DAY 10: Eyewitness Testimony of Israel's Massacre in Jenin, Siege of Ramallah and Bethlehem Continues...

April 7, 2002 * Up to the minute news reports from Palestine at:  www.jerusalem.indymedia.org

For More Eyewitness Reports from Palestinians in the West Bank go to: http://www.electronicintifada.org/diaries/index.html

(All Times Local in Palestine)

SUMMARY

10:20am: Update from Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, Bethlehem: Is anyone going to force Israel to stop?!

8:00pm: UPMRC Appeal: Please Help us Get Medical Care to Sick and Injured Palestinians

9:00pm: 4000-5000 Palestinians Rounded Up, Prevention of Medical Treatment, Electrical Workers Arrested

BETHLEHEM

9:30am: Curfew Enforced: "Anyone in the street runs the risk of shooting." 

2:00pm: 7 Israeli Military Armored Personnel Carriers Terrorizing Azza Refugee Camp

7:00pm: Update from Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem

JENIN

4/7/02: EYEWITNESS: "They are raping our cities" - The Palestine Monitor

EYEWITNESS REPORTS FROM INTERNATIONALS IN PALESTINE

4/7/02: She asks, "Why is America silent? Do your people see what is being done to us in your name?" - Gary Anderson in East Jerusalem, CCMEP

Previous Days Eyewitness Reports:  Day 1 - 3/29/02  *  Day 2 - 3/30/02  *  Day 3 - 3/31/02  *  Day 4 - 4/1/02  *  Day 5 - 4/2/02  *  Day 6 - 4/3/02  *  Day 7 - 4/4/02  *  Day 8 - 4/5/02  *  Day 9 - 4/6/02

10:20am: Update from Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, Bethlehem: Is anyone going to force Israel to stop?!

April 7, 2002, Huwaida Arraf

Nablus

Al-Khadra Mosque, oldest mosque in Nablus, located at the southern entrance to the Old City was destroyed last night by Israeli forces in their continued military assault on Palestinian towns and cities. Bombardment by air and land continued throughout the night on the Old City of Nablus and on the Balata and Askar refugee camps. Eye witnesses report at least three helicopter gunships currently over the Balata refugee camp, firing missiles into these heavily populated civilians areas, and smoke rising from refugee homes on the edge of the camp.

11:00am: One 3 level home on the southern edge of the Balata refugee camp is currently on fire. It is not known exactly how many men, women and children are inside.

For more information please call: Abdelsalaam +972-52-777-663

Jenin

Contacts in the Jenin Camp report aerial bombardment throughout the night. Residents of the refugee camp are still without electricity and water. Food is in urgent need. Bulldozers continue to demolish to widen the roads for tanks to enter the camp.

Dr. Ali Jabareen of the main hospital in Jenin reports that their ambulances are still unable to move. He estimates approximately 30 dead in the Jenin refugee camp, but this is an estimate based on phone calls that they are receiving. They are still being denied access to the wounded and dead. "People are still lying in the streets and under the rubble of their homes. All we're asking is that our medical relief and rescue apparatus be allowed to operate. We can't move. " � Dr. Ali Jabareen +972-4-250-2653/4

Ramallah

Twenty-five foreign civilians still remain in the Presidential compound. Last night they reported unprovoked Israeli fire on the compound (no Palestinian return fire) and two tanks stationed within five meters of the doors of the compound. One Palestinian security guard had to be evacuated yesterday due to medical conditions, but was immediate arrested by Israeli soldiers. The internationals report no running water, very bad hygienic conditions, very little food, and a desperate need for medical supplies that the Israeli forces are not allowing to be delivered. They reiterate their calls for immediate international intervention. The internationals have phones inside the compounds but it's very difficult to get a connection.

If you are a journalist, you can try the following numbers: +972-55-559-145; +972-59-567-800; +972-59-875-343; or +972-59-385-257

Ramallah and Bethlehem are still under total curfew. No one is moving in the streets. You can hear random explosions and sporadic tank and machine gun fire but it's hard to know what is being hit. A couple of ambulances are still trying to respond to emergency calls but they are constantly being stopped and detained by Israeli soldiers. One UPMRC ambulance in Ramallah had its windows shot out by Israeli forces yesterday. There is an urgent need for water everywhere.

