The underlying reality is that the U.S., as well as these Arab "client regimes", are themselves complicitous in what is happening and should also be held accountable. And for its own inaction complicity also now applies to the United Nations, which of course is considerably controlled by the U.S. including American removal of the past Egyptian Secretary-General whom it then replaced with the even more compliant Kofi Annan.

Saturday, March 9, 2002: I compiled this report following phone calls to Dheisheh this morning and last night.

Israeli tanks, accompanied by bulldozers have now completely surrounded Dheisheh Refugee Camp and are right now imposing a curfew on the camp - not that people were venturing outside before. As being reported from nearby Aida Refugee Camp, Israeli snipers are shooting at anything that moves, and this is why people in Dheisheh have not left their homes since Friday.

Right at this moment, Israeli troops have entered Dheisheh camp from the eastern part (They reached the old Ibdaa Cultural Center Building) and have overtaken several houses as outposts and also the Dheisheh School for Girls. Israeli snipers are on the roofs. They have also bulldozed the home of the Daraghmeh family, whose son carried out the suicide bombing in Jerusalem last weekend.

The father of a friend of mine, Amjad Abu Laban (an employee of UNRWA), passed away in Dheisheh today of natural causes. Israeli troops refused to allow the family to bury him, so the family has had to bury him in the house - the first time such a thing ever happens in the camp.

All men ages 14-40 have left the refugee camp. Reports from Tulkarem refugee camp indicate that Israeli soldiers have rounded up all men between the ages of 14-40 and have arrested 400 so far. No one within this age group in Dheisheh is taking any chances. They all left the camp yesterday.

On Friday, as Issa Farraj, the nephew of a friend of mine in Dheisheh, was leaving a friend's house with two other friends and was just about to get in his car when an Israeli tank shell struck the car. Issa, who was wanted by the Israelis, died instantly, and friends of mine who live in the neighborhood told me that Issa's two friends were so badly burnt that they are not expected to survive. "There is no flesh on their bones," one eye-witness told me. Meanwhile, residents of the neighborhood have found different parts of Issa's body in their homes. His body was scattered all over the place. Two houses in the neighborhood - only three blocks from where I used to live - were completely burned from the impact of the explosion. Numerous other homes had all their windows blown out.

I am calling Dheisheh every hour and the mood is extremely tense. People are bracing themselves for the worst and they expect a massacre to take place.

Now that the army has imposed a curfew, the soldiers are expected to start their house to house searches and rampages. And they will have a free reign - no UN personnel, no international protection, and no foreign media - no one to save the lives of innocent civilians.

To make certain that no one in Dheisheh who is injured will receive medical treatment, the soldiers and tanks surrounded al-Yamama Hospital down the street from Dheisheh yesterday (Friday). Also yesterday, the hospital's director was killed in cold blood (see report below). I interviewed the hospital director when the Israelis shelled his son's house in November 2000. The shelling of this particular house was the subject of my November 2, 2000 diary entry. The hospital director killed yesterday is the one I quote, thought I don't name, as saying that he will rebuild the shelled house.

In addition to surrounding al-Yamama Hospital, Israeli troops have also dug up the Jerusalem-Hebron Road leading from Dheisheh to Bethlehem to make sure that ambulances can't reach the camp and that no injured can be transported to hospital.

As I write this, Dheisheh is completely isolated. The Israelis just cut off the camp's water supply and they will probably cut off the electricity as they did in Tulkarem refugee camp.

As these developments take place in Dheisheh, nearly 6 bodies and tens of wounded in Tulkarem refugee camp are lying in the alleys of the camps and the Israeli army is preventing anyone from coming to their aid or removing the bodies of those who died. Meanwhile in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, friends tell me that Israeli helicopters have been pounding the camp with Apache Helicopter gunfire and doing so in a very indiscriminate way. One eye-witness told me "the helicopter is just flying around and shooting at everything, in all directions."

Anyone who has been to a camp knows that homes are clustered very closely to one another. Women, men and children -entire families are inside these homes being shelled. In Aida also, ambulances are forbidden from approaching.

"It is clear to us that they want anyone who is hit to bleed to death", my friend Hourieh in Dheisheh told me over the phone this morning.

Please keep in mind that what is happening in the refugee camps isn't innocent. Why is Israel targeting Khan Younis, Jabalyia, Jenin, Tulkarem, Balata and now Dheisheh refugee camps? What is their long-term plan for doing so?

I posed this question to my friends in Dheisheh this morning. "It is obvious to us that it has to do with the refugee problem and the right of return. The Israelis want to send us a clear message that we ought not dream about the returning to our homeland because they are going to try and make sure that none of us will remain alive to return."

We haven't seen the worst of it yet. May God protect the people of Palestine. and may we work harder at doing what we can to bring this monstrous occupation to an end.

