Bombs and pogroms

by Khalid Amayreh

31 July 2002

Less than a week after the Israeli air force dropped a one-ton bomb on an apartment building in Gaza, killing 15 people, nine of them children, the Israeli army and heavily-armed Jewish settlers added to the blood-letting, this time targeting Hebron's old quarter.

The rampage took place on 28 July, during the funeral of an Israeli soldier killed by Palestinian guerrillas two days earlier near the village of Yatta, 15 kilometers south-west of Hebron.

As many as 4,000 settlers converged on Hebron to take part in the procession. However, the rituals of mourning soon gave way to cries for vengeance. Settlers fired indiscriminately on Palestinian homes and set shops and businesses aflame.

One bullet hit 13-year-old Nevine Jamjoum in the forehead, as the young Palestinian girl was sitting in her balcony, killing her instantly. When her brother, Marwan, sought to rescue her, he too, was shot and seriously injured. And when an ambulance from the local Red Crescent Society raced to transfer both to hospital, Israeli soldiers trained their guns on the vehicle, delaying the driver for more than half an hour.

Meanwhile, the rampaging settlers continued to rain gunfire on Arab homes as others broke into the dwellings. One settler, brandishing a bayonet, stabbed and seriously wounded 10-year- old Ahmed Natsha. Another child, identified as Fawwaz Radwan Idris, 9, sustained a gunshot wound to his head. After a long delay by Israeli soldiers, both were transferred to the Ahli hospital where they were listed in serious but stable condition.

Besides Jamjoum's death, more than 20 other civilians, mostly children and young teenagers were wounded, some seriously, in the course of the two-hour-long rampage. In addition, dozens of Arab shops and businesses were broken into, vandalized and looted.

None of the settlers was arrested, no curfew was imposed on the Jewish enclave and no weapons were confiscated. "The whole thing was totally unprovoked, the Palestinians were under curfew, and the rampaging settlers began shooting indiscriminately at Palestinian homes and vandalizing their property in full view of Israeli soldiers and police," said one Norwegian member of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), who asked to be anonymous.

A Turkish observer said he was shocked by the fact that the Israeli army and police didn't make any serious effort to rein in the settlers or confiscate their weapons at least for the duration of the funeral procession.

Settler leaders in Hebron sought to deflect attention away from the crimes by claiming that Palestinians hurled stones at them. However, eyewitnesses, including some Israeli policemen, dismissed the allegation as "pure invention". Moreover, Israeli journalist, Roni Shaked, who writes for the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahranot, described the rampage as a "complete provocation".

Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued to torment and kill innocent Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank with or without a pretext.

On 27 July, Israeli occupation troops killed a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya while he was sitting in his living room. Eyewitnesses said 33-year-old Taysir Al-Haj Hassan was killed when Israeli personnel carriers strafed his neighborhood with heavy machine-gun fire.

On the same day, Israeli soldiers opened fire on children in the town of Dura for "breaking the curfew", injuring a child and a young man.

On 28 July, a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed and another of the same age badly injured when Israeli occupation troops suddenly entered the village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya near Nablus, and started shooting in all directions without the slightest concern for the results of their actions.

A third Palestinian from Khan Younis, identified as Anwar Fayyadh, 27, also succumbed to a fatal wound he sustained last week when Israeli tanks fired on Palestinian demonstrators who took to the streets to protest the bombing of the Gaza neighborhood in which Hamas leader Sheikh Salah Shehada was killed. Fayyadh is survived by his wife and four children, the eldest of whom is six years old.

Meanwhile, Thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets of Nablus in defiance of a 40-day-old Israeli curfew. The "rebellion" was initiated by Nablus Governor Mahmoud Al-Alul, who argued, "We are human beings, not animals, if the Jews think that non-Jews should be treated like animals, that is their problem, not ours." He called on townspeople to defy the curfew. "People who can't find food and need medicine and treatment should break the doors of their jail."

Shops, banks and offices opened to accommodate the "curfew breakers" who filled the streets of Nablus. One man was quoted as saying, "I've been confined to my home for more than a month, I have eight children, we have eaten all our food, I'm just fighting to obtain food for my kids."

The man may well be speaking on behalf of the vast majority of the Palestinian population as poverty and even starvation are lurking at the thresholds of homes throughout the West Bank and Gaza due to the blockade on Palestinian population centers imposed by the Israeli army.

According to statistics to be released next week, nearly one third of young Palestinian children are now chronically malnourished – more than four times as many as before the Intifada began 22 months ago.

Palestinian sources argue that the real picture may be even bleaker as many Palestinian families find it embarrassing to admit that they don't have the means to feed their children. "I would say that the figures of malnourished children exceed 50 per cent," said Samir Youssef, an official at the Zakat committee in Dura, who monitors the incidence of poverty in Hebron and its vicinity. "Just imagine yourself without work or any income for 22 months and you have 10 children to feed in addition to paying for other basic necessities such as water, electricity, cooking gas, rent, tuition, clothing and medication."

Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist based in Hebron.