I have just spent the past week in Tulkarem.
Tulkarem straddles the line of the West Bank and Israel, where you can see the lights of Netanyaand the sea in the distance. But the city is completely isolated, and this imprisonmentheavily enforced by the surrounding Israeli military.
This is a city where extreme violence carried out by the Israeli military on all Palestiniancitizens is hushed up. Journalists are strictly forbidden from this ‘military zone’.
Apaches this past week have been flying low over the city day and night, firing into Tulkaremcamp and city with routine frequency. Tanks have occupied the center and outskirts of thecity, also firing often. And the soldiers in jeeps, many of them Druze, drive aroundconstantly, shouting that if they see anyone on the street they will shoot.
The military is very busy arresting and shooting at civilians, on many occasions children asyoung as seven years old. Journalists have been threatened with arrest unless they get out oftown immediately, their film confiscated on site. This week Ha’aretz reporter Gideon Levy’scar was fired upon with no provacation (a bullet straight in the center of the windshield), theonly thing saving his life being the bullet proof glass.
COLD BLOODED EXECUTIONS
On Tuesday, August 7th, the military executed one of the men on their ” wanted list ” , ZiadD’ayas, 28 years old, in cold blood. They also murdered two Palestinian civilians in thevicinity, afterwards claiming they too were ” wanted ” . This official military statement isan absolute untruth.
One, Mahair Jesmawi, 17 years old, was a student who had just learnt moments before he had justpassed his end of the year school examinations. Elated, he stepped out briefly onto the streetand was killed. The other was Mohammed Saidz, 24 years old, a mechanic working in his shop whohad the bad luck to be happened upon by soldiers going after Ziad. He was shot and died a slowdeath after ambulances were prevented from retrieving him.
This military action was conducted in a particulary gruesome way. According to eyewitnessesin neighbouring buildings, it started around 9 am that morning. Snipers, and soldiers, manyin plain clothers surrounded the area of the mechanic’s roof where Ziad was sleeping. Theyproceeded to aim and shoot, hitting Ziad in his leg and neck. Ziad fell off the roof into theshop, breaking his limbs but still alive. They then proceeded to bash him all over his body withtheir guns, before firing 9 dum dum bullets directly into his head, killing him instantly.Their dogs were set on the body, and acid was poured on his arms, legs, and stomach.
Ambulances were prevented from moving for five hours that morning. One tried to retrieve thethree bodies that the military held in a small field outside the mechanic’s house, but theambulance was fired upon and had to turn back. Finally, a civilian car rushed the bodies to thegovernment hospital as soon as the soldiers left the the vicinity.
I viewed the bodies as they came in. Ziad’s body was grotesquely tortured, limbs broken, andhis skin peeled off in huge sections from the acid. His head was half blown off. Mahair, the 17year old student, was shot in the head. And Mohammed, the mechanic, had a bullet in his torso.
Meanwhile, the houses in the area of the murders were emptied of families, as the soldiers wentthrough each one, damaging furniture, stealing money on two occasions. A group of roughlythirty men were arrested and taken to Israel, including two wounded by live ammunition.
THE HOSPITAL AND AMBULANCES UNDER SIEGE
The ambulance dispatch center is next to Tulkarem’s government hospital. On three occasionsthis past week both the hospital and ambulance entrance have been blocked by tanks and jeeps.Apparently this is quite normal.
On these occasions, soldiers scream at the hospital gate keepers to close the gates. Once, topunctuate their point, the soldiers fired live ammunition through the gaps in the gate,towards the emergency room entrance, hitting a car in the process. Thankfully, the car had nooccupants at the time.
On these three occasions the Red Cross has been informed by the military that the ambulancescannot move AT ALL. Shooting at moving ambulances is unfortunately not uncommon in Tulkarem.
A DECIMATED AMBULANCE
Three days ago, the ambulance center wanted to deliver an ambulance that had been decimated bytank fire on March 7th, to the main ambulance center in Ramallah.
The attack on this particular ambulance resulted in the death of the driver, Ibrahim. Thevehicle was shot upon without warning by a tank as Ibrahim was heading back to the hospitalafter delivering a patient. He was killed by numerous bullets to the head. His passenger, amedic called Sophia, was pushed down onto the floor of the ambulance by Ibrahim moments beforehe was killed, so luckily escaped with only shrapnel all over her body.
The ambulance center had to negotiate with the soldiers at Tulkerem’s checkpoint totransport this badly damaged ambulance through. When a soldier saw the 30 odd bullet holes inthe windshield and body of the vehicle, as well as Ibrahim’s blood and hair smeared on theinside of the driver’s door, he asked me what happened. When the story was told, the soldier’sresponse was, ” they must have been fired upon by their own people ” . ” No, it was definitly anIsraeli tank, ” I said. [caught on film, eyewitness accounts, as well as the medic’s account] “Well… then they must have been terrorists, ” the soldier adamantly replied.
SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS CONTINUES UNDER FIRE
The summer camp for children is popular, but often caught up in the violence. The kids have beenin the downtown camp on numerous occasions when the tanks come in to the downtown area and startfiring.
The kids who attend (roughly 7 – 10 years old) are from both the city and the camp. Every morningthe kids, escourted by the teachers run single file along the sides of buildings to reach thesummer camp. The same routine happens upon their return home.
Running to the homes of the kids one afternoon we came across a tank and had to duck into a nearbyhouse. The kids were terrified, one 8 year old girl sobbing with fear uncontrollaby. The tankopened fire outside the house as we cowered on the floor.
Thankfully, there was a small kitten lounging on the floor. We used it to divert the kids’attention from the blasts outside, playfully pulling the kitten’s tail and saying “look,look. ” They focused on the kitten and the small girl stopped crying. We left when when thestreet fell silent again, and ran to their houses.
TO SUM UP
It is hard to conclude this essay of what was witnessed this bloody week in Tulkarem. Theviolence was so strong, and details brutal. For more information please call: