The Israeli army has been occupying this town of 40,000 for over fourmonths continuously. During that time, there has been a closure of thecity and a 24-hour curfew (imprisonment in the home). The closure meansthat there is only one entrance to the city, with a checkpoint that iscontrolled by the Israeli army. The curfew means that no one is allowed toleave their homes, under penalty of death. Every few days, this curfew islifted and people are allowed to leave their homes for a few hours. Thiscurfew has made it absolutely impossible for anyone to work in their jobsor farm their fields during these four months. The entire life of the cityhad to come to an abrupt halt when the army invaded in April and began tooccupy the town. Since then, no one has been able to conduct theirbusiness, and the population’s entire focus has become how to get food forthe next day. The army does not announce in advance when they will liftthe curfew, and so it is impossible to plan in advance for anything.Everyone is huddled inside their homes, waiting for word that the curfew islifted so that they can go outside. Tanks, armed personnel carriers,bulldozers and dozens of jeeps roll into town every day, and have managedto destroy the pavement of most of the streets, the curbs, and the shadesover the sidewalks. They frighten the citizenry by shooting at them withM16s, bazookas and tanks. About 20 people have been killed by the army inthis town since the April invasion, 60 cars have been flattened by tanks,30 homes have been completely destroyed by Israeli bombs or bulldozers, andhundreds of homes have been entered and their residents harassed andproperty damaged by Israeli soldiers. In contrast, during this same timeperiod, six Israeli colonizers living on Palestinian land in the West Bankhave been killed by Palestinians.
Qalqilia is a farming town, with many residents dependent on agriculturalproduction for their livelihood. The Israeli government has decided tobuild a wall completely surrounding the town, and construction of the wallis well on its way. Every day we see Israeli construction workers puttingup another section of the 20-foot high cement wall. It looks a lot likethe Berlin wall, but with an added component: guard towers, much like thoseyou see in a prison. The towers are being installed every few hundredfeet, to be staffed by Israeli soldiers (most of which are young men aged18-22) with surveillance equipment and guns. This will give the Israeliarmy the power to peer out over all parts of the city, viewing the insideof people’s homes (including the bedrooms) and shoot at will. The oneentrance to the city will be strictly controlled by the Israeli army, andthe gate will be closed at the whim of the officers in charge.
Construction of this wall will have many devastating effects on a townalready suffering a great deal due to the occupation. Farmers will beforbidden from farming on their own land if it is located outside the citylimits, workers will be unable to reach their jobs (both those who commutein to Qalqilia and those who live in the town and work outside of it). Inessence, the prison-like conditions created by the curfew will be madeconcrete by the completion of the prison wall. The worst effects, however,will be environmental, as much of the water supply of the city comes fromwinter flows from the nearby mountains. This water will be dammed by thewall and flood huge amounts of farmland both in Israel and the West Bank.The effects of the damming of the water supply will include contaminationwith waste water (leading to diarrhea, dysentery, etc.). It will affectIsraelis as well as Palestinians.
Here are some recent incidents that reflect everyday occurrencesin Qalqilia during the current occupation.
July 10 – Chukri Fayik Dawoud, 10 years old, was outside his family’s homewhen he was shot by an Israeli soldier. Two other children were injured bybullets. The curfew was off at the time, which meant that people were freeto be outside of their homes. The army gave no warning that they weregoing to attack, they simply rolled into town with tanks and armoredvehicles and began to shoot. The army gave no explanation for killing thisboy, who was the youngest child in a family of four children. His fatherhad recently undergone heart surgery, and Chukri and his 14 year oldbrother were always helping their father in the shop he owned. Chukri wasrunning an errand for his father when he was shot. His 13-year old sistersaw him get killed.
July 15 – The Israeli army launched an assault on a plastics factory thatproduced car seat covers and accessories in Qalqilia. 40 workers wereinside the building when the assault began at 8:00 in the morning, as wellas two families who lived in apartments above the factory. The Israelisoldiers threw fire bombs into the building, which immediately ignited thehighly flammable materials in the factory. The soldiers gave no warning,and offered no reason for the assault. They surrounded the building, andrefused to let the local fire department enter to put out the fire.
Despite this fact, most of the workers and the families with their twelvechildren managed to escape. One man, Mahmoud Helal, was stuck on thesecond floor and burned to death. His friends and co-workers triedrepeatedly to tell the soldiers he was trapped inside, and begging them toallow the firefighters inside to rescue him, but the soldiers refused.
