ISRAEL-OPT: Israeli incursion into West Bank [Abbas-Fayyad Israeli ricognised State of Palestine] refugee camp causes destruction, fear

Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN
A Palestinian apartment blown up during an Israeli military incursion


EIN BEIT ALMA, 26 September 2007 (IRIN) - Residents of the Ein Beit Alma refugee camp began to pick up the pieces after an intense Israeli military incursion last week left dozens homeless, and many very frightened, especially children. The fighting with Palestinian militants also caused damage to sewer systems, residents said.

Muhammed Msaimi, aged 26, hid for over a day with his wife and three children in the bathroom because of gunfights which took place outside their apartment. However, the bullets found their way into that room as well, and they crawled behind a thick wall, Msaimi, a registered refugee, said.

"Then the soldiers came and told us to leave. They said we should cover our ears. They blew up the floor above us. No one lives there," he told IRIN. The explosion knocked out the entire upper floor and caused structural damage to the rest of the building. Msaimi now lives with his in-laws.

The Israeli military said the purpose of the three-day operation was to "prevent the execution of terror attacks into the Israeli home front", and that information obtained from arrested alleged militants, 49 in all, had led them to an explosive belt which had been smuggled into Tel Aviv.

Fear

However, the effect on the civilian population was considerable, residents said.

My children are afraid to come back here," said Msaimi, adding that they were staying at a friend's home nearby.

Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN

A Palestinian girl attending a UNRWA school side-steps the rubble of a damaged home

"The effects of these military operations at such close quarters have an incalculable impact on the well-being of the young," said Christopher Gunness from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The agency runs psycho-social programmes and has counsellors at its two camp schools.

"The children are not studying now, they are frightened. They go to school and draw, colour and read stories," said Samia Abu Salah, whose children attend UNRWA schools and are taking part in a programme which tries to help the children express their feelings.

Her home was invaded by the military: "We heard noises from below our bedroom. It was the Jews underneath," she recounted, referring to the Israeli soldiers. "We all moved away, into the stairwell. Then we saw them coming out of the floor, from below," Abu Salah said. The soldiers had blown up the apartment below, knocking a hole in the ceiling and were climbing upwards.

Gunness said UNRWA can offer limited financial support for those who lost their homes or suffered damage.

“Through walls” tactic

According to the residents in other homes a similar tactic, known as "through walls", was used. Soldiers go through neighbours' homes, destroying joint walls, to reach targets without being exposed in the narrow streets.

The building next to Abu Salah, four stories high, was totally demolished by Israeli bulldozers, leaving dozens homeless. Personal belongings like furniture, video tapes and clothes stick out of the rubble. The soldiers, searching for and fighting militants, did not give the residents time to get their possessions out, residents said.

Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN

"The noises during the fighting hurt my ears so much. The windows are broken. I hope they fix it before winter. It's getting cold now at night."

Aisha, 74

Several people said the soldiers used three locals as human shields, a practice deemed illegal by Israel's High Court. The Israeli military said it was "not aware of any such incident".

In other areas, people were cordoned off while soldiers used their homes as observation points, residents said.

"My brother had 71 people in his house - the women in one room and the men in another - for two days," said Ghassan, a school teacher. "They used all their food in one day but received bread from the Palestinian Medical Relief on the second.”

"The noises during the fighting hurt my ears so much," said Aisha, aged 74, as she sat on the floor preparing soup from UNRWA food aid.

Sewage pipes damaged during the fighting overflow outside her small home, spreading a foul smell in the air.

"The windows are broken. I hope they fix it before winter. It's getting cold now at night," she said.

