We live in a prison

First of all, to be honest, I didn’t expect people to reply [to my first message]. But the replies are very important, especially now, because they’re not only for me - I’ve been calling friends and telling them about your support. This support is so important. We live in a prison and feel like we are so alone here so it’s very encouraging to have such replies.

In general, the past two days have been the same as before and worse. There are very heavy clashes in Jenin. They are calling men from 16-40 to go out. In Bethlehem there are many people dead and injured that the ambulances cannot reach. Also today the Israelis also entered Nablus. So by now they’ve entered almost all the West Bank and now they say Gaza will be next.

Today is exactly one week since they entered Ramallah.

For one week people have been imprisoned in their homes. All kinds of life has stopped…

There’s a serious problem with water now, especially in Ramallah. For the past 2 days there has been no water at all in some areas because [the Israeli army] hit a main water distribution system in Ramallah.

There are food shortages too. For so many people the food in their homes is finished. This is especially bad for kids. There is a serious lack of milk, people need milk urgently. These are basic needs.

The last time the Israelis lifted the curfew on Ramallah was 3 or 4 days ago, but actually no-one really trusted it because the people were so scared. And the shops were already closed. So people only went out in the last half hour because they thought it was a game and the Israelis would arrest people. So far there are more than 700 or 800 people arrested in Ramallah. We know that some of them are injured because they were arrested from the Ra’a hospital in Ramallah. So we don’t know if they’ve received the medical treatment they need.

And it’s so cold here now. And people are running out of gas for their heaters.