DAY 4

DAY 4: Internationals Shot at by Israeli Military During Peaceful Protest...Brutal Israeli Siege of Palestine Continues with US Support

4/1/02, Israeli military armored personnel carriers at Bethlehem Checkpoint (photo: Bob May)

The situation in Ramallah has deteriorated dramatically in the past few hours. Explosions are occurring throughout the city.

Israeli soldiers are trying to forcible evict an Italian Peace Delegation headed by MEP Luisa Morgantini from the offices of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees. The army has destroyed a building next to the UPMRC. Witnesses describe how five Palestinians and two Italians were made to kneel on the ground at gunpoint. Anti-aircraft missiles have been used against buildings. Anti- tank missiles have been used against Palestinian gunman. Red cross ambulances are attempting to deliver food and medical supplies to the Presidential compound they have been denied access for over two hours. The Israeli army has set up equipment around the compound which is interfering with communications from those in the compound to the outside world. There is a dire shortage of food inside the compound and there is no running water. The international civilians have again reiterated their plea for their ambassadors to come to Ramallah immediately.

Twelve international civilians are at the hospital and have been all day to preventing Israeli forces from entering. The three Palestinian medics arrested yesterday were released late in the night in an unknown location. They had to make their way home on foot. The ten French civilians are now in Jerusalem and are being deported. the group includes Jose Bove.

Moments ago international civilians and two members of the Palestinian press were wounded by live fire in Beit Jalla.The internationals were attempting to visit the people in homes that have been taken over by the Occupation Forces.

Word from the hospital staff is people were hit in the back of the head, face and one was hit in the upper thigh and knees. The Palestinians were hit in the chest.

The Israeli army’s current sporadic shelling of civilian buildings and indiscriminate shooting is endangering Palestinian lives.

The UPMRC building in Ramallah has come under tank fire while doctors, joined by 15 Italian volunteers including the member of the European Parliament, Ms. Luisa Morgantini, were inside treating patients. They were all able to escape unharmed.

However an injured man on the second floor jumped from the window in order to escape. The doctors rushed to his aid but Israeli soldiers present refused to allow him treatment. Ms. Morgantini tried to intervene but even this was in vain - still he remained untreated. Israeli soldiers then arrested him.

This is a very dangerous matter and means that all humanitarian institutions, including medical facilities are subject to danger, in fact it would appear they are coming under deliberate targeting. Furthermore, 10 minutes ago a UPMRC ambulance came under attack, also from a tank, while trying to reach an injured person.

We demand immediate intervention to restrain the aggressive behaviour of the Israeli army; an aggression directed at a civilian population – these attacks on UPMRC are just two examples from a day filled with such events. We also reiterate our call for the immediate presence of an international protection force on the ground.

6:00pm: Israeli occupation forces raid Arab Care Hospital and stop ambulances from evacuating the wounded
1 April 2002 - LAW

On Sunday 31 March 2002, approximately 30 Israeli soldiers raided the Arab Care Hospital in Ramallah. Dr. Odwan Al Bargouthi explained to LAW that Israeli soldiers raided the 3-story-building and held 55 people, including 9 injured men, in hospital wards, their hands were tied and they were forced to lie on the floor. Israeli troops also maltreated those held and cut off all communication with the outside world. Israeli troops also besieged Waleed Al Nathir Maternity Hospital in
Ramallah and detained patients and staff. The troops wreaked havoc and fired shots around the hospital. According to nurses, the shooting was extensive after which ambulance sirens were heard.

Israeli occupation forces have continued to prevent ambulances from evacuating the wounded and shoot at paramedics and detain them up for extended periods. Dr. Wael Kadan, from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), told LAW that Israeli troops stopped four PRCS ambulances from evacuating wounded Palestinians at the Daraghmi building. “Israeli troops held the paramedics for 15 minutes and searched ambulances. Paramedics heard shooting at the Daraghmi stores building… but they were stopped from evacuating potential wounded people.” added Dr. Kadan.

Later Israeli troops allowed an ambulance belonging to UPMRC to evacuate the bodies of two Palestinians.

Israeli actions are blatant violations of Articles 16-20 of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949 and Articles 9-11 of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions.

