Children shot in third day of Israeli army raids
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Thursday June 5, 2003
The Guardian
The screams echoed around the clinic yesterday as a woman brought her seven-year-old daughter in for treatment. She had been shot in the abdomen by an Israeli soldier.
As George Bush talked about peace with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Israeli soldiers were rampaging around the refugee camp of Balata and the city of Nablus for the third day running.
The seven-year-old girl was the latest casualty in Balata. According to the Red Crescent, some 50 people have been treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds in two days.
Many in the West Bank were looking at their television in astonishment as their prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, met his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and President Bush in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba.
Many feel as if the events are entirely dislocated from them and the rhetoric is from another planet.
Terms such as the road map and the peace process appear fraudulent.
Mohmmad Rada, 35, said: "I do not have any trust for this summit in Aqaba. It was convened at the expense of the Palestinian people and the expense of our president, Yasser Arafat, who is besieged in Ramallah.
"They are trying to provoke us so that they can say that we are the terrorists. I have just seen them shoot a little girl in the street," he said.
The girl was hit by a rubber-coated bullet as it richocheted around the narrow alleyways of the West Bank's largest refugee camp. A doctor at the clinic said that she was the first casualty of the day, although there had been dozens the day before.
The doctor had to halt the telephone interview as tear gas seeped into the clinic, forcing everyone to leave.
Later, a boy was shot in the head with another rubber-coated bullet. His condition remains unclear.
Dr Samir Abu Zarur, the head of the casualty department at Rafiah hospital in Nablus, said that his department alone treated 32 people injured by the Israeli army on Tuesday. Around half came from Balata refugee camp.
"Twelve of the injured were children. One eight-year-old was shot in the face with a rubber-coated bullet. A young woman lost her eye and a young man lost a kidney. There are two or three still in a serious condition," he said.
According to witnesses, the Israeli army has been conducting a series of nightly raids in the camp, followed up by daily patrols that invite stone-throwing attacks from the youth of Balata. The soldiers then respond with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and regular bullets.
The Israeli army announced yesterday that it had sealed off the refugee camp, a cramped ghetto housing some 30,000 people on the outskirts of Nablus.
Angela, a peace activist from New York who refused to give her surname for fear of arrest, said Balata had been under attack for the past three days.
"This is the road map on the ground. They have been arriving at 2am in the morning with hundreds of troops and breaking into houses and using human shields to search property," she said.
"Today we woke up to brand new roadblocks around the camp and on the way into Nablus. The supposed easing of restrictions is a farce."
A spokesman for the Israeli army said: "There are very serious security alerts in that area. We don"t mean that there is actually a suicide bomber with a vest of explosives on but we have to increase our vigilance in that area."
Walid Khaled, a youth worker in Balata, said the activities of the army were antagonising the camp's restless youth who have spent much of the last two years confined to the camp which is less than a square mile in area.
"The young people are facing the soldiers with only stones," he said. "They are not going to the soldiers, the soldiers are going to them. There are no more gunmen left here, yet the situation is getting worse not better."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,970652,00.html
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Thursday June 5, 2003
The Guardian
The screams echoed around the clinic yesterday as a woman brought her seven-year-old daughter in for treatment. She had been shot in the abdomen by an Israeli soldier.
As George Bush talked about peace with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Israeli soldiers were rampaging around the refugee camp of Balata and the city of Nablus for the third day running.
The seven-year-old girl was the latest casualty in Balata. According to the Red Crescent, some 50 people have been treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds in two days.
Many in the West Bank were looking at their television in astonishment as their prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, met his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and President Bush in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba.
Many feel as if the events are entirely dislocated from them and the rhetoric is from another planet.
Terms such as the road map and the peace process appear fraudulent.
Mohmmad Rada, 35, said: "I do not have any trust for this summit in Aqaba. It was convened at the expense of the Palestinian people and the expense of our president, Yasser Arafat, who is besieged in Ramallah.
"They are trying to provoke us so that they can say that we are the terrorists. I have just seen them shoot a little girl in the street," he said.
The girl was hit by a rubber-coated bullet as it richocheted around the narrow alleyways of the West Bank's largest refugee camp. A doctor at the clinic said that she was the first casualty of the day, although there had been dozens the day before.
The doctor had to halt the telephone interview as tear gas seeped into the clinic, forcing everyone to leave.
Later, a boy was shot in the head with another rubber-coated bullet. His condition remains unclear.
Dr Samir Abu Zarur, the head of the casualty department at Rafiah hospital in Nablus, said that his department alone treated 32 people injured by the Israeli army on Tuesday. Around half came from Balata refugee camp.
"Twelve of the injured were children. One eight-year-old was shot in the face with a rubber-coated bullet. A young woman lost her eye and a young man lost a kidney. There are two or three still in a serious condition," he said.
According to witnesses, the Israeli army has been conducting a series of nightly raids in the camp, followed up by daily patrols that invite stone-throwing attacks from the youth of Balata. The soldiers then respond with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and regular bullets.
The Israeli army announced yesterday that it had sealed off the refugee camp, a cramped ghetto housing some 30,000 people on the outskirts of Nablus.
Angela, a peace activist from New York who refused to give her surname for fear of arrest, said Balata had been under attack for the past three days.
"This is the road map on the ground. They have been arriving at 2am in the morning with hundreds of troops and breaking into houses and using human shields to search property," she said.
"Today we woke up to brand new roadblocks around the camp and on the way into Nablus. The supposed easing of restrictions is a farce."
A spokesman for the Israeli army said: "There are very serious security alerts in that area. We don"t mean that there is actually a suicide bomber with a vest of explosives on but we have to increase our vigilance in that area."
Walid Khaled, a youth worker in Balata, said the activities of the army were antagonising the camp's restless youth who have spent much of the last two years confined to the camp which is less than a square mile in area.
"The young people are facing the soldiers with only stones," he said. "They are not going to the soldiers, the soldiers are going to them. There are no more gunmen left here, yet the situation is getting worse not better."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,970652,00.html