For more information:

Huwaida: +972-52-642-709

Adam: +972-52-481-261

8:00pm: UPMRC Appeal: Please Help us Get Medical Care to Sick and Injured Palestinians

April 7, 2002, The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees Urgent Appeal and Update

Please Help Us Get Medical Care to Sick and Injured Palestinians

Israeli actions in the West Bank have caused a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. Israeli forces have denied Palestinian medical staff and ambulances from operating freely, which has left many injured people without medical attention, sometimes bleeding in the streets, unable to be evacuated by ambulances due to the restrictions in movement. Labouring women are delivering their babies unattended because they cannot get to hospital, or birth attendants cannot get to them, and at least one newborn baby died when Israeli forces denied his mother access to hospital.

Ambulances and their crews face significant danger when they attempt to deliver services; Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi explains that there have been "hundreds of attacks on Red Crescent, Red Cross and UPMRC ambulances and cars, and on UPMRC offices since 28th March." It is estimated that due to restrictions on freedom of movement of medical staff, nearly 2 million Palestinians are without any medical assistance at all and as a result, casualties are mounting.

Some people have been surviving without water for more than a week now, because the Israeli army has destroyed infrastructure in all towns they have invaded. Some of them have resorted to collecting rainwater or water from other sources for drinking and washing. There has also been no garbage collection in some areas for a week and a half, and refuse is piling up in residential neighbourhoods. The resulting unsanitary conditions are threatening to create a major public health problem. Similarly, the inability to properly transport bodies to morgues or bury them is causing a serious situation, and an epidemiological disaster is imminent. In some cases, bodies have remained in houses or on the streets for several days.

UPMRC would like to thank all the organizations and individuals around the world who have protested the unjust Israeli actions in the West Bank through boycotting Israeli goods, writing letters and appeals, raising funds, signing petitions and participating in demonstrations. We urgently appeal that you continue these actions in order to pressure the Israeli government to cease their actions and in particular to respect international conventions and allow freedom of movement for medical staff.

We urge you to quote Miguel Angel Moratinos, EU Special Representative to the Middle East, who issued a press statement yesterday calling for ".immediate clear orders to respect the safe passage of medical vehicles and staff, grant access to the large number of unattended wounded, and allow the evacuation of those killed." Israeli flagrant violations of the right to medical neutrality must not be allowed to continue. We believe in the power of responsible citizens throughout the world to stand up to this injustice and protect the lives of Palestinians.

For more information, contact the UPMRC office: +972-2-583-3510/ 2-583-4021

9:00pm: 4000-5000 Palestinians Rounded Up, Prevention of Medical Treatment, Electrical Workers Arrested

April 7th, 2002, The Palestine Monitor, www.palestinemonitor.org, A PNGO Information Clearinghouse

Writing an update of the situation in the West Bank today requires few changes to the updates of the previous ten days; names of villages, numbers of wounded, and the names of the dead appear to be the only difference. Invasions, Attacks & Re-Occupation In the past nine days almost all of the towns and cities in the West Bank that were under Palestinian control have been brutally and viciously reoccupied. The cities of Ramallah, Al Bireh, Jenin, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Nablus, Tulkaram and Qalqiliya, have all been attacked and occupied. Other smaller towns such as Yatta, Kafr Al-Ein and Beit Rima have also been

subjected to violent re-occupation. 

Israeli Soldiers Arresting a Palestinian Man in Ramallah, 4/7/02 (Photo: Arraf & Shapiro)

In every city the story is similar; scores of Israeli troops invade with tanks under cover of apache helicopters, bombarding civilian neighbourhoods, imposing curfews, going from house to house using Palestinians as human shields, searching and looting homes, offices and other buildings, in some cases occupying homes confining all family members to one room for days on end, in other cases destroying property and leaving. It is estimated that between 4,000-5,000 people have been arbitrarily detained and arrested by Israeli soldiers as they prowl the streets, 1,650 in Ramallah alone (Adameer).

