Taybeh 21 April 2002
Mohammed graduated from Al Quds Univeristy as an economist. His head is bandaged. He was wounded on Friday, April 5, and remained inside the camp for four days with no medical help, and was then captured and detained for three days until he was released by Israeli Defense Forces at the Salem checkpoint.
The first day of the attack: 3 April, there was a closure around the camp. The attack started at 10:00 that evening. It was a random attack, according to Mohammed, who said “it didn’t matter whether it was civilian or fighter.”
There was a skirmish between the soldiers and the civilians in the camp.
Then fire broke out and the army went inside.
The statistics said that more than 180 tanks surrounded the camp, and three bulldozers.
Aircraft began bombing as more troops went inside, advancing inside the camp from the west side.
After the resistance became severe, soldiers divided the camp into east and west sides . They also they closed the hospital, prevented ambulances from entering the camp, and put snipers on rooftops of buildings.
Umm Ziad Zbadeh, the mother of a martyr, was injured at the door of the hospital.
Then “the pioneers” of the Israeli army advanced from the north to the south. Troops used sledgehammers to destroy the walls of the houses. They moved from one house to another, going door to door through the camp to destroy homes.
This continued (April 3) Wednesday and (April 4) Thursday
Friday the tanks moved back.
There was a heavy aircraft bombing. The Apaches bore machine guns.
Anyone who moved was hit by rockets or machine guns. There was continuous air raid bombing. At 5 pm , Friday, he was injured
He was injured in his leg and his abdomen. Five young men took him to a house in order to help him. Then they attacked the house in which he was staying. All five young men were killed, and he was again injured. He managed to walk 150 meters where he reached a group of men and women, then felt he was going out of his senses, bleeding heavily. One of the girls tore her dress and tied his head. Then they tried repeatedly to phone for ambulances. They moved him to another house inside the camp. For 24 hours he was unconscious. When he awoke, the family that helped him took him with them in an escape to another house. But each new house he entered was attacked.
“Whenever the soldiers feel suspicion, or there is movement inside the house, they attack it.”
“The house , within an area full of people, was surrounded by soldiers who opened the road by bulldozers, destroying houses. It started form the north gate of the camp, dividing the camp into two sides, from the north to south of the camp
This bulldozing destroyed more than 200 houses. Normally there is no road at all. (The bulldozers just go through a narrow corridor knocking down walls on either side.) No attention was paid to whether or not people were inside the houses. He was in a four story house that the bulldozer destroyed. They started destroying the north side of the building. They were in the southern side of the house, near the stairs.
He was with seven children. He and two others were injured, - one whose hand was completely cut from a projectile (missile) from an M16.
People came from different sides of the camp to help him; young women were crying and screaming, the young men carried him.
Tanks and aircraft came. The injured were ordered to come down. The young man who was with him had an injury in his abdomen. He suspects he has died.
They had no food no water, no sleep.
He was bleeding for 24 hours, and he had no medical help because of shortages. When they went down to the square inside the camp, the soldiers checked them, covered their eyes and transferred them to Haifa Street. They were held outside until the morning. There he asked for a doctor. The second morning at 10 00 am they moved them by bus to the Salem checkpoint.
He asked for a doctor one more time. They refused. He remained for forty-eight hours outside the checkpoint in the square. Then they asked him to go inside for the interrogation. He could not speak. He was released on Tuesday at 1 am in the morning.
From Salem, he was able to get to Rumaini and then from Rumaini to Taibbeh. Here in Taibbeh they did the best they could. Doctors saw him two or there times every day and managed to provide him with medicine.
The five young men killed with him are still now under destroyed houses. The injury to his leg and shoulder were from shrapnel.
