Tala is a Palestinian four-year-old child from the Bethlehem area. Upon witnessing her parents’ watching the incidents on the TV and noticing that the talks of her parents and neighbors is limited merely to these incidents, she has screamed at her mother asking her to turn off the TV since the only things it shows are murder and blood. Tala, who kept close to her mother and refused to play neither inside nor outside the house, has blamed her father for not protecting her since, as she expressed, he frequently leaves the house and cannot be found when she is in need for him.
In the village of Ya’bod , Um Mahmood and her family are living in the area of the confrontations with the Israeli Army. Like many other houses of the village, their house is exposed to the shooting and tear bombs. Um Mahmood said that when being exposed to the tear gas, her nine-month-old child begins coughing and does not stop until becoming unconscious. “Finding my baby in such a horrible situation, I really feel much horror and fear.” said Um Mahmood.
She added, “As soon as the confrontations begin, Bader, my five-year-old child, begins yelling and crying for continuous hours even after the ceasing of these encounters." Besides, Bader has lately refused to play and go anywhere. He does not want to be away from me; actually he keeps holding the edge of my dress. During the night, Bader wakes up saying that he has seen the soldiers entering from the windows, although our house is located in the third floor. "We try to relieve his fears and make him feel safe; nevertheless, our attempts have unfortunately never been crowned with success. And when he wakes up in the morning, Bader begins looking for his plastic gun and asks me to fill it with bullets in order to kill the soldiers when they come to our house." Once, when Bader heard his parents’ discussion regarding doing shopping for the house, he shouted “No, don’t use the money to buy such things, instead buy a gun for each one of us; we want to defend ourselves.” It seems obvious that Bader is indeed so much afraid and has begun looking for means of feeling safe.
Since the beginning of the incidents, Sajeda, a five-year-old child from Jenin, has begun suffering from pains and involuntary urination. Sajeda, has been asking to sleep beside her parents in their bed. She frequently talks about the incidents and wonders whether the Israeli Army want to kill her like they killed the child whom she has seen on the TV. Besides, Sajeda expresses her fear about her brothers being killed if they go out to school. This child wonders, “How does shooting cause death?!!!”
Wafa’ is a mother of three children: Fadi, Rami, and Lara who are 11, 9 and 6 years old, respectively. Wafa’ says that her children suffer from a severe situation of fear and anxiety. Her daughter refuses to sleep alone, and her sons never go out of home anymore because they are afraid of the Israeli Settlers. Lately, her son Fadi has begun suffering from a severe lung infection and a desire to vomit. As the mother expressed, “Yesterday, after ten continuous days of staying at home, Rami has gone back to school to find out that his friend was one of the martyrs. Facing such a painful fact, Rami returned home suffering from pains in his arms and legs. He did not go out of the house, and after a couple of hours, he began crying expressing his fear of death and murder. Feeling herself halpless and frightened, the mother also cries in front of her children. Fadi keeps saying that life is bad and full of violence and miseries.
The house of
Rawan, a
twelve-year-old child from Beit-Sahour, has been exposed to shooting from the
Israeli Army. Only a few moments after Rawan left her room,
the bullets reached to her bed making a hole in her pillow. In her room,
Rawan has hung her school bag and a picture of the escape of Virgin
Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus from Herod. On this picture it is written,
“Glory to God in the Highest Heavens, Peace on Earth and Happiness to
Mankind." In this room that is filled with the splinters of bullets, will
Rawan understand the message that is written on the picture, “Peace on
Earth and Happiness to Mankind?!!”
Mais, a thirteen-year-old child, and her brother Maher, who is nine years old, are living in an area that witnesses confrontations with the Israeli Army in Beit-Sahour. One night, while they were preparing themselves to go to bed, the intensive shooting, to which their house was exposed, prevented them from even going out of their room. When being unable to reach the children’s room to help them, the neighbors brought a ladder to help their children to get out of that room. Then, Maher and Mais stayed with the family in a low place under the house watching the missiles of the Israeli Army burning the trees beside them. When the shooting ceased, Mais and Maher began laughing hysterically and then kept silent with no expression on their faces. Since then, although several days have passed since the incident, Maher and Mais have not said a single word about what happened.
Natheer lived in a village near Nablus. He was injured since the first Intifada when he was 12 years old and at his school. He injured in his head with a live bullet. After being unconscious for six months and treatment for a long time, Natheer started to walk. The Rehabilitation Program of the YMCA worked with him after to help him adapt, become independent and empower what he still has. Natheer has been successful adapting to the pain and the disability.With the help of his father and the YMCA Rehabilitation Program, Natheer learned how to drive so he could work. He married and had a boy and girl. After that he decide to work on his land.
On Thursday October 13, when Natheer was driving the tractor and working on his land, the Settlers attacked the village and started firing. He felt very fearful, so he lost control of the tractor and fell off with the tractor on top of him. The villagers tried to help him and asked for an ambulance, but the road was closed by the soldiers, so they used an old road between the fields instead of the main road to avoid the settlers and the Israeli soldiers. After two hours they reached the hospital, but he was dead.