Then there is the killing - Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Shaul Mofaz said today that 200 Palestinians have been killed in the assaults, with  1,500 people injured. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, President of the Medical Relief Committees believes the number of deaths could be higher with the discovery of more bodies every day. The attacks have been horrendous for all the Palestinians, but the attacks conducted against the inhabitants of the refugee camps have been relentless and most brutal. The United Nations refugee camps in the West Bank are home to approximately 600,000 thousand people, dispossessed of their land with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, refugees who should have some form of international protection as due to those with refugee status.

However, the camps and the refugees inside them are bearing the brunt of the Israeli army's attacks; for three days and nights the Jenin refugee camp has been under a violent military onslaught. Palestinian utilities have also come under sustained attack, with soldiers tearing up phone lines and destroying electricity and water supplies. The citizens of Ramallah were without water for six days, many still have no electricity or telephones. Attempting to repair the destruction is also fraught with danger. Mr. Ali Hamouda, the head of the electricity company in Ramallah was eventually, after many telephone calls, and a great deal of

negotiating, given a permit to repair the electricity supply, but he explains "when we went out, with the permits and permission and everything we could possibly need, the soldiers on the streets stopped us, and detained us for an hour, and then proceeded to arrest the workers". The same occurred when repairmen tried to fix a water pump in Ramallah "except they were shot at before they were detained.

Prevention of Medical Treatment

Another characteristic of the continuing Israeli invasion and occupation is the unremitting assault on the medical teams, and the prevention of access to medical treatment for the sick and wounded. Hospitals and medical clinics in all the cities remain blocked by tanks preventing the ambulances from getting either in or out. Dr. Barghouti estimates that there have been at

least 100 attacks on personnel trying to provide medical care. Ambulance  staff have been shot at, arrested, detained, and attacked by soldiers; hospitals and clinics have also come under attack. Patients attempting to access medical care have also been attacked as was the case at Al Razi hospital in Jenin when doctors and medics watched on helplessly as 28-year-old Nidal Al Haj bled to death inside the hospital yard, unable to reach the building.

Currently in the old city of Nablus 65 people lie wounded in field hospitals set up as an alternative to the inaccessible hospitals, 10 of those are critically injured but are unable to be moved. 16 corpses lie in the same building as the wounded � they too cannot be moved. In Jenin the situation is, if at all possible, worse, as no first aid stations have been set up; the wounded lie where they fall in the streets as people are too afraid to retrieve them, and if they are removed they are treated in homes.

Closed Military Zones - Enforced Press Blackout and Lack of International Witnesses The Israeli military is enforcing a closed military zone throughout the West Bank, in the areas they are attacking, in an attempt to prevent the presence of media and foreigners who would report, or witness the events.

A number of journalists have been attacked in the territories, with the soldiers enforcing a violent form of press censorship. Delegations of foreigners such as the Greek "Doctors of the World" have been refused entry to Israel, and immediately deported to their own countries. Today a Canadian MP, Svend Robinson, was refused entrance to Ramallah, and on Thursday an international human rights lawyer and professor of law and politics was refused permission to fly to Israel from Cairo. Mr. Judeh from GIPP reported that in the past week alone, approximately 100 European peace activists were stopped in Ben Gurion airport and deported. In addition to preventing foreigners from reaching the Palestinian cities, a number of foreigners have been arrested and deported from, or after being in, Palestinian areas.

There can be only one reason for this - and that is so the Israeli military can control and limit what news is coming out of Palestinian areas, to restrict peoples knowledge of the events currently taking place, and more worryingly to clear the area so that the Israeli army can act against the Palestinians as they wish.

The aforementioned events are not occurring in a vacuum - rather they are taking place when the American and other foreign governments are calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the newly re-occupied areas. This is typical of Sharon and his behaviour since he has been Prime Minister of Israel. Whenever there has been a chance to end the conflict, whenever there has been a non-violent option to end the crisis, Sharon has destroyed it. And now instead of listening to the international voices of reason and withdrawing from the Palestinian towns and cities, he is expanding Israeli occupation further.

The most important issue to remember is the Palestinians have repeatedly called for a ceasefire, and Sharon has rejected their calls, preferring to provoke with his policy of extra judicial executions, houses demolitions, construction of new settlements and the expansion of old, the draconian siege; all used to punish Palestinians and provoke individuals to react so he could act as he wished to destroy the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation, and to destroy any chance of a two state solution with

the creation of a just, viable and independent Palestinian state inside the 1967 borders.

