DECEMBER 2003

REPORT ON WAR CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE ISREALI ARMY IN THE JENIN REGION
OF THE WEST BANK, OCCUPIED PALESTINE

Report on the murder of two children on Nov. 8th, 2003 in Burqeen
village, shot by
Israeli soldiers shortly after 12:00pm. The Israeli Army also injured 6
others in the attack.


The army arrived into town just after the noon prayer was heard from the
mosque. The
children were all on there way home from school. At first, an armored
personnel carrier (APC) drove into the centre of town and began crushing
cars. Then two army jeeps followed. The soldiers exited their vehicles
and right away opened fire at everyone on the street.

This report is compiled by Johanna of ISM Jenin, with the testimonies of

eyewitnesses, victims and family statements of the deceased. First names
are used to
maintain the safety of the witnesses and the injured. All of the
testimonies, except
for Laith’s mother’s statement (she spoke English), were translated on
site.

The population of Burqeen is approx. 6,000 people. It is situated just
south of
Burqeen Valley, on the other side of the hills from Jenin.



_________________________________________________________________

Moataz Wasif (age 16), was shot by an Israeli soldier, and died
immediately.

Laith Mazen (age 15), was shot by an Israeli soldier, and died from his
injuries on Nov.
12 in the hospital.

Naseem, Male Child (age 16) & Majdee, Male Child (age 15) & Mussab,
Adult Male (age 20): All three were beaten with M-16 guns and kicked by
the Israeli Military, tied up & blindfolded, and taken to a military
base, threatened that they would be killed at gunpoint, force fed grass
and water during fasting for Ramadan, then
abandoned in Jabriette forest, out side Jenin.

Ryad, Adult Male (age 35), was injured by a gunshot wound in the
abdomen.

Rawdah, Adult Female (age 55), was injured by shrapnel in the hand, and
lost parts
of two fingers.

Abdallah, Male Child (age 14), was hit with four pieces of shrapnel,
logged into his
chest.



_____________________________________________________________

Mouayah, shop owner in Burqeen, witness of the army attack in the town
centre:



"The tank (APC) entered first, then after the two jeeps arrived. The
tank was
crushing cars, then the soldiers from the tank started to shoot with
their own guns.
The soldiers came out of their jeeps and opened fire at people with
their guns. They
started to shoot the water tanks on the roofs up there. 6 cars crushed
right here.
We were all scared in the shop and hid back here behind the wall. There
were over 15
soldiers, and they were only here for 30 minutes."



____________________________________________________________

Jameel, 33 year old male, a shop owner in Burqeen, witness of the army
attack and
shooting of Laith Mazen:



"The Israeli army came in right here (his shop is right at the town
centre). It was
12:00 and all the kids were on their way back home from school. First
the APC
arrived and began crushing cars. Some kids started throwing stones. I
saw one jeep
at the corner. When the jeep arrived, all of the soldiers got out of the
APC and the
jeep. There were about 20 soldiers. Everyone the army saw, they shot at.
When the
soldiers started shooting, Laith ran away. He was not throwing rocks.
The soldiers
ran after the child and shot him through his back, out through his
chest. He was
only 30 meters from them when he was shot. He tried to run for safety
around the
corner, but collapsed as he reached the corner. He was carried to a
house and stayed
there for 30 minutes, because the army refused to let the ambulance
through to carry
him to the hospital. Two days ago, some kids from another village were
threatened by
some soldiers on their way to Burqeen school. The soldier said: "let
your friends in
Burqeen know that we will be coming into town to make them act polite,
so they
don’t throw stones at us".



______________________________________________________________

Ryad, 35 year old male, was working in his shop down the road from the
town centre,
when the Israeli army entered the village, at the town centre. He was
200 meters
from the soldiers when one of the soldiers shot him in the abdomen with
an M-16.



