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I
live in the a-Sheikh Msalam neighborhood in the eastern part of
Nablus. I have four children, 'Imad (17), 'Ahed (12), 'Abid (8) and
Amir (4). My husband was killed by Israeli soldiers on Thursday 4
March, 2002, when the Israeli army invaded Nablus for the first
time. He was killed in the old city of Nablus. He used to work as a
security guard at the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent
Society.
On Thursday, 6 March, 2003, around 03:00 P.M., I left the high
school where I teach. This is a high school for the invalid located
in the Red Crescent headquarters. I went in the direction of my
sister-in-law's house, Fatina Quni. Her house is about 30 meters
from mine. My children were with her at her house. On the way,
neighbors told me that Israeli soldiers were in our neighborhood, so
I decided to go get my children and take them home. When I got to
the alleyway leading to my house, I saw three Israeli soldiers
standing near the front door. I was about ten meters away from them,
when one of the soldiers shouted at me in Arabic: “Go home!” I told
the soldiers that this was my home and that I wanted to go inside.
As I was talking to him, I heard a loud explosion inside my
neighbor's house, Rafik Abu al-Kalabat. It was a very strong
explosion. The windows in the neighbors' houses shattered. My
children and I retreated a little. My daughter, 'Ahed, went into
convulsions. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth was gaping and the
muscles in her hands kept contracting. She was afraid of the
soldiers standing at the entrance to our house. The other children
fled back in the direction of Fatina's house.
I took 'Ahed to Fatina's house, and began rubbing her hands until
she was back to normal. I spent the night at Fatina's place, because
my children were really scared and refused to go back home. Around
11:00 P.M., as I was standing next to the window trying to make out
what was going on in the neighborhood, I saw the neighbors'
daughter, Yusra with some Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were
standing behind the door of the neighbors' houses. I saw Yusra
knocking on the door of Marwan Calbuna's house, an old man who lives
with his wife. Afterwards, Yusra left. I saw the soldiers going to
Ragheb al-Khariz' house. They blew the door open and went inside. I
saw them leave the house with Ragheb al-Khariz. His eyes were
covered and his hands were tied.
Then I saw them go to 'Amer 'Awad's house. He'd recently got married
and lives with his wife. I saw 'Amer leaving with the soldiers and
heading in the direction of the house of another neighbor, 'Ala'a
Nazal. Then the soldiers covered Amer's eyes and tied his hands. 'Ala'a
Nazal lives with his wife, two children (a daughter of three and a
son of two), mother and 27-year-old brother who suffers from
retardation. I saw the soldiers go into 'Ala'a's house and then saw
Ala'a knocking on the door to my house.
Then, they tied his hands and blew open the main door to the house.
It didn't work. The door stayed in its place. The soldiers left my
house and went to the house of Muhammad Mubsalat, who lives with his
wife, and his two year old son. saw the soldiers apprehending
Muhammad Mubsalat and leading him between the house in the
neighborhood. They vanished from my sight.
At around 02:30 A.M., Friday 7 March, 2003, I went to sleep. At
around 08:00 A.M., I heard a loud explosion close by. I stood close
to the window to see what was going on in the neighborhood and I saw
smoke rising from the western end of my house. I decided to go to my
house with the keys to open the door for the soldiers, because I was
afraid they would try to blow it up again. I arrived at my house and
started to knock on the door from the outside. I was afraid that the
soldiers inside would fire at me. At the same time, one of the
soldiers came out of the alleyway next to my house and shouted at
me: “Go Home”. I told him this was my home. As I was talking to him
I heard soldiers speaking Hebrew inside the house. I began to shout
and cry. I told the soldier, "Don't destroy my house. I'll open the
door for you. Here, take the keys". The soldier refused to take the
keys. I didn't know how the soldiers got in the house. As I was
standing opposite the door, a soldier came from alleyway. He was
holding a 20 liter bucket. The soldier poured out the contents of
the bucket in the alleyway and an unpleasant smell wafted from it,
like the smell of gunpowder. Smoke was coming out of it too. I got
nauseous when I smelled it. I walked back about ten meters in the
direction of the main road where an ambulance was passing by. The
men inside saw me. They pulled over, came up to me and gave me
oxygen. When I felt better, they left.
I decided to go back home. Before I got there, I heard a loud
explosion in the kitchen, which is in the eastern part of the house.
I gathered that the soldiers were blowing up the houses from inside.
This was around 09:00 A.M. I didn't go into the house. I went back
to my sister-in-law, Fatina's house. When I got there, I broke down
in tears because of the house I had lost. At around noon, I heard
another explosion close to my home. The explosion was in my
neighbor, 'Omar Tufaha's house. It's close to my house. At around
01:00 P.M., I decided to go up to my place and when I got there, I
found a yellow piece of plastic under the outer door. I think it was
left over from the bomb the soldiers used to blow up the door. I was
afraid to open the door. I didn't hear soldiers inside the house. I
went back to the street and asked some of the passersby to help me
open the door.
They helped me open the door and when I went in I saw a horror. My
house has two floors. On the first floor there is a living room and
a kitchen and on the second floor there are two bedrooms and a
toilet. In the center of the living room, which was completely
destroyed, there were some big rocks. The furniture in the room had
also been destroyed. I found a broken picture of my husband with
boot prints on it. I found an opening in the western wall of the
room. When I went to the kitchen all I found was pieces of the
fridge, the washing machine and the oven. All the appliances in the
kitchen had been destroyed and burnt in the fire. I have to mention
that I rent this house. It's an old building. The explosion in the
kitchen exposed an old room behind the southern wall which had been
closed from all directions. When we brought the 83- year-old
landlady to take a look, she told us that she had never seen that
room before. When I went up to the second floor, I found that the
two rooms had been completely destroyed. The television set had been
destroyed and the children's' books had been torn. Today, my
children and I are homeless.
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