Vs: [asiapeace] Fwd: Fw: Urgent: Another Eyewitness report from Ramallah

[MUSTAFA HUSSAIN]

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Til: <Ishtiaq.Ahmed at statsvet.su.se>
Cc: <asiapeace at yahoogroups.com>
Sendt: 5. april 2002 21:55
Emne: [asiapeace] Fwd: Fw: Urgent: Another Eyewitness report from Ramallah


> Tuesday, April 2, 2002
> > Urgent: Eyewitness report from Ramallah
> >
> > Ramallah, Occupied Palestine -- My name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an
> American
> > student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah. We
> are
> > under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli
> > army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. They are shooting
> outside
> > at anything that moves.  I am urgently pleading for as much outside help
> as
> > possible to help save lives here.
> >
> > I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to the
> > Palestinian city where I had been previously living and studying. On
> > Thursday afternoon, the Israeli army began sealing off each entrance to
> > Ramallah and there were rumors that they planned to invade.
> >
> > People were rushing back home from across checkpoints and also people were
> > trying to flee. People were not allowed to go out and many working
> people --
> > with homes and children to return to -- were not allowed in, everyone was
> > trying to take cover. Those traveling in began desperately searching for
> > alternative ways and traveling in groups, but the Israelis were firing
> upon
> > them and everyone was running and screaming.
> >
> > Women carrying their children were trying desperately to flee from
> Ramallah,
> > carrying infants and toddlers, and their young children were running along
> > in the rain through the fields, slipping and falling on the rocks, trying
> to
> > reach safety. Israeli jeeps were speeding across the terrain pulling up
> from
> > every direction and shooting at the women and children, and also at me, as
> > we ran in opposite directions. They were chasing down people, hunting them
> > like that in the fields.
> >
> > When I reached Ramallah, people were panicking and trying to buy bread,
> rice
> > and milk from corner stores, but most supplies were already gone. We
> bought
> > what we could and went inside to wait for what was coming.
> >
> > When night fell, Israeli tanks began to invade and also we saw Israeli
> > troops coming on foot from the valley, and surrounding our house. I could
> > hear them calling to each other in Hebrew. They were against our door and
> > all around. They were firing everywhere a barrage of bullets and there was
> > tank fire. We had to lay on the floor and keep silent. We stayed there, on
> > the floor, for nearly four days in the darkness.
> >
> > We knew that our circumstances were better than others because old people
> or
> > infants or people with medical emergency needs had no help. It was very
> > cold, with most families packed all in one room. Some people are without
> > life sustaining medicines like insulin, and they are altering their doses
> > dangerously if they have any medicine left to take. People are becoming
> > dangerously sick from lack of food and water and heat. The fear and terror
> > only makes things worse, but it cannot be avoided.
> >
> > In the daytime, we heard them shooting people in the streets, and could
> hear
> > them screaming and screaming. No ambulance was allowed through. Then their
> > screams stopped and there was just silence.
> >
> > We had a telephone and would receive calls from all over telling us what
> was
> > happening. Everyone is in grave danger and Israeli soldiers were killing
> > people everywhere. They are arresting medics and ambulance drivers,
> > including foreign volunteer medical workers.
> >
> > They keep taking doctors and medics, just now another call. Again, this
> time
> > the wife of a doctor telling us her husband has been taken from the
> ambulance.
> >
> > Large groups of people have been found in rooms, shot dead, there are
> blood
> > marks where they have lined people up on their knees and shot them, with
> > their ID cards laying on top of them. They are taking people from their
> > homes, blindfolding them, removing their clothes, taking them away or
> lining
> > them up and shooting them against the wall.
> >
> > People are making phone calls and saying that these soldiers and militia
> > have come in and are shooting people and then the line cuts off.
> >
> > The numbers of these killings I fear are much greater than the numbers
> > confirmed in the press, because the human rights offices and the media
> > centers have been stormed, and everything is shut down. No one can move
> > without almost certain chance of being shot by the Isreali snipers, who
> are
> > everywhere.
> >
> > The Israelis are demanding that all journalists leave Ramallah and today
> > another foreign journalist was shot. They do not want any more
> > internationals here and are deporting people. It seems quite clear that
> they
> > do not want eyewitnesses which is only heightening my own fears.
> >
> > The hospitals have also been surrounded and invaded and Israeli troops are
> > taking the injured people and interrogating them. Today a woman, a
> patient,
> > tried to walk out from hospital. The Israelis shot her in the neck and
> > killed her.
> >
> > The Palestinian Ministry of Health is saying that they fear the spread of
> > diseases because of the number of unburied corpses.
> >
> > The numbers are only growing in reports of the mass killings here and
> > Israeli troops continue to round up people. People are calling
> frantically,
> > missing a relative and we do not know where they have been taken,
> including
> > children.
> >
> > The numbers we have now exceed 600, and we are estimating between 700 and
> > 800. All human rights groups and legal advocates are being denied any
> > information of where the detained are being held. From what we know
> > confirmed is that 10% of those taken so far have been children under age
> 18.
> >
> > On the fourth day I decided to try to move. People were running out of