According to one friend of Mahmoud’s, when he told a soldier that hisfriend was trapped inside, the soldier laughed and threw another firebombinside the building, telling Mahmoud’s friend, ” I will kill you next ” .Mahmoud was 23 years old, and was working at the factory to save money forhis university studies. His family was devastated by the loss, as hisdeath was a particularly painful one ? and completely unexpected. He was acompletely innocent man whose only crime was going to work on the day thatthe army decided to attack his factory. The army gave no explanation forthe attack, which displaced two families from their homes, destroyed thejobs of 60 people and caused 2.5 million dollars worth of damage to thecompany.
July 18 – Fathi Hassan Sweedan, 40 years old, was shot in the head whilepicking olives from an olive tree on his land in the village of Azoun nearQalqilia. The army gave no warning that they were going to shoot, and gaveno explanation for the attack.
July 20 ? Anis Albe was killed near Qalqilia when he was crossing a road togo to work in the town of Kfar Saba.July 24 – Ghaleb Nazal was driving his car in the evening when the Israeliarmy rolled into town with its entourage of tanks and armored vehicles.Ghaleb requested permission to pass in order to reach his home, and thecommanding officer gave him permission to pass. As he was driving, a tankrolled up and rolled over his car. He managed to escape with onlyrelatively minor injuries, but his car was completely flattened by the tank.
July 25 – Three men were arrested, forced to kneel, blindfolded, for fivehours in the hot sun as their homes were destroyed by bulldozers. One wasAhmed Hazza, 52 years old, who spent 21 years of his life as a politicalprisoner in Israel (1968 ? 1989) and suffered from many internal injuriesfrom that time. He was the General Secretary for the Fatah politicalorganization in this area and very active in working for peace. He wasrecognized as a patient negotiator and willing participant in the politicalprocess. According to local sources, his arrest will obstruct the peaceprocess. The other two men arrested were his nephew, Ehad Hazza, 27 yearsold, and a neighbor, Jawad Barham, 30 years old, who lived in the housebehind. Jawad’s family is quite poor, and his mother has had a verydifficult time raising her eight children after her husband left her whenJawad was young. His mother and his sister are both quite sick, and havehad to resort to begging in the marketplace for money for medicine andfood. Now they have lost their home, and the soldiers gave no reason forarresting the men or destroying the homes.
Also, Jamal Shekar Ge’ada was shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers inQalqilia with no warning. There was a child looking out of a second-storywindow in the house behind where Jamal was standing. The soldiers sprayeda round of bullets toward the window, barely missing the four-year oldchild and his one-year old brother who lay sleeping near the window. AsJamal tried to make his way to a nearby home to get help for his injury, hewas shot 3 more times in his legs and his side. The Israeli soldiersrefused to allow an ambulance to retrieve the injured man, and after about30 minutes took him in an armored vehicle to an Israeli hospital where heremains in critical condition today (July 26). A ten-year old child whowitnessed the attack was standing nearby with a shocked look on his face,repeating ” They were smoking ” (ie. The Israeli soldiers were smokingcigarettes when they shot this unarmed man).
July 26 – At about midnight on the morning of the 26th, the Israeli armybegan attacking a neighborhood in Qalqilia without warning or explanation.They gathered about 200 people in groups and made them stand on the streetfor 13 hours, until 1:00 this afternoon. The soldiers went through eachhome on the street (close to fifty homes), using a resident from the homeas a human shield as they went through the homes opening cabinets,overturning furniture, and shooting bullets through walls, doors andfurniture. The soldiers said they were looking for guns, but they foundnone. They were looking for no particular person, but merely searchingrandomly for guns. Some children were isolated from the others andinterrogated for 13 hours, with soldiers continually asking him, ” Where arethe guns hidden? ” . The Israeli army destroyed 2 cars, a van, a water tank,and farm equipment as they smashed through a yard with their armoredbulldozer tank. They also arrested at least one man, Hassam Daod, age 30.
At about 9:30 am, on a nearby street, a 35-year old man named Zeyad TaisirAhmad Hajj Hassan was preparing breakfast for his family in this kitchen onthe second floor of his home. Israeli soldiers shot a number of bulletsthrough the window. He was shot in the head while holding a pot of coffee.He was brought to the local hospital and was being transferred to anotherhospital when he died at about 11:00 am. His wife and brother-in-law bothwent into shock and had to be hospitalized. His four children, ranging inage from 1 to 6 years old, also witnessed the event. The Israeli army gaveno explanation for the attack.
For other reports from international activists in various Occupied PalestinianTerritories, please see: http://www.palsolidarity.org/journals_reports.htm“>http://www.palsolidarity.org/journals_reports.htm