IOf shoot and kill 9 year old in Nablus, West Bank

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Wednesday October 29, 2003 22:29 by Aron Baker baker_aron at hotmail dot com Balatta refugee camp, Nablus 087 2895036

Army incursion into Balatta refugee camp tonight and 500 people queueing for hours at Huwarra checkpoint.

Tonight, once again, the Israeli occupation force came to Balatta refugee camp in Nablus.
Do they have a purpose in their deadly little visits? Not a discernable one. They arrived driving a distance into the camp and back out, hanging around the entrance, then driving off before returning a few minutes later, driving past, then returning and stopping again. We went to the entrance to find them gone but soon returned, causing the boys to flee from the entrance where they had gathered. I watched as live bullets sprayed the building opposite me, aimed at children throwing stones from the roof. We left the scene when we thought they had gone, thinking there were no injuries, but heard awhile later that a boy had been killed, followed an hour later by an announcement over the Mosque loud speaker that the boy who had been shot in the head tonight had died. His name is Bahai Jaber Simele, and he was 9 years old. What crimes had he committed? At worst he may have been throwing stones and then again maybe not. We are not sure if he was shot before or after we were there.

Earlier in the day we got a call to go to Huwarra checkpoint, we went to find about 500 people queuing to get out of Nablus. Soldiers were striding purposefully around, arranging lines, shouting at people. They arranged several extra lines, possibly because of the presence of internationals, Israeli checkpoint watchers and a TV camera. Trucks and ambulances stretched back in a line past where we could see. We couldn’t see the other side of the checkpoint either to see how many were waiting there. We watched as soldiers forced men with loads of produce, stacked high on 2 wheel luggage carts, down the rocky slope into the piles of rubbish and tangled barbed wire which they had to negotiate to cross the checkpoint, rather than use the paved checkpoint proper. They also confiscated these carts from men and boys who scratch a meager living by shuttling luggage from 1 side of the checkpoint to the other, we watched also and tried to intervene where we could as stupid soldiers with no clue what they were doing ordered people, who finally managed to cross from the other side, back into the queue for leaving Nablus. We watched as soldiers gave orders left and right, contradicted each other, as soldiers attempted to check IDs only to be rebuked and moved by other soldiers. As the hours wore on we watched as people were forced to queue in 1 place, only to have nobody check their IDs and just had to wait hoping a soldier would start checking their line, which didn’t always happen. We watched as a soldier put 3 rocks on the ground at the head of a queue, about the size of a fist and instructed the Palestinians not to pass these stones. We watched as soldiers stopped men who had grown weary of queuing and wanted to return to try another day or who wanted to retreat 30 feet to pray were refused and thrust back into the queues. As darkness approached I noticed men walking through the checkpoint as soldiers didn’t notice, I watched men get patted down and all had their bags searched, and I watched as trucks were searched less than men’s bags, security here isn’t the issue, its easy to smuggle stuff in and out, the purpose is to disrupt life, humiliate people and remind them who is in complete control of the situation and their very lives. We watched as men were detained, as men who were detained overnight were released into Nablus, forcing them to queue to leave again as they weren’t from Nablus. We watched and intervened and negotiated as 4 hours went by, and as darkness fell they were detaining 1 man and still held a luggage cart belonging to a 14 year old boy, who worked here after school to help support his family. The cart must have been a security threat?
There are at least 4 or 5 other checkpoints around Nablus and on any given day they could be this bad and worse. Last night we helped people who were detained for hours at Saba Tash to return to their village after they were all returned to Nablus despite wanting to go home to Asira.

The man brought to hospital with 3 gunshot wounds to the back, brought in while Josh and Mark recuperated, died yesterday. Mark and Josh both say so many people visited them while they were in hospital and dozens of them showed the lads their own scars from bullet wounds inflicted on them by the Israeli occupation force, many more were confined to bed with their bullet wounds. Josh remains in hospital, while Mark joined us at the scene of his crime tonight when the soldiers returned to murder a little boy.