The ‘break’ didn’t last long. Last night at 2am the soldiers came back to the old city. This morning at 6:30 am we were woken up by a call from our coordinator in Askar and told that the military was rounding up men in the refugee camp. By the time we reached the premises of the UNRWA Askar Girl’s School, some 1,000 men between the ages of 16-40 had been rounded up and detained by the IDF in overcrowded school rooms or outside in the sun. Familiar scenes, cramped premises, men hooded and shackled on the grounds of a UN facility – with no UN staff around. Razor wire dividing the playground with soldiers milling about the area. We manage to negotiate the right for family members to bring food, water and medicines to the detained men – but in other areas of the camp we’re unable to prevent the house-to-house searches, home occupations, beatings and general property destruction perpetrated against the Palestinian refugees.

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One family reported 300 NIS stolen, most houses the soldiers entered were trashed in the same way those in El-Ein and the Old City have been in the last few days. In one house, where the soldiers found a Kalashnikov, a woman was hit repeatedly by soldiers when she refused to disclose who the weapon belonged to. Attack dogs were unleashed in many houses, and of course the customary doses of rubber bullets, tear gas and live rounds were deployed. The pattern of arrests, mass arbitrary detentions, systematic house-to-house searches and human rights abuses disconcerting. And yet when I attempted to speak to the UN Operations Officer for the West Bank, I was met with the customary range of platitudes and excuses. It seems that the use of UNRWA premises for the detention of men didn’t warrant an official statement to date from the UN officials responsible for overseeing the camps. Silence in this case looks to me to be incredibly close to complicity in this case. For more photos of the actions click here, here, and here. An ISM Media Office report on the incident is reproduced below:

ACTION ALERT:  

MASS DETENTION and ABUSE of PALESTINIAN MEN in U.N. SCHOOL URGE UNITED NATIONS (UNRWA) TO DEMAND THEIR RELEASE CONTACT ISRAELI OFFICIALS AND ISRAELI DCO

Contact information below
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Mass Detention in UNRWA School

*Israeli Army Round up of 1000 Men of Askar Refugee Camp in Nablus
*Israeli Soldiers Beat Pregnant Woman; Threaten with Attack Dogs
*Swedish National Detained; Targeting of Internationals by Israeli Army

In Askar Camp, this morning,  the UPMRC and International Solidarity Movement, (ISM),  activists witnessed Palestinian men between the ages of 16 and 40 being rounded-up by the Israeli army.  They were taken to the UNRWA school in the camp and are held in the classrooms. Similar mass detention and abuse was documented by ISM activists last week in El Ein Camp.

ISM activists attempted to enter the school and assess the
condition  of the detainees.  The were able to bring food and water to a few of the detained men after negotiating entrance with the Israeli soldiers. However, at 8:00a.m. a Swedish National and a Palestinian ISM Coordinator were detained.  

The Swedish national was last seen hand-cuffed and blind-folded and being taken away in a military transport truck.  The Palestinian ISM Coordinator has been detained along with the hundreds of other detained men in the UNRWA school.  In addition, at 2:00pm the Israeli army targeted another ISM coordinator but did not manage to arrest him as a group of ISM activists surrounded and protected him with their bodies.

Also in Askar Refugee Camp three homes have been occupied by the Israeli army.  In one home Israeli soldiers beat two Palestinian women, one who is seven months pregnant.  ISM activists managed to enter the home of the two women and verified that the pregnant woman had been badly beaten and in was in shock.  The second woman had been hit in the chest with a gun and threatened with an attack dog the size of a German Shepard.  Both women are traumatized and sustained injuries.  The two are awaiting ambulances.

At 1:30a.m., International Solidarity Movement activists witnessed Israeli army tanks surrounding the Old City of Nablus.  Israeli military jeeps are patrolling the center of the old city.  The Israeli army continues house to house searches, occupation of homes and destruction of property.  

For photos of the detentions and mass round-ups see:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/ismphotos.php

The school where the hundreds of men are being held is run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA. Please contact their offices and strongly urge them to call the Israeli DCO and the Minister of Interior and protest the detention and abuse of Palestinian men in their schools.

UNRWA Office information:

General Commissoner:  Peter Hansen
Tel:  972-8-6777-333
Fax:  972-8-6777-555
Officier in Charge:  Paul McCann
Tel:  972-8-6777-526
Fax:  972-8-6777-697
e-mail:  p.mccann@unrwa.org

West Bank Field:

Director Richard Cook
Tel.  972-2-589-0400
Fax:  972-2-532-2714

UNRWA Media and Communications:  Sami Mshasha
Tel:  972-2-589-0408
e-mail:  s.mshasha@unrwa.org

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Please call, fax or e-mail the following Government officials. Also call the DCO,(District Coordinating Office), of the Israeli army and pressure them to release the detained men and to stop targeting internationals:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
Fax: +972 2 6705475
Telex: 25279 MPRES IL
E-mail: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister

Spokesperson of the Prime Minister <dover@pmo.gov.il>
Foreign Minister Silwan Shalom sar@mofa.gov.il
Fax: 011-972-2-530-3367
Email: sar@mfa.gov.il

Minister of Interior: Avraham Poraz
(fax: +972-2-5666376)(fax: 972-2-6701628)(fax: 972-2-6701585)
Email: sar@moin.gov.il


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Israeli Army Telephone Numbers in Nablus:

country code: 972

IDF DCO Nablus 2 5486301 and 2 5486302 and Ofer Mey 56-234017

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<>UPDATE: The detained men were released at about 5:30 pm. About a dozen were taken in for further questioning at the Huwara military base. The detained ISM coordinator was released, although the Swedish national Bjorn Boman was arrested and taken to Ariel Police Station. The next day he was given the choice between facing house arrest in Tel Aviv or in Ariel. Bjorn chose to take the quickest flight out of the country and is now recovering in Sweden from the ordeal. In recent days two activists who were detained by the Israeli military in Balata on August 21st described their ordeals. Their testimonies can be found here and here.