By
Samer Khoairah, IOL Palestine Correspondent
NABLUS,
West Bank, February 22 (IslamOnline.net) - Two Palestinians were killed
in an Israeli operation in the heart of Nablus Saturday, February 22, as
the occupation army started the most violent and destructive sweep of
the city, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.
Sami
Halawi, 43, and Walid el-Masri, 23, were shot dead as Israeli troops
imposed a curfew on the densely populated Casbah, or Old City, of
Nablus, according to Palestinian security sources.
Since
Thursday, the Israeli army has been conducting massive search operations
through the city, which it has reoccupied since last June along with
most of the rest of the West Bank.
Israeli
army special units carry out “barbaric operations” in the houses of
the old city, especially in the densely populated neighborhoods, destroy
walls to move through houses instead of using the narrow streets, to
avoid being targets for resistance activists, according to
eye-witnesses.
“I
was watching TV with my family (in our living room). Suddenly, we heard
a strong explosion that shook the house. When we went out to check (the
situation), we were stopped by the Israeli soldiers, already inside our
house, pointing their guns at us. They blew up the wall separating our
house from that of our neighbors,” Abu Sa’d Badran told IOL.
He
described the search operations (by the Israeli soldiers) of every and
each corner of the house as “provocative, barbaric and aimless”.
“The
only thing they wanted to achieve was apparently to humiliate and
intimidate us before blowing another wall to go through it into other
houses,” he added.
Badran
elaborated saying that the Israeli soldiers forced him to “lead the
way” to other houses, gave him a hammer to “force open doors of
shops and stores”.
“They
(soldiers) blow up any deserted house and all shops and stores, without
any apparent reason,” he said.
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|
Israeli
forces flattened most of Nablus buildings
|
Other
eye-witnesses, who called IOL, asserted that the Israelis destroy houses
for no strong reason, or for no reasons at all; a house was destroyed
because “martyrs photos” were found therein.
The
destruction operations are not only limited to houses or even shops and
stores, but they also include all other businesses and workshops. To add
salt to injury, the Israelis carry out their “bombing” operations
without alerting residents of neighboring houses. That of course,
according to eye-witnesses, lead to damaging the adjacent houses and
creating a state of fear and intimidation among the residents,
especially children, women and old people.
Close
to 200 houses have been destroyed by the army since August 2002, mostly
belonging to resistance activists and as a deterrent to future attacks.
Rights
organizations charge this policy amounts to collective punishment as
Palestinian homes are typically inhabited by large families.
However,
eye-witnesses and security forces told IOL that the Israeli soldiers are
carrying out “a systematic operation of flattening all buildings they
come across in Nablus, not just houses of alleged resistance
activists”.
The
same sources asserted that “a human catastrophe on a large-scale” is
on the making in the Palestinian territories, in general, and in Nablus,
in particular, citing shortages of food stuff, especially, children
milk, as well as shortage of medicines.
“If
what the Israelis are doing in Nablus is not terrorism, what else is?”
wondered a Nablus resident, who asked not to be named.
