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On
March 29th, the Israeli Occupation Forces began their
siege upon Ramallah and the
headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, and President Yasser
Arafat. Water and
electricity were cut, shops closed and curfew imposed on the general
population. Israeli
army
tanks and jeeps barreled through the town, warning citizens not to
walk outside, as
they
would be shot.
The
Israeli Occupation Forces, (IOF), sealed off the entrances to the
city by armed
checkpoints and persons working outside of Ramallah were denied
entry to their homes
and
families. Israeli Army soldiers in army trucks and jeeps fired upon
citizens, women
and
children, trying to enter through open fields. Those in their homes
had to remain lying
on
the floor for 4 days because of the barrage of bullets flying
through the air.
After demolishing the surrounding walls of the Palestinian Authority
compound, Israeli
soldiers rounded up those employees inside and demanded that they
strip before
approaching the soldiers. Several persons have been found in
various rooms in the
compounds, stripped, shot, and their I.D. cards lying atop their
inert bodies. Holes have
been
blown in retaining walls of the PA buildings in an effort to get at
President Arafat.
Snipers are on compound. The headquarters is so utterly destroyed
that renovation will
be
impossible, only a re-building of the entire compound, costing
hundreds of thousands
of
dollars.
Soldiers have gone from house to house searching for ‘militants’,
holding innocent women
and
children at gunpoint in order for the residents to open up their
doors. Walls and
gardens of private homes have been razed in order for Israeli tanks
to gain access to
residences. Women and children in private homes have been
terrorized and interrogated
as
to the whereabouts of men and young men between 15-45 years of age.
One testimony
gained by the ‘Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People’,
on March 30th, of
a young boy states, “My name
is Alyyan Zayed, I am 9 years old. I can’t play on my back
yard. I can’t step outside of my home from door, because of the
curfew. I’ve hided my
toys because I am afraid that the Israeli soldiers will take me away
for having toy guns
and toy tanks. I can’t even walk to the store to buy candy because
of the curfew.”
The
situation is of course more severe than the child is aware of.
International peace
mediators and human rights groups are being roughly turned back at
the checkpoints and
denied entry. Media centers have been stormed and of course radio
and telephone lines
are
cut and stopped from broadcasting the atrocities taking place. Any
international media
able
to gain access have been shot at and only able to broadcast by
video-camera phone
as
all services are down. The pleas by the International Red Cross
asking to be able to
treat injured and collect the dead are being ignored by the Israeli
Occupation Authorities, in
particular the offices of Ariel Sharon. Hospitals are unable to
function to full capability as
no
electricity, water, or medical supplies can reach. “We have found
28 bodies of people
killed by Israelis and are burying them in the hospital garden and
parking lot as the Israeli
Occupation Forces are not allowing our ambulances to deliver the
bodies to the cemeteries
for
family burials,” reported the Ramallah Hospital spokesman, on only
the 2nd day of the
siege. The town morgue is overflowing with dead that have been able
to be delivered and
citizens are trying to locate reported mass graves done by the
Israeli’s in order to cover up
amount of dead. The air is hanging heavy with the smell of the
decomposing of the dead
bodies.
Until now, the count of the dead and injured is unknown, as the IOF
have illegally detained
many
youth, including young women in unknown locations or ‘detention
camps’. The siege
is
already past its 2nd week with President Arafat
surrounded, under threat of death by
Ariel Sharon’s orders. The complete infrastructure, water mains,
roads and highways,
schools, government buildings, electric power stations, banks,
private homes, and farms
have
been demolished to the point of the loss of countless lives and
incalculable monies.
International intervention will be needed to recompense victims as
nothing was done to
stop the refrain the Israeli Occupation Forces in
their massive destruction of Ramallah.
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