Update: Yousef Ahmed Amira, 18, Brain Dead in Ramallah Hospital
August 2nd, 2008On July 30, 2008, after the funeral of 10 year old Ahmed Mousa of Ni’lin who was shot in the head by the Israeli Occupation Forces on July 29, Yousef Ahmed Amira was shot in the head by Israeli forces from an illegally close range with two plastic-coated steel bullets, both of which entered his skull. He was rushed to a hospital in Ramallah where he remains in a clinically dead state with no brain function and on life-support.
Another Youth Shot in Ni’lin, Pronounced Brain Dead
July 30th, 2008Yousef Ahmed Amira, age 18, was shot in the head at approximately 7:30pm this evening. He was pronounced brain dead in a Ramallah hospital hours later. We will post more information about this tragic incident as it becomes available.
In related news Mohammed Amira, who was detained at the demonstration yesterday in Ni’lin, has been released.
Ambulance Attacked, Home Ransacked As 2 Are Shot, 4 Arrested in Beit Ommar
July 27th, 2008
At approximately 3:30pm Saturday, July 26, dozens of soldiers entered Beit Ommar on foot, followed by several jeeps and large Armored Personnel Carriers (APC’s). They took up several positions around the main mosque and began shooting at residents and homes indiscriminately. They almost immediately began using live ammunition, though they also shot tear gas, percussion grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets. They were also found using plastic-coated steel bullets which are round steel balls covered in plastic a millimeter thick and shot in a spray which have been outlawed internationally. At approximately 5pm a young man, age 20, was shot through both of his arms with live ammunition. He was successfully evacuated by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance to Hebron. The next man who was severely injured was not so lucky. Mohammed Younis, 20, was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet. As a second ambulance arrived and medics began to assess his injury, the medics were assaulted by soldiers who pushed them to the ground. Younis, his head covered in blood, was then arrested. When his older brother came to his aid he too was arrested. Both are currently being held in Etzion prison.
After photographing the soldiers in the center of town, including the ambulance that had been stopped there, internationals with PSP followed the soldiers to the entrance of the town as they were leaving. Soldiers had set up a make-shift checkpoint at the entrance to the village and when the internationals drove up soldiers grabbed one of the internationals by the arm and began pulling him out of the car. He then told the international activist to open his bag, which he did. The international had picked up the used cartridge of the plastic-coated steel bullets as evidence of their use and had it in his bag. The soldiers made everyone get out of the car and then handed back the cartridge and told the international he would have to show the soldier his camera. This time, the internationals were successful in preventing the soldiers from getting any of their cameras and after briefly being herded into a nearby shop and threatened that if they saw the activists taking pictures of them again they would beat them up, the soldiers left.
Update: Use of Illegal Weaponry in Beit Ommar Confirmed By Doctors
July 26th, 2008
Two men, Mohammed Awwad, 21, and Mahmoud Awwad, 18 were both treated in al-Ahli hospital in Al-Khalil (Hebron) after being shot during an invasion on Wednesday, July 23. 
Mohammed was originally reported as having been shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet at close range but after treatment in the hospital it was determined that in fact he had been shot with a dum dum bullet, the use of which against civilians has been outlawed internationally because of the severe damage they cause. Dum Dum bullets are designed to break apart after impact, pieces of which travel through the body, lodging themselves in various places and requiring extensive surgery to remove. Mahmoud was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet at close range, causing it to enter the back of his head though not the skull. Both were released from the hospital today.
