Human rights abuses and horror stories

The Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian cities and towns has seen a rise in incidents of alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank.
Most of these relate to the curfews imposed in places such as Nablus and Bethlehem. These incidents, normally unreported in the media, are collated by human rights groups such as B'Tselem, the main Israeli group focusing on the West Bank and Gaza, and by peace activists such as Gush Shalom.

Many of the incidents are in the city of Nablus, which, along with Jenin, has suffered most from the present Israeli offensive:

Qossay Abu 'Aisha, 12, was playing in his yard in the Askar neighbourhood of Nablus on Tuesday. The yard is surrounded by a two-metre high tin fence. Israeli soldiers, part of the force that has reoccupied the city, opened fire, punctured the fence and hit him with two bullets, killing him instantly. Source: B'Tselem

The curfew in Nablus was lifted between 2pm and 6pm on Sunday. Mustafa Antar, 40, a married father of four from A-Dahiya neighbourhood, went to visit his father and then bought some food supplies. He shared a taxi home with three others. At 5pm a group of soldiers opened fire and he was hit in the neck. According to doctors at the Rafidia hospital in Nablus, the injury will leave him partially paralysed. Source: B'Tselem

Ibrahim Jabarin, 18, from the al-Arrub refugee camp, was in Bethlehem on April 2 when the army imposed a curfew. He attempted to return home on Monday when it lifted the curfew for the first time for a few hours. At around 1pm, before the curfew was reimposed, soldiers shot Jabarin and other civilians who were out buying food. He is in hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. Source: B'Tselem

Dr Hameed Massri, a neuro-surgeon at the Nablus special hospital, said yesterday that two patients had been buried the day before after bleeding to death because the curfew meant ambulances could not get through to them. Both had been shot but the wounds would not have been fatal if they had been able to reach hospital, he said. The dead, both from Nablus, were: Amar Ali Salamah, 32, a carpenter, and Sakher Mohammed, 23, a baker. Dr Massri said it was three days before the body of Mr Mohammed, who was at home when he was shot, was taken away by ambulance. And it was a week after Mr Salamah was shot before his body was removed. Guardian interview

Four children, two from Qalqiliya and two from the village of Qusra in Nablus district, suffer from a blood disorder that requires regular transfusions. Because of the curfew, the children have been unable to reach Al-Watani hospital in Nablus for treatment. The children, when last contacted, were still waiting to be taken to hospital. Source: Physicians for Human Rights Israel