Diaries: Live from Palestine

Since Israeli troops invaded Palestinian towns and cities on March the 29th, the civilian population has suffered and come under attack. Scores of people have been killed and injured; civilians trapped in their own homes by the soldiers are the sad casualties of the Israeli aggression.

Tonight, five members of the International Solidarity Movement are sleeping at a school in Jenin with 800 refugees from the Jenin Refugee Camp. Earlier in the day, nine internationals from the United States, Sweden and Italy entered the refugee camp and started to deliver food to the remaining residents of the camp - women, children and elderly men.

Tank fire, machine gun fire, and roosters crowing; explosions, more tank fire, more gun fire, and those stupid all-night roosters with no sense of timing: How Not to Sleep in the Refugee Camp at Rafah-at least if you’re a visitor and listening to the “low intensity war” rage on the borders of the Gaza Strip all night still frays your nerves.

The main event in the small world in which we live is the announcement of the temporary lifting of the curfew. On Friday afternoon Mary makes a list of things to buy and we divide the work since we can go out only a few hours and neighbours may pass by for a visit.

Cries and pleas rings loud and clear from the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank town of Jenin. Jenin has been under siege from the Israeli army for 11 days, many of those days the residents have been without food, water and electricity.

On Saturday, about 3,000 Jews and Arabs met at the Meggido crossroads leading to Jenin in order to demonstrate against Israel’s atrocities and to bring water, food, medication, clothing, blankets and other humanitarian aid to the people of Jenin.

‘I feel as if I was raped this morning’, writes ‘Ala. ‘Thirty well-armed Israeli soldiers walk freely through our home. I don’t have any right but to sit on the chair and keep silent’. Early this morning, after a long night full of sounds of Israeli state terror, the sounds of bombs, shooting and cursing in the streets, Israeli occupiers raided Ala’s home.

I penned this just after hearing about eight bodies pulled from the rubble of just one home in Nablus yesterday.

“Do you already have an answer?” I asked a lawyer present at the Israeli Supreme Court. “No the hearing is still going on, but they’ve already agreed that the International Committee of the Red Cross should be allowed to accompany the Israeli army to examine, collect and identify the bodies and the court advised that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society takes part in the identification process.

‘Hi, it’s Di here,’ says my colleague. She left two days ago to Jenin. Together with lawyers, fieldworkers and experts, they’re taking eyewitness accounts from residents of Jenin refugee camp, who were detained and released, and who were able to escape from the refugee camp.