Killing as usual
Flying in the face of international, particularly American, efforts to restart the stalled Middle East peace process, Israel's policy of killing civilians and demolishing houses is proceeding at full speed. Khalid Amayreh reports from Nablus
On Saturday, 19 April, Israeli occupation troops backed by some 40 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunships launched a full- scale incursion into the Rafah refugee camp at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
The bloody rampage, described as the largest in months, began shortly before midnight and went on until Sunday morning, leaving at least seven people dead and as many as 40 others injured.
Medical sources said at least two of the victims were children -- 13-year-old Mohamed Ibrahim Hamaydah and 14-year-old Ahmed Abu-Koush. Of the 40 people injured, 10 sustained serious to critical wounds. Four of the critically injured died subsequently, bringing to 11 the number of victims of this latest Israeli atrocity.
In addition to the wanton killing and maiming, invading Israeli forces also destroyed at least five residential homes, rendering as many as 45 homeless.
Israeli tanks smashed or badly damaged more than 15 Palestinian vehicles, including an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. The indiscriminate gunfire made it nearly impossible for medical workers to collect the wounded from the streets.
One Red Crescent official reported that Israeli tanks surrounded the Red Crescent headquarters in Rafah, preventing medics and rescuers from attending to the wounded. Consequently, some of the badly injured bled to death.
The Rafah camp, one of the world's most densely populated refugee camps, is home to some 70,000 people. It has been the target of several hard-hitting Israeli incursions that have destroyed hundreds of houses, leaving many impoverished families homeless, some for the second or third time in the past 55 years.
Earlier that day, the Israeli army had invaded Nablus, the largest town in the West Bank, terrorising inhabitants and fostering fear and insecurity in the city.
The invading soldiers, backed by a dozen tanks and many armoured personnel carriers, rumbled into the city's old quarter in the morning amid intensive gunfire and the odious shrieks of loudspeakers urging the town's 200,000 inhabitants to go home.
Soon, tens of thousands of school children were returning home, some of whom began hurling stones toward the heavily-protected Israeli troops.
The characteristically trigger-happy soldiers fired back at the children, many of whom were watching an Israeli armoured personnel carrier that had broken down after being hit by petrol bombs thrown by Palestinian resistance activists.
At least 18 people were injured, at least one seriously, according to medical sources. A group of Palestinian journalists and cameramen filming the events were unaware that they would soon be the target of the exasperated soldiers.
Within minutes, Nazih Darwazeh, a Palestinian cameraman, was shot in the face while filming the wrecked vehicle and soldiers walking around it. He died instantly. Television footage of the incident showed 43-year-old Darwazeh wearing a bright yellow, sleeveless jacket marked "Press".
The Israeli occupation army claimed that soldiers were returning fire from Palestinian gunmen, but eyewitnesses dismissed the Israeli claim as a "brash lie", stressing that there were no armed men in the area, including the vicinity where Darwazeh was standing.
Nearly 10 days ago, Darwazeh and other Palestinian journalists took part in a sit-in in Nablus protesting the death of Tareq Ayyoub, the Al- Jazeera television correspondent killed when an American air-to-ground missile hit the Pan Arab- network's Baghdad's office. At the sit-in, Darwazeh was seen holding Ayyoub's portrait, saying, as if predicting his own death, "We all face the same danger, the same bullets, the same enemy."
Darwazeh left behind a young wife and four children who will spend the rest of their lives in bereavement. He was the ninth member of the media to be killed by Israeli troops since October 2000.
The murderous killing by the Israeli army of more than 16 Palestinians, the bulk of whom were innocent civilians, in less than one week coincided with the Easter holiday, which according to Christian belief commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Christians in East Jerusalem observed the solemn occasion in the presence of Israeli soldiers with M16 automatic rifles at the ready. Army roadblocks prevented Palestinian Christians from other parts of the West Bank from accessing Jerusalem. An elderly Catholic clergyman, who was French, remarked, "Never in my life have I experienced a more bleak Easter."
The Israeli occupation authorities had forecast a decrease in the amount of military incursions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, no such decrease has yet been observed.
The latest attacks by Israeli forces suggest a lack of support on the part of the Sharon government for the quartet blueprint for peace known as the roadmap. It is possible that Sharon and his right-wing coalition partners will make every conceivable effort to abort it under the pretext of "fighting terror".
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 24 - 30 April 2003 (Issue No. 635)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/635/re1.htm