International Activist Assaulted During Beit Ommar Invasion
July 26th, 2008
On Friday at approximately 6pm soldiers from the Israeli Occupation Forces began another of their “training” sessions in Beit Ommar, with units of soldiers coming from three sides and surrounding the village. Once again, there was no clear purpose to the exercise, apart from antagonizing the residents and terrifying children. An international volunteer, along with a Palestinian committee member of PSP both walked into the entrance to the village and began taking pictures of soldiers at the entrance, near the military watchtower. A soldier came out of the watchtower and began shouting at the international that it was forbidden for him to take pictures. The two activists continued walking into the village while the international continued to photograph the soldiers who had entered a small field in the lower part of the village. Suddenly, three military jeeps sped into the village, one stopping less than a foot away from the international activist. The jeeps cut off the street and soldiers jumped out of the car and demanded that he give them his camera, though they had no authority to demand such a thing, of which the international activist reminded them. Approximately 8 soldiers then surrounded the international, grabbing him from the back of the neck and began kneeing him in the chest while shoving him into a nearby garage. One soldier then pushed the international against the wall by shoving his M-16 across the activist’s neck. They then managed to remove the memory card of the camera.
2 Arrested, 2 Internationals Shot in the Face in Ni’lin Demonstration
July 25th, 2008
On Thursday, July 24, over a hundred Palestinians from Ni’lin were joined by dozens of international and Israeli activists in their struggle against the Annexation Barrier on their land. Participants gathered in the center of town and marched into the olive groves towards the bulldozers that were tearing up olive trees nearby. When demonstrators were still more than 200 yards away, soldiers began shooting tear gas at the crowd. A small group of Palestinians and internationals approached the line of soldiers hidden amongst the olive trees. These soldiers immediately charged at a leading member of the Popular Committee, attempting to arrest him. He escaped capture but two Israelis from Anarchists Against Walls were arrested and marched back behind the line of soldiers to waiting police jeeps.
Soldiers in small groups were then dispatched throughout the groves, shooting rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas directly into the scattered groups of demonstrators. One international with PSP was hit in the face with a metal tear gas canister shot from a gun after it bounced off a tree, giving him a bloody nose, and a deep bruise and laceration across his nose. Another international from a French student delegation was shot in the jaw with a rubber-coated steel bullet, causing a laceration that was treated at the local clinic. As the demonstrators began moving back towards the village, another international from PSP was shot in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet, as was a Palestinian demonstrator. In the end, at least 4 were injured and the two Israelis were held for several hours while handcuffed until they were released later that day.
Vicious Invasion in Beit Ommar Leaves 3 Hospitalized, 9 Kidnapped
July 24th, 2008
Soldiers with the Israeli Occupation Forces first arrived in Beit Ommar on Wednesday, July 23, in the morning, creating a checkpoint at the entrance to the village and checking every Palestinian’s ID as they went in or out. They did not seem to be looking for anyone in particular, but rather continuing on their increasingly invasive campaign of harassment which took another turn earlier this week when a curfew was announced in the middle of the afternoon, only to be lifted a few hours later after homes were invaded and copious amounts of tear gas shot. On Wednesday, events turned even worse. After a few hours when the soldiers seemed to have left the village, 3 jeeps and 3 Armored Personnel Carriers entered the village at around 8 pm. They began shooting tear gas and throwing massive flash grenades in the streets, frightening local children as the sun went down. For approximately 3 hours, the soldiers contented themselves with driving into the center of town, waiting for young men and small boys to come out and throw harmless rocks and bottles at the armored vehicles, and then rushing out of their jeeps, scattering the boys with tear gas and sound grenades. However, at approximately 11:30pm soldiers began invading homes, pulling out young men at random and arresting them without explanation. At approximately 12am Ibrahim Awwad, who works with the Palestinian police, was shot in the chest from less than 20 meters with a rubber-coated steel bullet; less than half the legal distance for the use of that weaponry, while standing in the doorway of his home. As his mother and aunts tried to pull him inside the house, soldiers ran up and began savagely beating the women, kicking them in the ribs while they were on the ground. They then took Ibrahim, saying he would be taken to their own medical facilities. Also injured at that time was Mahmoud Awwad, who was shot in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet from very close range. After an ambulance was delayed for almost an hour at the entrance to the village, he was also evacuated and taken to a hospital in Hebron. A third boy, Mohammed Samir Awwad, 18, was shot in the back of the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet, which can be deadly at any range. He, too, was taken to a hospital, over an hour after he was shot.