For the second day the army continues to attack Nablus, killing one

Ameen Abu Wardah & Ghassan Bannoura & Nisreen Qumsieh ghassanb at imemc dot org, IMEMC, 19/09/07. Israeli forces continued, on Wednesday, the military operation in El-Ein Beit Al Ma refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus for the second consecutive day. Israeli soldiers shot and killed a disabled Palestinian man in his home during the early hours of Wednesday morning. The man, Adeeb Al Damouny, received serious injuries to his head and neck.
Eyewitnesses reported that he was shot at 7am and died of his wounds half an hour later. Al Damouny

see also: B'tselem: Qalqiliya, Extensive destruction of houses and gross humiliation of residents, Demolition for alleged Military Purpose

is thought to be the second Palestinian killed by the Israeli army in its continuing operation against the El –Ein Beit Al Ma refugee camp. Witnesses added that the military is still bringing in reinforcements through the Beit Iba and Huwarra checkpoints. According to Israeli sources, this military offensive is intended to target a group of resistance men who were planning attacks against Israeli targets.

The military offensive started on Tuesday at dawn, after storming the camp, Israeli troops commandeered several residential buildings, using their roofs as military outposts, and moved from house-to-house by destroying the walls dividing separate homes. Eyewitnesses stated that armed clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces as the troops besieged several homes in the camp.

Dr. Ghassan Hamdan, Director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Services in Nablus, told IMEMC on Tuesday that one young Palestinian man was killed when, after being shot, soldiers refused to allow ambulances to enter the camp. The man subsequently bled to death. Dr. Hamdan added that Israel soldiers opened fire on and injured a member of the medical services as he transported the wounded from the area.

Witnesses to the invasion on Tuesday also told IMEMC that the military used several Palestinian youths as human shields during the operation, a practice deemed illegal under international and Israeli law. Um Ahmad spoke to IMEMC.

"The army surrounded the camp entirely, and then invaded through people's homes, either demolishing them with bulldozers or breaking in. Soldiers forced local civilians to act as human shields. While families in the camp were not allowed to open their own doors to leave their homes, the army ordered the human shields to do so."

Troops continued today to commandeer several homes, using the rooftops as military outposts, and moving from house-to-house by destroying dividing walls.


Nablus: Cruel Deleuzian Approach Used by the IOF

Local sources in the camp expressed their fear that the violent attacks by the Israeli forces were a response to the death of an Israeli soldier on Tuesday. The soldier was killed during the Israeli raid on the camp on Tuesday, as Palestinian resistance fighters clashed with invading Israeli force Israeli forces.

At least seven Palestinian from several parts of El Ein Beit Al Ma refugee camp were kidnapped so far by the military, local sources confermened that the operation is till going.

Nablus: Cruel Deleuzian Approach Used by the IOF

Explanation of the “Deleuzian” Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Strategy.

International Solidarity Movement. 21/07/07. The siege on ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp continued until noon on Friday, July 20, 2007 when the Israeli Occupation Force completely vacated the West Bank city of Nablus. International human rights activists who had been in the camp since 9:30am discovered a system of holes the IOF had blown through the walls of the refugee camp homes.

The IOF destroyed walls of numerous homes, labeling the holes in order to allow soldiers to move through the refugee camp without entering the streets. This systematic tactic of collective punishment traumatized many of women and children who woke up to their homes being invaded and destroyed by the IOF. Internationals took still-photos of three homes connected by two partially demolished walls. They documented broken windows linked to holes in the walls of adjacent homes.

When the IOF entered each of the homes, they immediately forced all those present into a single room and compelled them to stay there while their homes were occupied and used to link civilian homes in the military operation. Many homes had significant damage not only to their windows and walls but also to their personal affects.

One woman told the international human rights activists that the IOF soldiers asked where her husband was. She told them that he was not home because he worked in Nablus Municipality. She said she asked them who they were looking for and they replied they were looking for everyone because everyone is Hamas.

Another woman sobbed as she told an international human rights activist that 20 or more soldiers remained in her house for two hours. “They brought sandwiches. They destroyed my home and then they ate their lunch,” said she. “My children were so scared they hid under the bed in the room we were forced into.” The mother was allowed to leave the room in which her children hid only to serve water to the soldiers occupying her living room.

The IOF occupied a total of nine homes all of which were connected by this system of holes in the walls and broken windows. Activist found the residents in a complete state of shock and despair thanks to the morning’s invasion.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/07/21/nablus-cruel-deleuzian-approach-used-by-the-iof/