closed military zone. While this term may conjure up the image of a barren war zone with land mines exploding left, right, and center, this is simply military double-speak for any area they want to tear to the ground and where there is a good chance the locals might resist.

Sure enough, we get to one entrance of the village and are immediately turned away by the army. Persistent to push through, we circle around to another entrance, cross by foot through a road block, and enter the village.

On the main road going in to Al Walaja, a menacing yellow object rears in the distance. It is a massive, American-made Caterpillar bulldozer – one of the most omnipresent symbols of the occupation in Palestine. As it lumbers towards us, it brings with it two other demolition vehicles in tow, and a deafening rumbling noise. This disgusting, clattering noise not only shatters the peace of a beautiful morning, but shatters the peace of an entire village under the threat of being literally flattened.

Wandering around the slopes of Al Walaja, one has to scrape the infinity of their imagination for any reason as to why the Israelis would have any security interests here. But one could find a creative excuse as to why the donkeys tied to trees, children herding sheep in the hills, or luscious fruit trees could be a threat to the state of Israel.

Ridiculous as it may be, what has happened in this village is no laughing matter. The work of the Israeli army in recent days, and even on this morning, is evident. Piles of rocks, chairs, and bathtubs now lie where humble farm houses once stood. Water pipes have been broken open, allowing water to spray out and irrigate the fields in a very unwelcome manner. It is scary, but the fields of Al Walaja are slowly being cleansed of their Palestinian inhabitants, and it is conceivable that in the near future, an Israeli settlement like Gilo could creep across the deep valley and sink its way onto these beautiful, fertile lands.

As it turns out, we have arrived on a slow day - slow meaning that today the army only demolished five homes and seven few sheds and animal houses. We visit a house on the outskirts of the village, home to Mohammed and 21 other of his extended family members. The house is big and welcoming. The interior is like what you would expect from any house in the West – large, comfortable rooms, a TV set in the living room, carpets, and a washing machine. Sadly, it is all set to be torn down by order of the Israeli government.

Unfortunately, Mohammed is no stranger to this drill. Just last year, the army tore down the back half of his house, and builders are still working today to put it back up. This morning, the soldiers came and tore down the shed in the front of his house. Next, they came around the back and ordered his dove pen to be done away with. After Mohammed had quickly moved the doves from one cage to another, the army ordered that he destroy the second one himself.

This was the last straw for him. Mohammed simply refused, saying he would never destroy his own property – a symbol of his livelihood. Eventually, the soldiers and their Caterpillars left, but for how long? Mohammed has a worried look on his brow. They could come back tomorrow, or any day after that. Nobody knows. Al Walaja is kept in the dark.

Back in front of the house, in a huge yard, half the village seems to
be assembled. Old men in kafiyehs are sitting on lawn chairs, drinking tea and smoking in the noon-hour sun. As rubble from Mohammed's shed is being taken away, people are smiling and chatting informally. It is a strong showing of community support, in a community that could be no longer.

To see Aaron's photos of Al Walaja, visit;
http://gallery.cmaq.net/album28