Ramallah

After sleeping at 2am we were startled at 4:45am to an Israeli tank which positioned in front of the National Insurance Building on Jerusalem Road. The Israeli soldiers opened fire on god only knows what. It continued for over 30 minutes then we could hear the Israeli soldiers laughing and giggling while banging or tearing down street signs and the like…a lot of metal was being banged.

The situation in Ramallah is as follows: many parts of the town continue to be without water. Even with the problems of water solved, it will not reach most homes because 6 out of 9 electrical feeding stations are down. No electricity means no water, no sewage pumping (serious for public health) and no ovens can work to bake bread, among other problems.

From my encircled apartment in Lower Ramallah, I write to you after 5 days without electricity or gas. Hopefully I will survive with my laptop and the lentil soup which I make bearable, day after day, with peppers. Vegetables, bread, and meat seem like a luxury.

People in the International Red Cross do not send any ambulances unless the Israeli army give them a permit. A group of 30 young Palestinians were shot at and, until now, 3 a.m, they have been denied all medical help. This is the third such case documented in Ramallah in the last two days. If you have any medical corps, any contact with humanitarian organisations, please do whatever you can to send them to see what is going on on the ground.

Let’s start from the beginning. It has been 4 days since [the Israelis] invaded Ramallah. They started entering on Friday morning around 4am and it was really like a war. All that you could hear was shaking from the sound of the tanks and helicopters. You thought at the beginning that it was the start of the war. Clashes started. What do you expect? They were entering with tanks, so there was some resistance, but with kalashnikovs, light weapons.

It has been about two hours since my electricity came back on. The electricity to my neighborhood was cut around 9:30am on Friday. Since then, I have relied on word of mouth and the occasional transistor radio for information. Comparatively speaking, this neighborhood has been relatively unscathed. We have tanks posted across the valley from us and every now and again they make their way towards our building, but as of yet, it has been quiet, save the occasional outburst of gunfire.

This has been the second day of the appalling war against the Palestinian civilian population in the West Bank and the first day of attacks, siege and curfews also in areas located in the Be [sic]. Throughout the whole day, thousands of new soldiers were deployed inside Ramallah and, as we write, even more are heading towards the already besieged and occupied city.

Today at 5:00am I was awakened by what sounded like huge trunks, when I looked out the window I saw several tanks. 1/2 hr later the Israeli soldiers rang the bell - we did not answer - then I heard them coming up the steps (obviously broke in the main door). The pounded the door to the house, My husband opened the door, to find endless huge guns pointed at us.

Into the evening Israeli forces continue their offensive on the Palestinian people. After heavy shelling of the Presidential compound all day Israeli forces entered the compound with tanks and ground troops. The Palestinian police have reported that no one has been taken but there has been office to office break ins and searches and resistance from the compound.