"I quickly closed up my shop, as I usually do when the army arrives, I
knew they
were here because of the children yelling and because I could hear the
tank, but
this time was different. When I looked down the street, the APC was
crushing car
after car. It was like a play, this is the first time I have seen them
act in this
way, such an unusual way. As the tank continued to crush cars, some
children threw
rocks at the APC. As soon as the APC stopped crushing many cars, all of
the soldiers
jumped out and started shooting at anything that moved. Because it was
heavy
shooting, everybody tried to find a way to hide, to go home. I tried to
go near to
the wall for safety, but still looking out of curiosity. One of the
first scenes I
saw, was four soldiers chasing the young boy, Laith, down the road
towards me.
Soldiers from a near distance were shooting many bullets at him. One of
the soldiers
was shooting into the tree above. Branches from the tree were falling
all over the
road. Other soldiers were shooting at the ground. One soldier was
shooting at Laith, and the soldiers were very close to him. I saw Laith
go around the corner, so I couldn’t
see if he was shot or not. Just looking at the scene, I was shot in the
abdomen.
Mazen, Laith’s father, was right there when I announced I was hit. I
lifted up my
shirt to show him. Mazen went to the other side of the road to get his
cousin’s car
for help, but the soldiers kept firing. I tried to cross the street, but
they were
shooting too much at me. A bullet shot right in front of my face. For 20
minutes,
they kept shooting, while I was bleeding. One of my neighbours from my
side of the
road helped me over fences and through yards, until we reached the main
road, so
that I could make it to Jenin Hospital. My intestines were injured. I
spent two and
a half hours in surgery. I spent one week in the hospital. I will take
at least
three months to recover. Many soldiers shot that day, but only one of
them shot to
kill. In two minutes, I saw him shoot at Laith, shoot down the road to
kill Moataz and then he shot me. My wife was also shot at, coming from
work, from another direction. They shot at her in the taxi, 20 cm away
from her head. It’s like a drama, soldiers
started shooting randomly at every moving target, and it’s not normal."



_____________________________________________________________

Witness, Mazen, Laith’s father, showed us where he was standing when the
attack took
place. He suffered minor injuries to his hand from shrapnel.



"I was standing right in front of Ryad when he was shot. (Down the road
from the
town centre, in view. Shrapnel grazed my hand (he pointed to his scar on
his right
hand). Even when Ryad was shot, they kept shooting. They shot at the car
to prevent
assistance to a hurt man. The soldier was shooting to kill, above the
waist, not
below at the legs. The soldiers were 25 meters away from my son when he
was shot."



____________________________________________________________

I sat with the family of Laith Mazen, who died in hospital four days
after he was
shot. His father, Mazen, invited us into their home. It took some time
for his
mother to understand the reasons for our visit. She said:


"Why are you here asking questions about my son’s death? Do you think
that your
questions will change anything? Can you find the soldier who killed my
son? Do you
know that many people have come before you to ask questions about the
killing of my
son? Do you think your questions will make a difference, because they
definitely
will not bring back my son?"


I answered her with the truth, that I do not have the power to find the
soldier who
killed her son, and my questions unfortunately will not change her

situation. I told
her that many people back at home are fed lies through various forms of
media about
Palestinians and the Israeli occupation, and do not know the truth about
the war
crimes that are committed here by the Israeli army. She was quite
surprised by this
and thought that everybody knew the crimes the Israeli army and
government are
committing, but didn’t care enough to pay attention or do anything about
it. I told
her that when I returned home, I would try to educate people about the
truth, and
hoped that some people would listen and want to do something about it. I
told her
that once I knew about the crimes committed with the occupation, I felt
I had to
come to Palestine, to try to see what I could do to help to uncover the
lies and
support Palestinian human rights, however minor of a difference I could
make. I
apologized for coming into her home as a stranger, asking more useless
questions. I felt that I didn’t have a right to be there. In the end,
she was so welcoming, and invited me
to stay with them to break fast with the whole family, since it is the
month of
Ramadan. She said I was welcome anytime.

When she asked me what questions I had, I asked her if she had anything
specific she
wanted to tell me about her son’s death:

"To be honest, I feel that they (the soldiers) came to kill that day. It
was not
like all the children were throwing rocks. Many days, the army jeeps
pass, and kids
throw stones. When you hear that kind of shooting, you know that they
have come to
kill. One man (soldier), shot three. The same man (soldier) killed my
son and Moataz
and injured another. Three guys from Burqeen were also beaten. They came
to beat
them with shoes and guns. And because of Ramadan, they were fasting. The
soldiers
ordered them to eat grass, ordered them to drink water. The soldiers
told them:
"Whoever is fasting during Ramadan, will eat grass." … I am lucky
because I have
only lost one child, some mothers loose two or three. Last year they
killed his
cousin (her husband’s), and shot him many times in the chest. They said
he was a
"wanted" person, but no he was not. They want to kill. The kill is in
their blood.
They shot my son here (in the back) and it came out here (out the
chest). They shot
a special bullet to explode in the body."

Her husband, Mazen, added: "All the people here are very peaceful. There
are no
wanted people in this village."


She continued: "If you want to do something for people here, do
something for the
children. My daughter there, who is just three, has been sick with a
fever, and you
know how children talk in their sleep with a fever, and she yelled out
in fear
"yahoodi, yahoodi, they are shooting". And my son here, who is very
active, is no
longer, he does not move much since his older brother died, he is in
shock."


____________________________________________________________

When I sat with the family of Moataz Wasif, who was shot to death by one
of the
soldiers that entered Burqeen on Saturday, his mother asked me to take
this message
back to my country:


"When they killed my son, the Israelis caused a deep injury in my heart,
an injury
that will not heal before the last moment of my life. They broke all of
our hearts
in our family. Tell them that we are not terrorists. We want to have a
normal love
with our children, the kind of relationships that you can have with your
children, a
love that can grow with time. Tell them how Palestinian women are
suffering. We are
not mothers who raise their children as suicide bombers. Many of our
children are
killed by the army and we will keep having children as resistance to the

occupation."