> > supplies and I also was so worried about people, and had to check to see
> if
> > they were okay. If I didn't, I feared panic would overtake me so badly
> that
> > I really had no other choice but to try and go.
> >
> > It was not safe where I was in any case and at least if I left I would
> still
> > have my sanity. It was really terrifying as there are some internationals
> > here, usually traveling in groups, and the Israelis are saying on the
> radio
> > that they will arrest or shoot the internationals. They did shoot some
> > yesterday and regardless, it's not as if snipers differentiate and they
> are
> > everywhere.
> >
> > My friends told me not to go, and were really scared for me, but I had to
> > go. When I went outside, there were cars all shot up and hit by multiple
> > bullets and shells in the middle of the road, unparked. There must have
> been
> > people in them but I don't know where their bodies are. There are no
> reports
> > of them, but they must exist.
> >
> > I got to the corner trying to go to the bakery for bread and food for
> > people. Some people were calling and calling with only one cup of rice
> left.
> > I made it to the corner but they opened fire on my first try, and shot at
> > me, so I had to turn back.
> >
> > After that I tried again and it took me one day to make it a block because
> I
> > had to start over again and again. I had to climb through the valley, and
> as
> > I passed house by house, people were warning me and pointing out what path
> > seemed safest for these two minutes. In the next two minutes, it would be
> > something different. They really helped to keep my path safe.
> >
> > Today is Day Five and they are still rounding up people like this and we
> > hear them shooting all day long.
> >
> > This afternoon the Israelis suddenly lifted the curfew, suddenly
> announcing
> > that everyone had two hours to go out to get food. However, the Israeli
> > soldiers also took food from many of the stores, looted, and there is no
> > bread or things. People went to get whatever they could.
> >
> > Even though the Israeli army said it had lifted the closure for two
> hours --
> > in which we still were not able to transfer medical supplies and still was
> > not long enough to everything that was badly needed -- the Israelis
> > continued shooting people in the streets indiscriminately on their way, so
> > people were running around trying to make it to the store or find a safe
> > route only to have to run back home again. It was an added cruelty and
> > terror tactic in this macabre situation, a sick joke: starve people and
> then
> > shoot them when
> > they try to find food with your permission.
> >
> > In an apartment building in Beitunia neighborhood where I used to live,
> they
> > took 60 people who were my neighbors, including several familes, and
> pushed
> > them into one room since last night. The Israelis told them that they are
> to
> > be used as "human shields", as the apartment building is across from a
> > building that they were invading.
> >
> > One child needs to go to the hospital since last night and, initially, the
> > families were able to call outside. Now, the Israelis have taken their
> phones.
> >
> > There are reports that they are rounding up men between the ages of 14 and
> > 45 in that neighborhood, and these civilians, from these same Palestinian
> > families trapped in that building, were just used to walk in front of an
> > Israeli tank as it invaded the Preventative Security Compound.
> >
> > Reports also have alleged that the Israelis were saying that some could
> > leave but shot them when they attempted to leave. The buildings there are
> > burning, and people are trapped inside.
> >
> > We keep calling to try to find people but there has been no electricity
> and
> > most people's phones are dead now. I do not know what is happening to many
> > people. The only solution to this is to try to brave the deadly streets in
> > order to check, but its almost impossible and terrifying to leave the
> house
> > at all.
> >
> > Each place I come to, I am afraid to leave not only for myself but for
> > everyone else in this horrifying position. Israeli death squads have been
> > yanking people into the street. I also hear only shooting and shooting,
> with
> > no return fire. This suggest that unarmed civilians are being gunned down
> > mercilessly everywhere and I am so scared for everyone. I feel like maybe
> if
> > I leave one place, one area or neighborhood I will never see the people
> > again alive.
> >
> > There are more explosions outside now and more shooting. Another
> explosion.
> > More firing, it just doesn't stop.
> >
> > This is a massacre. The foreign delegations tried to get in but were
> turned
> > back, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to help but
> > they are being ignored. Please help.
> >
> > I am not only scared for myself and for people here, but if this cannot be
> > stopped, I am truly scared for all of humanity, for a world in which we
> send
> > men to the moon but cannot stop ethnic cleansing.
> >
> > On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. What are
> > you doing over there?
> >
> > There do not seem to be any reports of what is happening. In truth, its
> got
> > to stop. Please go out to the streets, please demand a response from your
> > representatives. Be loud, march up to the capitals, refuse to leave until
> > the Israelis withdraw. Act now! Tell them the Israelis are murdering
> > innocent people whose only crime is being born in their own homeland, a
> > Palestinian under a military occupation.
> >
> > Demand international protection for the Palestinian people, scream that
> this
> > is an affront to humanity and that it is time that the US not only stop
> > supporting Israel, but that the US stop its abuse of human rights within
> its
> > own borders. This is about all of our struggles. For the love of God,
> please
> > stop this slaughter. Please help.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
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