Over these last twelve years Natheer was an example of courage in very hard times. He was always very enthusiastic to life and insisted on reaching his goals. Unfortunately the Israeli violence ended all of his dreams.
Fatinah Fakhoury, a young woman from Hebron, was transferred to the hospital last night. She was suffering from a head injury received when Israeli soldiers and settlers shot at her house. It’s normal to see a wounded woman carried to the hospital, but the unusual scene is to find her carried to the hospital with her two sons. One is two years old, and the other is just 16 days old. If you want to pray one time for Fatihan to be cured, pray twice for her two children not to lose their mother.
On the safari, many scenes are savage. Lions kill deer, hyena group kill zebras, or eagles kill birds, and others. Something similar has happened in Palestine, but it is not the group of hyenas, but settlers. And the victim wasn’t a zebra, but Isam Mostafa, a 40 year old man.Yesterday he was walking near his beautiful village (Om Saffa) outside Ramallah. No clashes, no shooting, it is calm, which is ideal for hunters. The settlers caught him alone and took him far. The soldiers were guarding the settlers, but what happened?
You never knew the story until you read the death report of Isam. The sticks were very strong to crush his left hand, but the sticks can’t make eleven fractures in his skull. Might it be something else?After his death, his body burned from different directions, it is disgusting. I know you can’t stand hearing more, but I know also that I want you to know what kind of hyenas are living in the settlements, and know that we can’t stand that.
The ninth grade students of Ramallah Secondary School for Boys leave a vacant desk in their class. This open place belonged to one of their friends who was killed during the Intifada.
The students insist that no one can fill his seat because he will return to his place. They can't believe that he left them forever. Many of the pupils of this class have bad dreams about the settlers and soldiers threatening them. Now they feel they are living their nightmares.
Fadi is a 22 year old man from Haifa, where Israelis and Palestinians are living together. His family is not religious. He decided with his friends to visit Jerusalem on Thursday, September 28.
While he was there, the clashes started between the Israeli soldiers and policemen and visitors who went to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Fadi decided to participate in defense of the people and the place. A person near him fell down after he being injured by an Israeli bullet.
Fadi tried to help him by carrying him to the Ambulance. Another bullet strikes him and he is injured again. The blood flowed from different sides of his body. This time Fadi was also shot in the leg and fell down. He lay there for more than 45 minutes. Fadi is afraid because the youth beside him is is still bleeding and now unconscious. Fadi is still bleeding from the wounds in his leg, and the Israeli soldiers did not allow the Ambulance to take them to the hospital.
The youth died when Fadi was being treated at the hospital. He is afraid to go home before he gets will. He now lives in fear of arrest by the the Israelis. He is afraid his Jewish neighbors will make trouble for him and his family.
Layla is a 12 year old girl from Beit Omar in the Hebron area. She heard that the Jewish settlers attacked her village on the evening of Monday, October 10. She ran to her room to take her picture from the wall and hide it in a very secure place. When her parents noticed what she had done, they asked why. But she did not answer.
Her parents believe she did this because of what she saw on TV the previous day. She saw that a Palestinian’s family house was attached by the settlers, while being protected by the Israeli soldiers. They showed a picture on the wall that was demolished by bullets from all sides.
Mohammed, an 8 years old boy, lives with his family in the old City of Jerusalem. There is no place to play except the square at Al Aqsa Mosque. He goes there every day to play in a secure and beautiful area.
On Friday, September 29, Mohammed went with his Father to pray. The clashes started and Mohammed watched everything there. He saw people bleeding and killed. He was injured in his arm by a plastic bullet while he clung to his father in fear. Now Mohammed wakes up every night with wet clothes, freightened and shouting. He is afraid to go to play in the square of Al-Aqsa. He never leaves his parents’ side.
Samar is an 18 year old Palestinian girl. She grew up outside Palestine. She came back four years ago hoping to live here in a happy, peaceful and quiet atmosphere. She met a man from Al-Ama'ry Refugee Camp in Ramallah and married him. After four days of marriage, her husband left home but didn’t come back alive. He was killed by the bullet of Israeli soldiers.
Samar is living now with severe trauma. All day she sits and repeats the words, "My husband Mahmoud didn’t buy the clothes hangers. I don't know where to hang the clothes."
Taymaa' is a 3 year old girl living in Ramallah. She is a very active girl and asks many questions of the things happening around her. She watches the TV.
Her questions now are about life and death and the safety of her home with her parents. Every day and night she hears the news about the clashes and problems, and she hears the many comments of her parents, neighbors and other children. Every night she hears the shooting from the Bisgot Settlement near her home.
For safety, her parents have moved her to a different room in the house. She continues asking, "Why can't I play at my room?" But she now shows her fear by protecting her doll. She is very afraid for her doll, that they will shoot and kill her.