_____________________________________________________________

Layla, 45 year old mother, who tried to save Moataz Wasif.


"While I was in the kitchen, my son came running in and said: "There is
a tank
crushing cars. There was a shooting." My son quickly tried to close the
door and
said: "they killed him!" My son tried to prevent me from going outside,
but I went
out to help the boy. Moataz had just been dropped off by the taxi from
Jenin into
the middle of the situation. He had been in Jenin visiting his aunt, and
was wearing
his new clothes for Ramadan. When I went out, I didn’t look both ways, I
just went
towards the boy. The shooting didn’t stop. When I reached him, I said,
"get up". He
didn’t move, so I rolled him over, but he was already dead. I thought
maybe he had
just fallen. People were shouting at me because the shooting didn’t
stop. They were
still shooting at me, so I hid behind the tractor to be safe. I was
screaming in
shock, and the woman from the house across the road, pulled me inside
the house.
There were ten women in that house giving condolences. They helped me to
safety.


_____________________________________________________________________

Witness, Zakayah - 43 year old woman, who also received minor injuries
on her arm
from shrapnel. She showed us the dress that she had been wearing with a
big hole in
the sleeve, as well as the marks from the shrapnel. She also pointed out
the bullet
hole in the window frame and the bullet hole in the wall when the
soldiers shot at
the woman standing in the window screaming.


"Moataz was coming from his Aunt’s house in Jenin, he was trying to go
to his house
down the side road, but soldiers were shooting down the street from both
directions.
He was shot by the soldiers at the top of the road. There was a boy with
Moataz who
tried to pull him to safety once he was shot. One of the women here was
shot in the
fingers at this window. The soldiers opened fire on our house, when all
the women
here began screaming. They shot through the window (she pointed to the
damage). There
were 8 children in the house. I went outside the door to help the a
woman into our
house. When I was back inside, I felt burning on my arm and noticed I
was hurt."

__________________________________________________________________

Witness - Rawdah, Adult Female (age 55), was injured by shrapnel in the
hand, and
lost parts of two fingers. Her hand was bandaged up. She showed us the
x-ray of the
fingers that were missing.


"I was at the window upstairs when the shooting began, and tried to run
downstairs,
I saw him get shot, but could not exit the house, because it was too
dangerous.
Zakayah’s brother’s condolences service was at house when it happened. I
saw Moataz
walking, behind him a young boy. No stones were being thrown. Soldiers
were hiding
behind the telephone pole up the road shooting down. Moataz tried to go
the other
way and then I saw him get killed. He fell on the trolley, one foot
high, when he
was shot. I ran back upstairs. When I looked out the window and screamed
out the
window, I heard the sound of bullets go by my ear, and as I moved,
shrapnel hit my
hand. One of the local cars drove me down to the square, where the APC
was parked,
but they left me bleeding inside the ambulance for 1 hour, because the
soldiers said
that I was resisting. My sister went to the hospital in a different way,
and beat me
to the Jenin hospital. That day, they killed in cold blood. They burned
my heart.
All of the shooting took 5 minutes. The soldiers had asked some children
two days ago:
"when will the children get out of school, so we can punish them for
throwing
stones".

___________________________________________________________________

Boy, age 15, kidnapped and injured from being beaten and kicked by the
soldiers.


I was in the square when the soldiers came. Some kids were throwing
rocks, but I
tried to run away. Two soldiers chased me, caught me, and dragged me by
the arms to
the jeep, and tied up my hands behind my back. A soldier hit me with his
M-16. He
put his foot on my neck and threatened me that he will shoot me in the
head. They
took us (him and two others) to Arabi (military base 17 km away). At the
base, one of the
soldiers put a gun to my head and said: "I will count to three then kill
you." After
two, another soldier said: "he’s too young to shoot him". They spoke to
us in
Hebrew. We were blindfolded the whole time and they took pictures of us.
They forced
us to eat grass and drink water. Then they drove us to Jabriette forest
and left us
there, after 5-6 hours."

