(from my e-mail)
Dear All,
About an hour ago, I spoke with a friend who has been in Balata the entire shocking and sickening day, the 5th day of the IOF incursion, and the worst, so far. According to him, IOF soldiers shot at medical teams, and wounded also internationals who were trying to help wounded Palestinians. Israel has no shame. The TV news film of the house to house invasion through the narrow alleys, of IOF soldiers kicking in doors, of women screaming, of men being shot, of destruction …. are we all so inured that nothing moves us? It makes me sick to my stomach. How the average Israeli feels, I dare not think.
* * *
The rest of Dorothy’s e-mail and information follow. I wanted to include some comments posted at YNet today in response to Hamas calling on Palestinians to protest this 5-day IOF assault against the Balata Refugee Camp. Besides killing and injuring unarmed civilians and interfering with medical services, the army seized two schools for military operations, destroyed homes, and imprisoned a young man without charge to pressure him and family members into revealing the whereabouts of the person they wanted.
There is no improving the situation of Kadima
It is as comatose (dead?) as it’s founder. The best thing these crooks who sell out Israel to the failed foreign agenda which rewards terrorism is to lock thermselves up in an Israeli prison or defect to the U.S. asking for asylum in an insane asylum.
Those Kadimaites who continue to reward terrorism will meet more severe chastisement than P.M. Sharon met with for the evil he did against the Jews of Gaza.
The missiles fall from dugit now on Ashkelon and someone in Israel should be in prison for this CRIME.
Marcel , Florida (02.23.06)
What a great opportunity
Good. Let them all go out to the streets and ‘demonstrate.’ Then we can drop a bomb on them and send them to their virgins! What kind of religiion is it that copulation is the ultimate reward?
THERE IS NO SUCH PLACE AS PALESTINE
Chaya , Eretz Yisrael (02.23.06)
(Dorothy’s e-mail continued)
The incoming Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, stated “Palestinians will not allow their blood to become an tool in Israeli elections,”* But it seems likely that more than elections are at stake. Europe has not followed Israel in cutting off funds for the Palestinians, despite the Hamas win, and even the US is hedging. A single Palestinian act of violence in retaliation for what the IOF is doing in Balata, and Israel will claim (as always) that “there is no partner.” [The statement is absolutely true, but applies to Israel, not to the Palestinians.] And so Israelis will pay the price for the follies of their leaders. And the Palestinians, whose suffering increases daily, will be blamed. And cruel heartless Israeli leaders will insist that the rest of the world starve the Palestinians by refusing to send funds to ‘terrorists.’ Ah, friends, what can I say? My mind runs dry. I fear for the worst for both our peoples—Palestinians and Israeli Jews. How did Israel produce leaders who care for land land land but shed not a tear for lives—the expendable, dispendable element, the ‘collateral damage’ on the way to the ‘greater Israel.’
Below is the ISM description of events today, followed by an Associated Press report on the same. Following that, a few links take you to additional reports, if they interest you. Please spread the information as widely as possible.
Best, Dorothy
* http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/686123.html
Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/686494.html
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:50:42 +0000
Subject: [ISM Media Group] Israeli military opens fire on medical team wounding
Palestinian and International medical volunteers –
“We were standing in the alley way, everything was quite when suddenly without warning we heard a big explosion and heard gun shots. I then saw Jarar and Ihab liying on the floor. Ihab wasn’t moving.”
Wounded Dutch medical volunteer
At 11:45 this morning an explosion set off by the Israeli military inside the house belonging to Muhammed Abu Hamis Abu Amar caused a fire in the house. Occupation forces prevented fire trucks from accessing the area and told them that they will be detonating further explosions in the same house. Emergency teams accompanied by international volunteers treated children in some of the adjacent houses who were effected by smoke inhalation. Neighbours attempted to put out the fire by bringing buckets of water.
At 12:30 the military set off a series of additional explosions inside the house of Muhammed Abu Amar.
At 1:00 A medical team including two Palestinians and two international volunteers were trapped in an alleyway adjacent to the house belonging to Muhammed Abu Amar. They were standing behind an Israeli Jeep that soldiers had vacated.
At 2:00 without any warning shots they were fired at and a grenade was thrown at them from around the corner. According to the volunteers the shooting came from the direction of the Alleyway where the Israeli soldiers were. A twenty two year old American student was wounded by Shrapnel in the hand a twenty nine year old Dutch volunteer was wounded by shrapnel in the thigh and shoulder, Jirar Candola an ambulance driver with the UPMRC was shot in the arm and leg and Ihab Mansour, a medical volunteer working with the Palestinian scientific society, was shot in the head and taken away by the Israeli soldiers.