2 Arrested at 1st Women-Only Demonstration in Ni’lin
July 24th, 2008
On Wednesday, July 23, over 200 women, Palestinian, International and Israeli, held an extremely successful demonstration in the village of Ni’lin, where an ongoing struggle against the Annexation Barrier has been waged for several months. Gathering on the edge of the village, the women of Ni’lin, who were joined by Palestinian women from Ramallah and Tulkarem, the women chanted “No, No to the Wall” in Arabic and English as they marched towards the site of the bulldozers. One member of the Popular Committee, and husband of one of the participants, ran alongside the demonstration, shouting encouragement. As the women neared the soldiers, who met them several hundred meters away from the bulldozers, they immediately threw sound grenades into the crowd, dispersing them only for a moment as the women regrouped and moved off the road and into the olive groves, headed towards the bulldozers.
Soldiers finally managed to stop the smaller, forward group of women who then began a heated negotiation with a commander, demanding that they be given the chance to access their lands. Interspersed with the “negotiations” the women were planning their best route to the bulldozers. Several times soldiers threw tear gas canisters into the group but the women, who deal with tear gas being thrown into their houses throughout their lives, were more than a match for the Israeli Army, spraying room deodorizer in the air and effectively neutralizing the effects of the tear gas. Each time tear gas was thrown, the group used the opportunity to move a few meters forward, always with the goal of reaching the bulldozers.
Updates: Committee Members in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’asara Freed, Israeli Photographer Undergoes Surgery, High Court Hearing for PSP Co-Founder
July 23rd, 2008In the last 3 weeks several prominent activists from Ni’lin and Al-Ma’asara, the sites of ongoing Anti-Wall demonstrations, have been arrested. On Sunday, July 20, After 2 weeks of imprisonment and 2 bail hearings the two members of the South Betlehem Popular Committee who were arrested on July 4 were released when supporters from the Betlehem community, Israeli anarchists, and PSP raised 12,000 shekels bail. Salah Khawaja, a medic and also member of the Popular Committee of Ni’lin, who was brutally assaulted and arrested on July 13, was released on bail after 9 days in prison. He intends to sue the Israeli military for his false arrest and abuse while in their custody.
Keren, an Israeli photographer who was shot in the hip from close range by a rubber-coated steel bullet, had to undergo surgery last week when doctors finally discovered that the steel center of the bullet had indeed entered her leg and traveled several centimeters. The surgery was successful in removing the bullet and she is recovering at home.
Finally, the Israeli High Court has agreed to hear the appeal of the administrative detention of Mousa Abu Maria, Co-founder and coordinator of PSP, on August 7.
For more information on his or other cases, or how you can contribute to the ongoing legal costs of the Anti-Occupation struggle in Palestine, please contact us at:
or call Bekah (English) 0542-037-539
or Yousef (Arabic) 0522307672
B’Tselem: Soldier Fires “Rubber” Bullet at Prisoner in Ni’lin
July 20th, 2008For the original press release, click here
Today, B’Tselem is publishing a video clip documenting a soldier firing a rubber coated steel bullet, from extremely close range, at a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee. The shooting took place in the presence of a lieutenant colonel, who was holing the Palestinian’s arm when the shot was fired.
The incident took place on 7 July, in Nil’in, a village in the West Bank. A Palestinian demonstrator, Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, was stopped by soldiers, who cuffed and blindfolded him for about thirty minutes, during which time, according to Abu-Rahma, they beat him. Afterwards, a group of soldiers and border policemen led him to an army jeep. The video clip shows a soldier aim his weapon at the demonstrator’s legs, from about 1.5 meters away, and fire a rubber coated steel bullet at him. Abu-Rahma stated that the bullet hit his left toe, received treatment from an army medic, and released by the soldiers.
A fourteen-year-old Palestinian girl from Nil’in filmed the incident from her house in the village, and B’Tselem received it this morning.
B’Tselem does not know if any proceedings were opened against those involved. However, residents of Ni’lin told B’Tselem that they saw the soldier the following day, still serving in his unit.
