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Israeli Occupation Deprives Palestinians of Peaceful Sleep
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| What will happen to Palestinian children raised in the middle of Israeli aggression?
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By
Maha Abdel Hadi, IOL Palestine correspondent
NABLUS,
April 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – “As night falls,
Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers spread out in the
streets, filling the city with the loud noises of heavy machine
gun-fire that shake the devastated homes as if they were hit by a
powerful earthquake,” this is the exact scenario that takes place
daily in the different reoccupied Palestinian cities during the past
two weeks according to eyewitnesses.
“The
occupation has not only deprived us of peaceful sleep but of all our
other basic rights in life. We have been prisoners for over two weeks.
Our livelihoods have come to a standstill and the streets and shops
have been completely destroyed,” Hamid, a 50-year old Palestinian
citizen, said.
The
children are especially disturbed by the Israeli military offensive in
the Palestinian territories. “My one-month old daughter wakes up
shocked in the middle of the night everyday screaming and weeping,”
Mohamed, a Palestinian doctor, said.
“All
the terrorist and barbaric acts that those [Israeli] soldiers are
doing to us indicates that they are definitely not human,” Mohamed
added.
“What
do you think the effect will be on our children who are raised in the
middle of this aggression and lust for Palestinian blood?” he said.
The
citizens of Nablus say that every night the occupation forces use
powerful loudspeakers and fire shots randomly. They knock at the doors
and sometimes even blast them open. Then they enter the houses and
search them thoroughly before abducting all the men. The same scenario
happens every night and lasts until around 6 AM local time.
The
occupation forces transport the abducted men to military outposts in
Nablus and start questioning and torturing them. The men are forced to
take their clothes off in the cold. Some men are exceptionally allowed
to return home.
However,
the way back home is not always easy because the military outposts are
far from where they live and they have to wait until the curfew is
lifted. Moreover, the occupation soldiers shoot at them haphazardly to
scare them off.
The
Palestinian citizens say that what the Israelis are doing every night
is simply a form of psychological war. “What else do they want from
us? They have destroyed the cities, brought life to a standstill,
massacred, wounded and abducted people. Now they want to scare the
remaining men, women, elderly and children. We have nothing left for
us but Allah,” Ma’mun, a 40-year-old Palestinian father of five,
said.
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