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Palestine Monitor
Four Palestinians killed and seventy injured during Israeli military incursion into Ramallah Four Palestinians were killed after being fired upon with live bullets in the central square in Ramallah on Wednesday during an Israeli military incursion. One Palestinian died after being hit in the head by an exploding bullet, another after being struck in the chest by a high velocity bullet. Another seventy Palestinians were injured, fifteen severely, and five arrested.
The dead include one Palestinian police officer, and the rest unarmed youths:
Melad Abdel Araes, 23, from al Amare refugee camp
Aisir Qasam, 22, from Aqaba village near Jenin
Juafar Ahmad Hussein, 30, from Beit Our
Ghalib Abdel Qadar, 26, from Kharbeth bini al Harith.
At approximately 2:30 pm on Wednesday, Israeli military jeeps accompanying the undercover Duvdevan unit entered Manara square on Ramallah’s main street as part of a supposed arrest operation. Unarmed Palestinian protestors surrounded the military vehicles and began throwing stones, paint, and garbage cans, at which point the military retaliated with live ammunition and nerve gas. Provoked Palestinian gunmen then joined the fray and the clash continued for an hour while emergency medical services attempted to evacuate the wounded.
The Duvdevan unit had arrested Muhammed Shobaki, a member of the Islamic Jihad in Qalqilia, rather uneventfully. Shobaki did not resist arrest, and was removed from the city in less than an hour. However, at least fifteen military vehicles entered Ramallah, prompting angry reprisals from stone-throwing youths. The military frequently enters Ramallah under cover of night on arrest operations that cause significant damage to private property-as it did two days previously in a search-and-comb campaign close to the residence of President Mahmoud Abbas, arresting Ibrahim Hamid of the Al Qassam Brigades-but Wednesday’s daytime attack provoked extreme anger because of its clear message of Israeli control over Palestine’s central city, the seat of the Palestinian Authority and supposedly under full Palestinian control. The blatant show of force left four uninvolved Palestinians dead and Ramallah’s two hospitals overflowing with wounded.
On Thursday morning, one thousand observers began a march from Ramallah’s Muqata’a to Manara square, accompanying the bodies of Juafar and Ghalib in ambulances. Hamas, Fateh, Al Aqsa Brigades, and Palestinian flags were all present, waiving from the windows of mourners and supporters. As Ramallah Palestinians remembered their dead, dozens of others wait in the Ramallah and Sheikh Zayyad Hospitals in critical condition. Most of the injured were hit with three to four bullets, suffering mostly in the arms, chest and abdomen. This, even though Israel’s left-leaning daily Ha’aretz quoted soldiers who claimed they shot only in the air.
The incursion underscores the power imbalance inherent in today’s conflict. The Israeli military invaded the seat of the Palestinian government just as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conducts his visits in Washington, receiving a reserved but very real presidential nod on his unilateral plan, and addressing both houses of Congress, while the Palestinian government receives the same rebukes and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is referred to as a willing partner for peace but still not yet met with. The night before the invasion on Ramallah, the US House of Representatives passed ’the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006," severely cutting even humanitarian aid to Palestine, defining areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority as "terrorist sanctuary," denying visas to Palestinian representatives regardless of party affiliation, utilizing formidable US influence to pressure international institutions to deny aid, and recommending eliminating some or all of the six United Nations bodies that focus on Palestinian rights.
As the world media reports and comments on Hamas’ refusal to concede to Israeli and international demands-attempting to emphasize violent ideology rather than the simple point that Palestine and Palestinian rights be recognized before Palestine recognizes an expanding state without borders-no attention is given to the continued Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory. According to the Palestinian Monitoring Group, in the month of April Israel raided the city of Ramallah and its surrounding villages 97 times, while other areas received even more regular military brutality: the Israeli military invaded Nablus 95 times, Hebron 127 times, and Bethlehem 135 times.(1)
With yesterday’s incursion, Palestinian deaths since the outbreak of the intifada now reach 3,895.(2) Unless the world begins to respond to the massive power imbalance that claims Palestinian lives while Israeli politicians trot the globe, these numbers will continue to rise, and anger will continue to grow.
(1) Monthly Summary of Israeli Violations, 1 April 2006 - 30 April 2006, Palestinian Monitoring Group, Negotiations Affairs Department, PLO. Available at http://www.nad-plo.org.
(2) Palestinian Red Crescent Society death figures, September 30, 2000 to May 24, 2006. http://www.palestinercs.org/crisistables/table_of_figures.htm