as much as this report may (or may not) irritate some, the truth of the situation is this is how military occupation works. skeptic whether such actions are/were committed? ask pelsar or ely.
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<snip>
The entire refugee camp was under curfew when I arrived on the second day of the “incursion”. The Army had instructed people not to leave their homes. All the shops were shut but people roamed the streets in open defiance of the curfew. Many people didn’t feel safe so they stayed at home, peering out of their windows. Before I had even made it to the camp 2 boys had been killed on the roof of their house by a sniper. The Israeli army frequently occupies houses in Balata(even when not involved in a full on “incursion”). They hold families hostage to prevent the houses from being attacked. During the invasion there were 5 occupied houses. Jeeps were driving up and down the street. This is all despite Nablus and Balata being Area A, meaning that after Oslo these areas were supposedly meant to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
<snip>
That night, we were debriefing we heard gun fire across the road. A man was shot by a sniper whilst watching television in his home across the street from the medical centre. The army was hesitant to let the ambulance pass, they did so after much coercion. The man was shot in a major artery and was loosing a lot of blood. At that time we weren’t sure they hadn’t hit him in the heart. The ambulance passed as family members screamed, even a few of the ambulance workers became really angry towards the soldier in the jeep. But it wasn’t useful, we needed to get this person out and so we powerlessly carried the stretcher past an Israeli armored car. They weren’t even after this person. Shortly after a women in the family went into labour and we also had to rush her to an ambulance.
But the story doesn’t end there. The army then forced the family out of their home. The ambulance crews, myself and another international waited with the family outside. After half an hour in the cold, the army tried to instruct us to leave the family there. We refused and they pointed rifles at us from the jeep, placing the laser sight on my fore head. They also constantly gestured that they would throw grenades of some description out of the car.
Despite these threats we didn’t leave, the soldiers threatening to return in one minute. After this threat didn’t eventuate the family returned to their home. The family were so generous that despite just having their son shot they tried to offer us tea. We slept that night in the medical centre and I ended up on the early morning patrol. The narrow entrances to Belata camp were now all closed off. We managed to get out by traveling through a friends house but it wasn’t easy. The army prevented all but one of the ambulances from entering Balata so we would have to carry people to that ambulance or to the edge of the camp.
<snip>
After the funeral we were taken around to a house where some of the fighters were killed. The army surrounded the house and exploded everything inside killing the fighters who were hiding in the roof. Palestinians are aware that the choice to become a fighter is the reality that they will either die young or face life in prison.
We then proceeded to the hospital where we met many of the people that were injured during the “incursion.” Many of them were just young kids shot with live rounds.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/03/01/invasion-of-balata/----------------------------
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