Nablus, Occupied West Bank
Soldiers who occupied an 8th floor apartment in the Sharif residential building and held eleven children and three
adults captive left at 6:30AM today. The families want to thank everyone who wrote faxes, e-mails, and letters to the
Israeli authorities in protest.
The following a testimony of the events as they happened from the famlies:
On 07/04/06 at 04.00AM - 7 Israeli soldiers occupied the 8th floor apartment of Abu Amare and Huda Al Hajd hamad family
in Nablus because of it's vantage point over al Aiyn refugee camp.
Soldiers brought down their neighbours from the 9th floor: Noor who is a 5 months pregnant mother, her husband and their
one and a half year old infant.
The disturbance caused the Audah family on the ground floor to send 12 yr old Mohammed up to 8th floor neighbour's
apartment. Mohammed knocked on the door, a soldier grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the floor whilst 2 others
pointed guns at him. Subsequently
Mohammad's family members followed, his 14 year old brother, mother and father were all taken into the apartment -
leaving 3 girls in the apartment alone with the cooker on and one 3yr old girl in shower. It takes the family 20 minutes
before husband is able to convince the soldiers to allow them to collect the children accompanied by 2 soldiers. Now
there are 17 people in one room held captive.
The soldiers insisted on silence, shouted "shut up" and were abusive but did not beat any one.
Twenty-five hours later, Noor who is pregnant starts crying. Soldiers tell her to stop, her husband fears they will beat
her. She can't stop. She gets more upset and is crying loudly. She says she cant breathe. She has pain in her abdomen is
extremely scared hasn't been able to eat or sleep all day
The families plead with soldiers to let her go to hospital, but they refuse. The commander accuses her of faking.
An Israeli military doctor is called but the families want a specialist. He arrives and prescribes drugs. Noor says they
are too strong for pregnant women.
At 3PM on the 8th of April a Commander arrives and Noor is finally allowed to be driven by her husband to hospital with
their infant accompanied by jeeps.
There are now 14 people in apartment
Medical relief teams and international volunteers make multiple attempts at visiting the families. The volunteers talk
to the soldiers through the door but the soldiers ignore them. The adults are forbidden to speak but 4 year old Bashar
speaks through the door. He requests food and asks the internationals not to leave because the families feel safer when
they are present.
At 5 PM soldiers enter the room the family are captive in and point guns at youth in the street below. The children are
extremely scared.
Their mothers demand that the soldiers leave room demanding that the human rights of children respected. The Soldiers
finally leave.
At 8 PM the internationals leave food on the door and tell the soldiers that they are leaving but will return to see if
the food was taken for the families. After a few minutes the soldiers take the food and pass it to the families.
At 2 AM on the ninth of April the military Operation that seems to be the purpose of house occupation takes place. An
APC & jeeps drive into al Aiyn refugee camp. The military demand over loudspeakers that the family of Abu Mahde Marka exit
their home. The snipers in the apartment are active with night vision equipment and a soldier with a 250mm gun enters
the families room. The mothers again demand that he leaves - and he does. Then 7 sniper rounds are fired. The casings
are left on the apartment floor.
At 6 AM this morning the soldiers leave- they say nothing to the families and leave the apartment messed up, furniture
moved, dirt on wall, the families clothes used to clean the floor their Koran taken out of it's case and left in
bathroom
The practice of occupying a tactically important home and holding the occupants captive and isolated is known in the
Israeli Army as a "Straw Widow" operation. The army uses the occupied home as an observation post and sniper position.
Such homes are often reoccupied several times.
Although the Sharif building is now unoccupied, the army occupied several more homes in Nablus during a night of
sporadic gunfire and explosions in the city and the adjacent Balata refugee camp.
Pictures will be posted soon to http://www.palsolidarity.org/