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Palestinian report
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: Palestinian report 15
Apr 09, 2002, 17:49
Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:51:25

dear all,

got woken up after my first decent nights sleep here by the sound of machine gun fire and a tank shell. still haven't verified where it came from, but things have quietened down now. curfew has apparently been lifted until 5pm today, although as with the other day we don't know if that's israeli 5pm or palestinian, which effectively means losing an hour at the end in case it's israeli 5pm and they start shooting at what you think is 4o'clock...georgie rang the district command this morning to get curfew details and was told that they wouldn't tell her them coz she might be a terrorist plotting attacks...

there were press reports that the idf had gone into the nativity church this morning; the truth of this seems to be that one shell was lobbed in and a fire started, with one of the people trapped inside being shot dead whilst trying to put the fire out. still no ambulances etc allowed up there, and some of the people wounded have been there a week now. i spoke to a local activist a few days ago who cried as he told me about how he was getting phone calls from wounded friends inside and from a little girl whose father is his friend and whom is in there. and now all their phone batteries have run down so there is not even that cold comfort.

at least 100 people were arrested in the bethlehem area yesterday, inlcuding a large number in beit sahour. one family had all 8 of their sons taken. in beit sahour a number of houses were also destroyed, inlcuding that of the family of one of the men from the town killed in a targeted assassination last autumn. the arrested are being shipped down to a prison near hebron, or held in the building which is arafat's residence when he's here. a group of internationals in the street breaking curfew yesterday encountered a group of lads who'd just been released and accompanied them to comparative safety, as the idf often release people during curfew so that they can arrest them again for breaking curfew...as we spoke to them, we also saw a troop carrier loaded with young palestinian men driving past...a truly chilling sight, given the possible fate that could be awaiting them. i spoke to a woman in beit sahour this morning who also told me of how a tank sat outside her house for the whole of yesterday, stopping every ambulance heading for the clinic down the road (the one where i was treated in december) and holding them for an hour each time, id'g the occupants and staff, and then doing the same on way back up. one of the soldiers there also threatened her little girl with a gun for looking out of the window one too many times...

a few of us after food yesterday were also stopped and held in the road for about 20 minutes outside al-husayn hospital. we'd been given a large quantity of food by the brothers at the university which the idf had left behind! it seemed fitting that the ambulances at the hospital should get it to distribute it to take round to camps, but apparently this made us suspicious and we were held and id'd. the monks had their residence at the uni invaded by idf with grappling hooks last week, and they left some other paraphenalia as well as food - quikcuffs (apparently manufactured by R Wolf), a helmet, a metal box with egg-holes for carrying grenades, and some batteries, brand name SAFT. the monks also have a large rocket that went through their library during the last incursion a couple of months ago. such an obvious target, a bunch of brothers who teach english and hotel management and history to teenagers...

still appalling reports coming out of jenin and nablus, with terrible loss of life and fundamentally disgusting things being done to people. a group of internationals are heading over there at the moment, and conveys are being attempted in the next few days, especially for medical supplies.

take care, my loves,

sarah
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Re: Palestinian report 14 (Merrick)		 Replies:
Re: Palestinian report 16 (Merrick)
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