At 3:00 the soldiers blew up Muhammad Abu Amar’s house, thus killing three Palestinian fighters who were inside.
Earlier this morning the Israeli military shot and killed 19 Year old Ibrahim Saadi, who was throwing a stone at the Israeli armored jeeps and 20 year old Naim Abu Sarif, who was shot dead by a sniper while on the roof of his house.
For more information call:
In Balata Simone 054-2149589 or ISM media office 02-2971824
Israeli Army Kills Top Militant
Thursday February 23, 2006 8:16 PM
By EMILIO MORENATTI
Associated Press Writer
BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) – Israeli troops on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including a top militant who said just a day earlier that he would never be caught, in the largest West Bank military operation since Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip last summer.
The three fugitives from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades were hiding in a crawlspace above the bathroom of a Balata house when soldiers ringed the building. A gun battle ensued, and at one point, the gunmen threw an explosive device toward the soldiers. Two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.
At the time of the blast, a group of medics and journalists had assembled nearby, after being prevented by troops from entering the camp, witnesses said. One medic, Khaled Saragic, said that when a soldier standing next to a jeep heard the blast, he started firing toward medics and journalists, wounding three people.
Also, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel charged that soldiers were impeding the movement of ambulances. Late Thursday afternoon, they said, four ambulances were trapped inside the camp.
The military denied that soldiers fired indiscriminately or that ambulances were detained. However, the army said ambulances were checked because of attempts to smuggle fugitives out of the camp.
The military said it was not aware of such incidents, and said all gunfire was directed toward armed Palestinians or those throwing firebombs.
Since the Balata sweep began Sunday, eight Palestinians have been killed by army fire, including the five shot dead Thursday. More than 50 Palestinians have been injured by live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets, Palestinian hospital officials said. The military said 15 fugitives have been arrested.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the operation and warned it would endanger a cease-fire that has been in effect for a year, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.
In Gaza, Hamas backers marched toward the Palestinian parliament building to protest the Israeli operation in Nablus. After winning elections last month, Hamas has taken control of the parliament.
Addressing the rally, incoming Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas denounced the “aggression committed against our people” and expressed solidarity with the Palestinians resisting the Israeli military in the refugee camp. He said Hamas has a two-pronged program for the people: “One hand resists and the other hand builds.”
One of those killed Thursday was identified as Mohammed Shtawi, a top Al Aqsa fugitive. On Wednesday, Shtawi told an AP reporter that earlier in the day soldiers surrounded his hideout for five hours, but he and several friends slipped away. “They will never catch me,” he said at the time.
Israeli forces have been carrying out nightly arrest raids in the West Bank, rounding up suspected militants, but the incursion into the Balata camp is the largest and longest since the summer pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank. Dozens of army vehicles and hundreds of soldiers are involved.
Israeli security officials have been warning that with the pullout, Palestinian militants would switch their operations to the West Bank. Nablus has been a focus of attention for months, with soldiers keeping a tight grip on the city, which is encircled by roadblocks.
The Israeli military said troops entered Balata after receiving warnings that Al Aqsa and two other militant groups in and around the West Bank city of Nablus were planning attacks against Israelis. Before the raid, soldiers in the Nablus area seized four bomb belts, said Maj. Sharon Assman, an army officer in the area. Such belts are used in suicide bombings.
On Thursday morning, dozens of jeeps patrolled Balata and sealed off the refugee camp of 18,000 people from adjacent Nablus. Balata is a stronghold of the Al Aqsa group, a violent offshoot of Abbas’ Fatah Party.
Al Aqsa fugitives have been moving from hideout to hideout since the army raid began.
Fighting in Balata began at midmorning Thursday when one of the jeeps broke down on the outskirts of the camp. Several teens began throwing stones at the vehicle, witnesses said. Soldiers opened fire, killing a 19-year-old man. The Israeli military said soldiers fired at the man because he was holding a firebomb.
In another area, Palestinians threw stones at a jeep and soldiers opened fire, hitting one man in the jaw, witnesses said.
An AP photographer who heard the shots and rushed to the scene found the man lying on the ground, with blood gushing from a large hole in his jaw. Bystanders quickly bundled him into an ambulance, and hospital officials later reported he was in serious condition. The Israeli military said the man was targeted because he held a firebomb.
Also, a 22-year-old man was shot and killed by a bullet to the chest while he was standing on his roof in Balata, witnesses said. The military said he was armed when he was shot and that he was an Al Aqsa fugitive.
Link to Ynet report: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3220274,00.html
Link to BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4743540.stm
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