* Muna Hamzeh is author if the highly acclaimed book "Refugees In Our Own Land" published last September and available from Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. For book information: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/refugeesbook.htm

[LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment - Jerusalem - 9 March 2002]: New information provided by the family of Dr. Ahmad Othman Khoudari, who was killed yesterday, and hospital sources, reveal that after ten hours of besieging the Yamama Hospital, the offices of the International Red Cross in Jerusalem and Bethlehem arranged with the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) to allow Dr. Ahmad Othman Khoudari, director of Yamama Hospital, to leave home and go to his hospital, so that he could supervise its work and treat the injured. The Israeli commander, Captain Joey (DCO), who had previously threatened Palestinian officials in Bethlehem to open fire at any ambulance he had not been previously informed about (registration number and destination), agreed to let Dr. Khoudari leave home, located only 50 meters away from the Yamama Hospital, wearing a white shirt, and without a jacket.

Dr. Khoudari was informed of the arrangement with the DCO and Captain Joey phoned the doctor and told him that he (Dr. Khoudari) could move and the Israeli snipers and officers would not harm him. Consequently, Dr. Khoudari drove to Al-Hussain Hospital to acquire some medical supplies of which the Yamama Hospital was short of. He was allowed to cross the first Israeli military roadblock, however, Israeli forces, positioned at the entrance of Al Dheisheh refugee camp, close to the hospital, opened fire from a tank, killing the hospital director instantly. Three 500mm bullets were fired at him directly from close range.

This is not an isolated incident. During the past week, in particular, the last few days, ambulances have been fired upon, three ambulance staff have been killed, and nine other medical personnel have been injured.

The right of the sick and wounded to receive prompt medical attention is one of the most basic principles of humanitarian law. Regardless of political circumstances, the Occupying Power is obligated to permit the wounded and sick to be "collected and cared for", and should accord them "particular protection and respect" according to Article 16, Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite such clear regulations encoded in binding international legal agreements, to which Israel is a signatory, Israeli forces have targetted, harassed, delayed and obstructed health workers and local residents attempting to collect the wounded and transport them to hospitals.

Repeated assaults, shootings and shelling by the Israeli military during the current Palestinian uprising have caused the health needs of the civilian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories to outstrip the available medical services. Israeli soldiers and commanders have delayed ambulances transporting the injured, physically mistreated doctors and other health care professionals, raided medical facilities, and adopted measures which reduce the quality and availability of health services. These abuses illustrate a disregard for the most fundamental humanitarian norms on the part of the Israeli occupation army. Even the minimum international standards governing the treatment of wounded civilians and medical personnel have been violated by the Israeli army in their conduct towards Palestinian civilians.

[PRESS RELEASE - Bethlehem University - 9 March 2002 - Brother ]: The IDF fired a wire-guided missile at newly-inaugurated Millennium Hall at about 9:00 last night (8 March). It punched a hole through the stone-clad reinforced concrete wall, blasting out windows and window frames on two floors, damaging Classrooms 302 and 402. The impact of the powerful blast spread to other parts of the building, as well as to the nearby Institute of Hotel Management and the Social and Cultural Center on campus. It is fortunate that no one was near enough to be injured or killed.

This missile attack, devastating in physical and psychological implications, is but one result of unprecedented brutal aggression on the Palestinian people in recent days. Statistics of casualties and damage continue to change, but at this writing seven deaths and over a hundred injuries have been reported in Bethlehem alone in the past two days. In addition, the entire city and surroundings has been traumatized and terrorized as never before by the ominous sounds of helicopters and drones and threats of gunship and tank attacks. Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem, is still under curfew with over 40 huge tanks surrounding the village preventing movement in and out of homes and on the streets. Deheisheh Camp, which has suffered extensive human loss and damage, is also under curfew.

As a demoralized and battered people braces itself for another night of trepidation and fear, the following questions continue to remain unanswered:

How long will illegal occupation and oppression of a people struggling for freedom and basic human rights be allowed to continue? When will the senseless sacrifice of innocent lives of both oppressed and oppressor come to an end? What can be done to mobilize the international community, whom many see as the only potential force capable of exerting legitimate influence, to assume greater moral responsibility in resolving the situation?

[The Palestine Monitor - March 9 2002]: The situation in the West Bank and Gaza is worsening as Sharon intensifies his attacks, and moves to instigate attacks in new areas.

Since March 1st, 120 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, many of whom bled to death as a result of the Israeli policy of refusing medical and emergency treatment to the wounded.

The situation continues to worsen as troops have surrounded and partially entered Deheiysha refugee camp in Bethlehem, and have destroyed roads and entrances to the camp, making it impossible for ambulances and health professional to access the ill and wounded. Palestinians fear an imminent armed attack similar to those that occurred in the past few days in the refugee camps of Tulkarem, Nour Ash-Shams, Rafah, Balata, Jenin and Aida and the towns of Khaza' in Khan Younis and Nablus.

The tragic and dangerous situation is illustrated by the case of Rana Adel Hamad, 18 years old from Qur village near Tulkarem in the West Bank. The expectant mother went in to labour at 9am yesterday morning, but due to Israeli checkpoints and closure she was unable to reach hospital in Tulkarem. Instead she and her family went to a midwife in a near by town, and after a difficult labour gave birth to a baby that died. Rana's condition worsened and the family made another attempt to reach hospital. Again they were denied permission to travel for more than one hour; after eventually arriving at the hospital Rana was dead.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/3/688.htm