He had severe swelling in his right eye, cuts across his left cheak and
bruises on
his body from the beating and kicking. His mother showed me the doctor’s
note that
read: The patient came to the eye dept at Jenin hospital. We checked his
right eye.
As he stated, he was beaten by one of the isreali soldiers.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org
Tel: +972-2-277-4602
Fax: +972-2-277-2018
New Profile – Movement for the Civil-ization of Israeli Society
POB 3454, Ramat HaSharon 47100, Israel
E-mail: mailto:info@newprofile.org
Voice box: ++972-(0)3-516-01-19
Website: http://www.newprofile.org/
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: jocelynb@eircom.net

...........old news but worth re-reading
http://www.mediabypass.com/archives/february-03.htm

Mossad Exposed in Phony "Palestinian al Qaeda" Caper
by Michele Steinberg and Hussein Askary

The United States government has been provided with concrete evidence that the Israeli Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services have been involved in a 13-month effort to "recruit" an Israeli-run, phony "al Qaeda cell" among Palestinians, so that Israel could achieve a frontline position in the U.S. war against terrorism and get a green light for a worldwide "revenge without borders" policy. The question: Does the United States have the moral fiber to investigate?
Evidence of the Israeli dirty tricks burst onto the public scene on December 6, when Col. Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Services in the Gaza Strip, held a press conference revealing the details of the alleged plot, as his agency had put the pieces together.
The revelations undermine the "big lie" that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has used to justify new brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and other occupied areas. Sharon claimed on December 4 that Israeli intelligence had "hard evidence" of al Qaeda operations in the Gaza Strip. Now, the top Palestinian leadership has shown the United States and other nations how Israeli intelligence entities were creating that al Qaeda link!

News about the Mossad-run attempt to create an al Qaeda cell came when well-informed intelligence sources based in Washington had already told the Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) that there are many doubts about the Mossad's hasty declaration that "al Qaeda" had been responsible for the November 28 attack on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, where three Israelis were killed, and the failed rocket attack on an Israeli chartered jet that was departing from Mombasa airport.
There was no identification of the bombers within the first five days of the incident, the sources pointed out, yet Sharon's government ministers went on an immediate propaganda rampage announcing worldwide revenge. Authorities in Kenya also denied the al Qaeda link. But the usefulness of blaming al Qaeda, for the Israeli right, was palpable, when Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Kenya attacks "a golden opportunity" to prove to the United States that Bush's war on terrorism, and Israel's war with the Palestinians is the same thing. Netanyahu's faction has violently rejected the Palestinian Authority's revelations, and so far, the American and European press have followed suit, despite the dramatic nature of these charges, and the documents that the Palestinians have provided to the international press.
Chronology of the Revelations
On December 7, the British news service, Reuters, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV network, all reported that the Palestinian Authority had accused the Mossad of creating a phony al Qaeda cell in the Gaza Strip. Ha'aretz reported, "the head of Palestinian Preventive Security" in the Gaza Strip, Col. Rashid Abu Shbak, said on December 6, "that his forces had identified a number of Palestinian collaborators who had been ordered by Israeli security agencies to 'work in the Gaza Strip under the name of al Qaeda.' He said the investigation was ongoing and evidence would be presented soon." Al-Jazeera TV added that the Palestinian authorities had arrested a group of Palestinian "collaborators with Israeli occupation" in Gaza, involved in the operation.
Reuters' reporter Diala Saadeh, under the headline, "Palestinians: Israel Faked Gaza al-Qaeda Presence," quoted a number of Palestinian Authority (P.A.) senior officials, including President Yasser Arafat, who told reporters at his West Bank Ramallah headquarters, that Sharon's claims of al Qaeda operations in Palestinian territories "is a big, big, big lie to cover [Sharon's] attacks and his crimes against our people everywhere." P.A. Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo detailed the case: "There are certain elements who were instructed by the Mossad to form a cell under the name of al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip in order to justify the assault and the military campaigns of the Israeli occupation army against Gaza."
Palestinian officials promised to provide detailed evidence, and did so on December 8, in a press conference addressed by Colonel Shbak, and by Palestinian Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath. Shbak told the international representatives that, "Over the past nine months, we've been investigating eight cases in which Israeli intelligence posing as al Qaeda operatives recruited Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." Colonel Shbak said that three men were under arrest, and 11 had been released.
He explained that those released had voluntarily provided information going back to May 2002, about the contacts that had been made asking them to operate as an "al Qaeda" group. The alleged al Qaeda recruiters were traced to Israeli intelligence, said Colonel Shbak. He detailed incidents, some of which were described in official documents, of cell phone calls and e-mails, where Palestinians were asked to "join al Qaeda." Shbak said, "We investigated the origin of those calls, which used [wireless phone] roaming, and messages, and found out they all came from Israel," reported the publication IslamOnline. He said that the potential "recruits," had been given money and weapons, "although most of these weapons did not even work." He also noted that the money for these targeted Palestinians "was transferred from bank accounts in Jerusalem or Israel."
Minister Shaath announced at the press conference that the P.A. had "handed ambassadors and consuls of the Arab and foreign countries, documents revealing the involvement of the Israeli intelligence in recruiting citizens from Gaza Strip in a fake organization carrying the name of Qaeda." He said the ploy was intended "to create a new excuse to escalate the aggression on Gaza Strip."