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SNIPERS CONTINUE TO KILL
PALESTINIANS CONTINUE TO RESIST
"...urgent appeal to the international community
to protect Palestinians from Israeli forces and
violent settlers."
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 10/17:
Even as the Sharm el-Sheikh summit proceeded yesterday, the Israeli Army,once
headed by now Prime Minister Ehud Barak who is also Israeli Defense Mininster,
continued to use snipers to kill Palestinians. The first report provides details
of the killing a Palestinian schoolboy in Bethlehem yesterday. Yesterday, as
the summit proceeded, about 200 Palestinians were injured throughout the occupied
territories by Israeli shooting.
And while the summiteers were listening to Bill Clinton and Hosni Mubarak
sum things up today -- Arafat and Barak sitting in silence with nothing to say
-- a Palestinian medical group today issued another desperate plea against the
"intolerable Israeli siege".
THE KILLING OF A PALESTINIAN STUDENT:
14 year old Mo'ayyad Osaama Al-Jowareesh
Defence for Children International/Palestine Section - October 17:
DCI/PS views with grave concern the killing of 14 year old Mo'ayyad Osaama
Al-Jowareesh, of Aida Refugee Camp, in Bethlehem, as he was walking to
school. At approximately 2:30pm, yesterday, 16 October, Israeli military
forces shot Mo'ayyad in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet, a metal
bullet surrounded by a thin plastic layer. According to eyewitnesses, an
Israeli soldier posted in the watchtower at Rachel's Tomb shot Mo'ayyad at
close range, as he was walking beneath the tower. The bullet entered the
apex of the skull and exited the other side. Mo'ayyad was a 9th grade
student at the UNRWA Basic School for Boys, which holds classes in morning
and afternoon sessions due to capacity restrictions. At the time of his
killing, Mo'ayyad was passing through the area on his way to the afternoon
session, with his school bag on his back. At least 4 other children were
wounded in clashes yesterday near Rachel's Tomb. Mo'ayyad's death brings
the total of Palestinian children martyred since 28 September 2000, to 27,
with an additional 4 declared clinically dead.
The circumstances surrounding Mo'ayyad's death is additional evidence of a
clear policy on the part of Israeli soldiers to shoot to kill or seriously
injure. A random sample of 397 injuries, documented by DCI/PS since
confrontations began, indicates that approximately 50% of the injuries
sustained by Palestinian children were wounds to the upper parts of the
body. Moreover, his death demonstrates that rubber coated steel bullets,
which are routinely used by Israeli military forces to disperse
demonstrations, are deadly, despite the misleading terminology.
As the Israeli siege continues, Palestinian civilians remain under a
strict, Israeli imposed closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The
tightened closure prevents the transfer of goods and people in and out of
Palestinian cities and villages, effectively imprisoning Palestinian
residents of the Occupied Territories. Of particular concern to DCI/PS is
the repeated Israeli refusal to allow medical supplies in to the affected
areas or to allow persons in need of medical care to proceed to the nearest
medical facility. On 13 October, 10 year old girl-child Alaa Osaama Hamdan
died as a result of a severe lung infection after her family was prevented
from taking her to the hospital in Nablus. According to her father, Osaama
Hamdan, of Assawiya village in the Nablus District, Alaa began to feel pain
in her stomach and chest on Thursday evening. When he attempted to
transport her to the hospital, Israeli soldiers at a nearby checkpoint
refused to allow his car to pass through. Alaa's pain intensified as her
condition deteriorated through the night. The following morning, Alaa's
father was able to locate a physician in the nearby village of Qabalan and
transported her there via back roads. By that time, however, her condition
had deteriorated significantly and she died in the presence of the
physician several moments after arriving to Qabalan.
Also on 13 October, 37 year old Na'im 'Atallah Ahmad died of kidney failure
when Israeli soldiers prevented him from travelling to Nablus for his
bi-weekly dialysis session. In the Jericho District, on the same day,
Israeli soldiers refused to allow 37 year old Huriya Beni Odeh, who was in
labor, to pass from the village of Jiftlik to the Jericho hospital. The
car in which she was riding attempted to reach the hospital via other
roads, but by the time she arrived, the baby had died in the womb due to
complications.
ISRAELI SIEGE INTOLERABLE
The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees - October 17, 2000, 12:00
PM:
The Israeli siege of Palestinian cities and villages has become intolerable.
Palestinians have become prisoners in their own localities. Newspapers,
food and medical supplies are becoming difficult to obtain.
The closure continues to threaten the lives of sick and injured
Palestinians. The case of 10-year-old Alaa Osama Hamdan from Sawiyya
village near Nablus highlights this issue. Alaa became ill with a serious
case of acute abdominal pain. The Israeli forces prevented her from
travelling to a hospital in Nablus for nearly two days. Her father finally
succeeded in bringing her to a clinic in the nearby village of Qabbalan.
Alaa died almost immediately after she arrived at the clinic.
Approximately 200 Palestinians were injured yesterday in continuing clashes
with the Israeli forces throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There is a
simultaneous increase in the army’s indiscriminate firing and their use of
snipers to target and kill specific individuals. For example, Muayyad Osama
Jawarish, age 13, was declared clinically brain-dead and later died after he
was hit in the head with an Israeli bullet while leaving his school in
Bethlehem. Muayyad was not participating in any demonstration; in fact, he
was not in the area of the clashes. Bullets also landed inside the Beit
Jala hospital. 6-year-old Muhammad Musallam was shot inside Bethlehem, in
an area away from the clashes. Army snipers are using silencers and
identifying and then killing or seriously wounding specific individuals in
clashes. Eight such cases were reported in Ramallah alone yesterday.
The UPMRC staff has received calls from the town of Qalqilya, which is under
complete closure. Farmers are being terrorized by settlers while picking
olives. Since olives and olive products are a vital part of the local
economy, the inability to harvest the olives will have severe economic
repercussions for farmers who depend on this annual crop for income.
Settlers are also attacking olive pickers in Salim village near Nablus, and
in Silwad they burned 20 dunams of land belonging to Palestinians.
We have just learned that in the village of Beit Fouriq, settlers from Eit
Mar attacked five Palestinians who were picking olives. Two were critically
injured. Farid Moussa, age 22, died because the army did not allow the
ambulance to enter into the village. Village residents were forced to
transport the remaining wounded (including the one critically injured
patient) to the hospital in private cars using bypass roads that are in bad
condition.
The UPMRC restates its urgent appeal to the international community to
protect Palestinians from Israeli forces and violent settlers.
MiD-EasT RealitieS - www.MiddleEast.Org
Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 815 366-0800
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