In light of the above, LAW:

· Demands the Israeli government to immediately stop its crimes and collective punishment against Palestinians;
· Calls upon the international community to stop subordinating their political and economic interests to their moral and legal obligations and to take effective measures in order to protect the rights and lives of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem;
· Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to comply with their obligations to ensure respect of the Convention;
· Calls upon the European Union, a vital trading partner for Israel, to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel as a means of pressuring Israel into compliance with basic norms of international law;

· Demands the UN Security Council to establish a war crime tribunal and bring Israeli war criminals to justice;
· Demands international protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories;
· Demands immediate humanitarian aid for besieged Palestinian people;
· Demands international intervention, especially of the ICRC to ensure that medical supplies reach those in need of them;
· Demands ICRC to exert pressure on the international community to end Israeli attacks on Palestinian paramedics and ambulances evacuating
the wounded and taking pregnant women to hospitals;

JOINT APPEAL FROM AL MEZAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PALESTINIAN INDEPENDENT COMMISSION FOR CITIZEN’S RIGHTS.

The Israeli Occupation Forces have devastated Ramallah, the “untouchable city”, invaded on Thursday night, 28 March 2002. when Arafat’s compound was surrounded and battered by tanks allegedly in response to a suicide bombing in Netanya, Israel . Since then, Arafat has been confined to one room of his office building in which electricity and water have been cut as well as all contact with the outside world. Despite assurances that Arafat would not be harmed, there are legitimate reasons to fear for his life and safety.

Israeli forces have placed Ramallah under total curfew continuing into today causing extreme hardship to the residents of the town. Israeli soldiers have surrounded the entrance to apartment buildings. People are prohibited from leaving their homes to buy basic supplies including food, water, and medicines. The electricity has been cut as have the mobile phone lines in certain cases making it nearly impossible to contact emergency medical services such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society or local hospitals and clinics. Ambulances and emergency medical personnel are prohibited from entering the city under any circumstances.

Although contact with people living inside the city has been severely limited, one person was able to get through by telephone and describe the situation as “miserable” and “inhuman”. “We have no food, no milk, no water; we cannot even move to the balconies of our homes to ask the soldiers for help without risking being shot.”

The city streets of Ramallah are empty and torn up. All schools and businesses are closed and in many cases the IDF forces have caused significant damage to them as well as to local banks. Cars have been crushed by bulldozers and tanks; In fact, not a single vacant car in Ramallah has been left undamaged. Garbage has been strewn about everywhere. A number of buildings have been burned including the Natshe Building , the Darqhmah Building , and the building hosting the former British Council. Israeli forces have occupied local TV and Radio stations including Amwaj and Watan and have, on two separate occasions, broadcast pornographic films to the surrounding community.

Local hospitals lack sufficient blood supplies, oxygen, medicines, and contact with the outside world. In some cases both electricity and water supplies to the hospitals have been cut. There are so many dead coming into the hospitals that the morgues are full causing hospital staff to have to set up rooms with fans run by electricity generators to keep the bodies from rotting completely. The risk of disease and contamination is serious and worsening.

IDF forces entered local hospitals and private clinics and rounded up injured men. In one instance 62 members of the International Solidarity Group threatened to lie down in front of the army jeeps and tanks to prevent soldiers from entering Ramallah’s central hospital. They have so far been successful in preventing similar actions in this hospital as a result.

As of Friday morning, 29 March 2002, approximately 500 men ranging from age 15 – 50 have been rounded up by the Israeli Occupation Forces and taken to a school in El-Bireh were they have faced continuous interrogation. They are tied up, blindfolded, handcuffed, kicked, and cursed. According to recent reports the situation has worsened since Sunday night.

A female journalist from Al-Jazeera has been subjected to repeated taunts by Israeli soldiers, mocking her voice and calling her to “come see what we’re doing” when they start shooting.

In a particularly ominous development, Joseph Pouvet of the French Farmer’s Union and a number of accompanying activists went in to see president Arafat. When they left the compound, IDF sources accused them of smuggling wanted persons along with them claiming that a larger number came out of the compound than went in. Pouvet and 12 others have been arrested.

We expect that every city and refugee camp in the West Bank will face similar treatment in the coming days, especially as Ariel Sharon has promised to extend his “war” into the rest of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip, currently under complete lockdown.

We call upon the international community to take immediate action to halt these war crimes and to allow international monitors in to protect the Palestinian people. We believe that the global civil society is especially relevant in calling a halt to these actions by pressuring their governments and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately. Silence in the face of these on-going crimes amounts to complicity. We cannot express the gravity and urgency of this situation strongly enough and appeal to all people of conscience to take action.

8:45pm: Israeli Assault on Humanitarian Infrastructure and Civilian Population Continues

Today the Israeli military attack on humanitarian infrastructure and civilian population continues.

- Many foreign reporters have left the area after pressure from the Israeli government

- Buildings such as the Kassabe cinema/theatre have been destroyed, Al Haq – a local Human Rights organization, HDIP a Health Research Institute is

A peaceful demonstration from Bethlehem to Beit Jala, composed of foreigners and Palestinians came under live fire from the Israeli army in the vicinity

of the Lutheran Church. Eight people were injured, seven of them foreigners. Keith Elizet, an Australian was shot in his abdomen. He is currently being

operated on and is in serious condition. The seven other injured are Paul Larudee, USA, Isako Iso, Japan, Jimmy Dad, UK, Lila Mond, France, Zeid Faisal

Khalil, USA, Iyad Hamad, Bethlehem and Kelly Baiden, UK. They have all been released from hospital.

- The UPMRC offices in Ramallah have been fired upon. Ms. Louisa Morgantini, an Italian member of the European Parliament, and a delegation of Italians

who had been accompanying the ambulances all day in an attempt to get medical treatment to the wounded were in the building at the time.

- The building was then evacuated; children, their mothers and fathers forced at gunpoint onto the street, evicted from their homes. New has just reached us that Israeli soldiers planted explosives in the building and have detonated them.

- Dr. Muhammad Scafie, a 45-year-old UPMRC doctor who has diabetes – the head of the First Aid section of Medical Relief was used as a human shield

- Dr. Scafie was then taken at gunpoint by the soldiers to all the surrounding houses and forced, still at the end of the gun, to enter the houses after the soldiers had exploded the doors open, to go into the dark and smoky houses ahead of them as a shield, as the soldiers searched them. Dr. Scafie has just now been released – after approximately 4 hours.

- Ms. Morgantini, who was detained at the same time as Dr. Scafie, has also just been, released.

- An Israeli tank attempted to shell a UPMRC ambulance as it was trying to access a patient, narrowly missing it.

- The local UPMRC clinic in Qalqiliya also come under attack, and is currently being used as an interrogation center.

- Dr. Jihaad Mashal, a UPMRC Director, has been detained for 4 days in his house. 22 people are confined to one room – and despite the medical crisis the doctor is not being released.

4/1/02, Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers at the Bethlehem checkpoint (photo: Bob May)

We demand that you intervene immediately to stop these crimes continuing in the Palestinian areas.

20 Americans who have joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group of over 400 international civilians who are in Palestine until April 12 to protest the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories, have traveled to Bethlehem and Ramallah to act as human shields. In the last several days, following military incursions into Ramallah and nearby refugee camps, Americans with the ISM have risked their lives to help Palestinians during this crisis.

a.. In Bethlehem and Ramallah, American civilians have been riding in Red Crescent ambulances, which have come under fire from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). They hope that their presence in the ambulances will discourage the IDF from shooting.

a.. On Saturday night, 60 international observers in Ramallah defied curfew and marched through the streets to the hospital to give blood, coming under fire from the IDF.

a.. On Saturday, 100 internationals--including Americans--marched in the streets of Beit Jala to protest the brutal Israeli invasion of the town. The peaceful demonstrators were attacked with sound bombs and bullets.

a.. On Saturday, over 70 internationals, together with the doctors from the Ramallah hospital, formed a human chain around the hospital there, blocking the Israeli military from entering.

a.. On Friday, Brooklynite Adam Shapiro was in the Arafat compound under fire, negotiating medical aid for wounded Palestinians. Saturday, internationals surrounded Israeli tanks there, waving white flags, entered the compound and attempted to help Palestinians to leave. 10 internationals, including French Union leader, Jose Bove, were arrested by the Israelis.

a.. Americans are staying with families in refugee camps in and around Bethlehem, where they hope their presence will help protect the camps' residents from the army. They have committed to remain with the families, in solidarity, during the imminent invasions.

"The idea is to use our privileged status as international civilians to act as human shields against these outright violations of international law and human decency," says Jordan Flaherty, a union organizer from New York City. "When the Israeli military comes, we expect them to act as before: taking all the men in the camp, stripping them down, arresting them, torturing them. We will tell the military that we live here with them, we are Americans, and if they take them, they must take us as well."