We need also to focus right now on who exactly is attacking whom. In response to the worlds call to withdraw, the Israeli attacks intensify; in response to the worlds call to allow the freedom of movement for medical teams and the sick and wounded the army is responding by opening fire on ambulances, condemning the wounded to a death from lack of medical treatment. In response to the worlds calls to avert a humanitarian crisis Sharon is ordering the levelling of more refugees homes, killing more people and destroying access to water and electricity.

It appears the only thing Palestinians can do is wait, and appeal to the world to take concrete steps to put a stop to this man and the Israeli aggression that is, by the day, worsening.

9:30am: Curfew Enforced: "Anyone in the street runs the risk of shooting." 

April 07, 2002, www.jerusalem.indymedia.org

 09.30 hrs: The Israeli army have announced a full curfew in the Bethlehem area this morning. This has been confirmed with the Israeli DCO's office, which stated that if people sighted were old women or children "they might just be arrested. We don't know what each individual soldier might do." Anyone in the street runs the risk of shooting.

Local sources have reported large numbers of arrests in the Beit Sahour and Beit Jala areas after door-to-door searches by the Israeli army. In Beit Sahour there are reported to be 20 tanks in the area. We have reports of a total of 250 arrests in the entire district.

2:00pm: 7 Israeli Military Armored Personnel Carriers Terrorizing Azza Refugee Camp

April 07 2002, www.jerusalem.indymedia.org

Witnesses in Azza camp have reported shelling into the camp. A group of internationals there are on the floor and giving us live updates from the situation.Currently there are 7 APC's, armoured personnel carriers firing at buildings full of civilians, local and international.

7:00pm: Update from Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem

April 7, 2002, Centre for Rapprochement, www.rapprochement.org

In an attempt to get the word out to the American public, Via Dolorosa interviewed members of the International Solidarity

Movement who are first-hand witnesses to the Israeli siege of the Palestinian occupied territories. Edward Calis spoke to Gale Coury April 7. Coury is staying, along with a number of others from the international peace group, with Palestinian families in Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.

Via Dolorosa learned the electricity was cut off in the Bethlehem area which explained why staff members could not reach Palestinians in possession of cellular phones, like Tony Salman who has been inside the Nativity Church since it came under siege last week.

Via Dolorosa interviewed Salman April 5 and 6. At that time, Salman reported that the group of some 250 people, resistance fighters as well as civilians, are being cared for by the religious who make their home at the church.

Coury expressed her outrage at the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. She said, together with her friends they

attempted to deliver food and medicine to those trapped inside the Nativity Church in Bethlehem but were forbidden from entering by Israeli tanks that pointed their guns at them. Their failed efforts has left the group, including priests, nuns,

women, children, Bethlehem's Governor, Muhammad Al Madani and Palestinian policemen, without food and medicine. In an interview yesterday, Salman said 10 wounded men have found refuge in the church. In addition, there are cases of those with epilepsy and kidney disease inside. All, he added, are left to face hunger under the eyes of the whole world.

When asked how they spend their time under curfew, Coury said, they keep the Palestinian families company and spend most of their time attending and caring for children. "There are so many cute kids here, and they are precious," she said.

Coury also told Via Dolorosa about Saeed, 2, whose father was killed by the Israelis some months before. "The moment you ask him how he is, he says, they shot my father twice in shoulder."

He is one amazing kid, said Coury. When the Israelis invaded the refugee camp, and whenever he sees people, he keeps saying, they shot twice raising three of his fingers.

"The family we are staying with celebrated my birthday yesterday. The treat was popcorn and some cake," Coury said. Since we are still under curfew, I might celebrate it again today, she added. Coury is a journalist from Connecticut, and she is the proud wife of Toensing, Chairman of the State Board of Education in Connecticut.

We will keep in touch with Coury and other members of the International Solidarity Movement to learn more about the

Palestinian families under siege.

From Edward Calis at Via Dolorsa: http://www.via-dolorosa.net 

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