Diaries: Live from Palestine

A joint convoy comprised of representatives from 14 international and 9 national humanitarian agencies working in the West Bank and Gaza set out to Nablus on Tuesday, April 9th. The convoy consisted of 16 vehicles, five of which were carrying basic food and medicines for distribution to the most vulnerable families.

“Are you serious? This is Bosnia!,” I replied as we get new information from Jenin refugee camp. Residents of the refugee camp have told us that they were moved from the camp.

Israeli military forces and media have announced that the Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Palestinian towns of Tulkaram and Qalqiliya. This is only partially true – they have withdrawn from the town centers, but remain in complete control of the towns with a ring of tanks and other armed vehicles around them.

“We don’t have oxygen”, says a doctor from Rafiedia hospital in Nablus. “There are 14 premature babies in incubators who need oxygen and we have an additional twenty-two critically sick and injured, who desperately need oxygen.”

Conversations with friends in Jerusalem revolve around the latest news from family, friends and colleagues throughout the besieged cities of the West Bank. Words from telephone calls weave a tapestry of horror.

Today is day 11 of the re-occupation of Ramallah. We hear less shootings but from time to time we hear explosions of forced entry into houses and I keep hearing the same stories over and over again. Ask everyone to gather in a room, they start their ‘searching’.

It is 10 am and I am in the office. For a couple of minutes sirens can be heard all over the city of Jerusalem to remember the horrors of the Holocaust.

On the morning of Friday 29 of March, and after midnight, people in Ramallah were awakened by the sharp squeak of Israeli tanks and troop carriers. The roar of moving tanks was deafening and frightening.

Two children dragged the broken metal frame of a cart across the road. They arranged it next to a pile of plastic milk crates and some other small pieces of garbage and stone debris.

I just had to write one of the most horrible press releases I ever wrote. Israeli forces are commiting a massacre in Jenin refugee camp. The whole day I have received horrible stories, eye-witness accounts, lists of names of persons killed, affidavits, telephone calls, and faxes. What is happening in Jenin are not only war crimes being committed, or crimes against humanity, but it may potentially violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.