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Posted on 2-2-2004
Israel's
'Execution' Troops Face Death Quiz
Conal Urquhart reports from Nablus on what the army says was an
anti-terrorist operation, but witnesses describe as cold-blooded killing
The Israeli army is under growing pressure to explain a series of deaths
of Palestinians in a three-week operation in the West Bank city of Nablus.
According to witnesses and medical evidence, at least two of the 19 deaths
during the operation have the hallmarks of executions.
The operation was launched on 16 December to track down Naif Sharekh, who
the army say was behind the movement of suicide bombers from Nablus to
Israel. The UN representative in the city described it as 'one of the
largest military operations in Nablus since Operation Defensive Shield
started in April 2002'.
By the time the army reduced its presence on 6 January, it had killed four
gunmen and 15 unarmed civilians including six children.
One Israeli and one Palestinian human rights group are investigating the
killings and want the army to launch its own inquiry, but it is reluctant.
Following the shooting of British student Tom Hurndall, 21, last year, it
insisted that its soldiers had shot an armed terrorist. Six months later,
following immense pressure from the Hurndall family, the army charged one
of its soldiers with unlawful killing.
Ala Dawaya, 21, was on his way to work as a baker when he was shot by
Israeli soldiers in the old town of Nablus on 18 December. An ambulance
was called and driver Adnan Soso arrived to see the wounded man sitting
upright and still alive a few metres from an army Jeep.
'I was called at around 3am to an area known as the onion market,' he
said. 'I got there within about three minutes and saw an injured man lying
against a wall within metres of an Israeli Jeep.'
He reversed to the end of the street, from where he could still see the
injured man and the Jeep. 'Then they started shooting at the man from the
Jeep. Every time they shot, the body moved and they waited then shot
again, sometimes twice. They shot him about ten times over several
minutes,' he said.
Eventually, the shooting stopped and the Jeep allowed the ambulance to
approach. 'The man was dead and both his eyeballs were hanging out. I
looked at what he had in the black plastic bag next to him. Trousers,
shoes and an overall, covered in flour. We put him on a stretcher and got
him into the ambulance.
'As we were about to pull away, the Jeep approached. The soldier said: 'Is
he dead?' He then asked what was in the bag and I showed him. He asked for
the dead man's identification card and spoke on the radio for a few
minutes. He then told us to take the body away.'
The ambulance took the body to Rafidia Hospital where it was examined by
Dr Samir Abu Zarour. Although not trained in post-mortems, he is the
closest thing to an expert in Nablus, having examined 250 shooting victims
in the past three years.
'He had been shot between eight and 10 times, including twice in the face
and once in the testicles, and had a series of fragmentation wounds in his
legs,' he said.
The army spokesman said that Nablus was under curfew at the time of the
shooting in order to separate civilians from terrorists.
'Soldiers identified a terrorist planting an explosive device in the road.
They shot him and when they examined the bag, it contained explosive
material, as suspected. They later discovered he was a member of Islamic
Jihad.' The spokesman denied soldiers had shot him several times.
On 7 January, as part of the same operation, a large number of troops
entered the al Makhsia neighbourhood around 3am, surrounded the house of
the Qassas family and ordered them to leave, according to Mofida Qassas.
'My father, my uncle and aunt and I had to leave, but they kept my four
brothers inside. The last time I saw Abdul he was tying his shoelaces
surrounded by Israeli soldiers,' she said.
Addul Qassas, 25, had returned to Nablus from Saudi Arabia two years ago
after learning to make curtains at a relative's business. His three
brothers were taken away by the Israelis. One remains in jail, but the
others were released. The soldiers searched the house, spraying some rooms
with bullets and a prolonged gun battle began outside. Witnesses were
unable to say what was happening because they were keeping their heads
down. Qassas was taken to the next door garden, where he was questioned.
Nobody saw what happened to him.
Amra Sadija, a secretary at the Palestinian Ministry of Education, said:
'The shooting was continuous for hours. Between 5am and 6am, I heard a man
screaming. He kept repeating: "I swear to God, I don't know who he is."
His voice was so high I could not recognise who it was. I could not tell
what happened to him because there was still shooting everywhere.
Eventually, everything went silent. At about 6am, I heard movement and at
6.30am the soldiers moved out.'
Neighbours found the body of Qassas metres from his home. Again the body
was taken to Rafidia Hospital and Dr Zarour. 'I was called at 6.45am and
arrived at the hospital 7am. Abdul Qassas had been shot twice, once
through the upper lip with the bullet leaving the body in the middle of
the back,' he said.
The bullet's trajectory suggested the victim was kneeling when he was
shot, said Zarour and the size of the wounds suggest it was fired from a
range of between three and five metres.
The army spokesman said soldiers spotted Qassas hiding and feared he was a
sniper: 'They began an arrest procedure, shouting at him in Arabic and
Hebrew. They fired warning shots. Then, fearing he was about to shoot,
they shot him. He was found to be unarmed, but the soldiers later found
out he was a wanted man.'
His family do not know why Abdul was shot, but it is possible the troops
suspected him of sheltering a man whose body was found in the same garden
that morning. Ibrahim Atawi, 32, was a senior figure in the al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade in Nablus.
It is not clear whether he was involved in the gunbattle or how he died.
Zarour said: 'His body was like a collander. I counted 15 bullet wounds of
different calibres and there could have been more. Three bullets were
fired directly at his nose. His right knee had been smashed to pieces. I
think it was with a rock because the injuries looked as if there had been
a grinding effect. Also his trousers were shredded around the knee and
there were bits of grass on his skin and in his flesh.'
His left arm had been cut twice with a knife and there were what looked
like dog bites on his arm and around his testicles. 'I do not have the
expertise to say if the wounds were administered before or after he was
shot,' he said.
The army spokesman said Atawi approached soldiers with a handgun. 'They
fired before he could shoot them. The gun was later found to be loaded.'
He denied Atawi had the injuries the doctor alleges.
The high number of deaths in Nablus over Christmas and their brutal nature
have largely been ignored by human rights groups and the media because
Nablus is isolated, but slowly people are beginning to pay attention.
Noam Hossfatter, a spokesman for B'tselem, an Israeli human rights group,
said they were examining Qassas' death with a view to pressing the army to
investigate: 'At the moment there is no eyewitness, so we cannot yet say
there was an execution but if someone was in custody and was then found
dead it would suggest something very unusual took place.'
Bassem Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group,
said his organisation's lawyer was expected to write to the Israeli
military attorney-general asking him to investigate.
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