Today is November 15th. Today is our supposed “Independence Day”. A joke. Was almost killed today. This will be brief and inarticulate. I am still in shock…I peeked again, to see some Israelis beating the shit out of a Palestinian man and throwing him into their van. The mustarabeen next to us got back into their van. As we were in their way they smashed into our car and sped off. Meanwhile in front of us and to the right, the Israelis started to pull back. Kids started throwing stones. They shot at us again. They started pulling back again. Read more about A Tale of Two Sisters: Witnessing an Undercover Israeli Operation in Ramallah (2) 

Omar is about 10 years old, and the eldest son of Khaled, the regional coordinator for the Salfit Mobile Health Clinic, which is local outreach primary care health project sponsored by Palestine Medical Relief Society. PMRS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) funded by the European Union (EU) to deliver services to rural and other under-served populations in Palestine. In this photostory, Omar presents the story of the olive harvest in his village, Qraawa Beny-Zed, between Ramallah and Salfit in Palestine, and the involvement of his family and the community in the village’s harvest and processing of olives. Read more about Photostory: How to Harvest Olives In Palestine 

“Your heads will be on the stones if you don’t leave this place”, threatened an Israeli settler from illegal outpost Havot Ma’on (Hill 833), to members of Christian Peacemaker Teams in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani. Captured on video, but ignored by district Israeli police, the threat is part and parcel of daily life for Palestinians - and the reason for the continuous presence of international human rights workers here since 2004. A few days later, during a “routine check”, I witness my neighbor being physically abused by Israeli soldiers. Such abuse often ceases when soldiers become aware that internationals are present, filming their actions. Read more about "Your heads will be on the stones" - Settler and military violence in South Hebron 

I am now working with a different medical crew, this time in the Salfit district. This Mobile Health Unit is also sponsored by Medical Relief Society. We started at our base in the town of Salfit and had to drive around the huge settlement of Ariel, the second largest settlement, (after Ma’ale Addumin) in the West Bank. We passed through the major Israeli military checkpoint of Zatara, which controls and stifles the flow of traffic between Ramallah and Nablus. I am getting used to all this oppression which now has a strange sort of normalcy. Going out through this checkpoint was uneventful; coming back in to Salfit will be another story. Read more about Immersion Crash Course In Medical Arabic 

Today the Mobile Clinic is working in Al Mas-ha, which is west of the Ariel settlement, and just north of the main Israeli highway from Ariel, before it dives down the hill toward Tel Aviv. West Bank Palestinians are only allowed to this point west, but no further. Again we set up in the village municipality, which happens to be located right next to the kindergarten. Today, we will a different strategy to utilize my skills and stay out of the way of Dr. Hasam, who must move along at lightening speed, in order to survive the day. I am sent with a nurse to the local kindergarten to screen about 50 children for dental disease, anemia, malnutrition, cardiac murmurs, and neuro-developmental delay. Read more about Fenced in From All Around: The Story of Hani Amr and His Family 

One day after the Israel army declared that it had pulled out and completed Operation Autumn Clouds in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, 24 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, 19 people were killed and at least 45 were injured as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Another five Palestinians were killed in Jenin, northern West Bank by Israeli army fire. The series of incidents began at 6 a.m., when eyewitness said that dozens of tank shells and missiles landed simultaneously in a small and limited area in Beit Hanoun. Ambulances found it difficult to evacuate the wounded. Read more about Massacre in Beit Hanoun 

“The Israeli army soldiers are now blockading the mosque; while a number of resistance fighters are inside, where they have taken sanctuary for fear of being attacked. Dozens of women made their way into the mosque, to make a defensive shield for the helpless men inside,” Faten Sehwail of Beit Hanoun told me by cellphone while huddled inside her home, unable to go outside because of the Israeli army-imposed curfew. Beit Hanoun is a small Palestinian city in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli-created “autumn clouds” are now over the heads of its residents, making their days as black as their nights. Read more about Beit Hanoun: A People's Will versus an Army's Arsenal 

Khalil Hamad died waiting for a permit to go to the hospital! Israeli occupying forces launched a massive attack against northern Gaza, focused on Beit Hanoun village. At the start of this assault, the village was placed under strict siege. Nobody was allowed in or out of Beit Hanoun. At Al-Awda hospital where 45 injured were admitted for treatment, and 3 dead bodies received, I was told by our Emergency Room staff that one of these dead could have been saved easily. While bleeding and suffering from multiple injuries, Mr. Khalil Hamad had to wait for special arrangements and an army permit to transfer him via the Red Cross from outside the village to the nearest hospital (Al-Awda) 5 minutes away from the scene. Read more about Diary of Beit Hanoun under siege 

While I was driving to Kamal Udwan hospital in Beit Lahiya and listening to a local radio station to get the news update, suddenly the Israeli army succeeded in occupying the airwaves for a few minutes. They played a recorded message warning the residents in the north to stay inside their houses and to keep away from militants and not offer them any assistance or protection. Zeyad Abdul Dayem, an ambulance driver, said, “We had to wait today for 15 hours until the Israeli army allowed us to evacuate the body of a dead man who was killed by Israeli snipers who were positioned on the rooftops of high buildings belonging to Palestinian residents of Beit Hanoun”. Read more about Dark clouds over Beit Hanoun