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Israeli Forces choose their targets in Al-Bireh
On the roof of the National School For the Blind in Al Bireh, 9 year-old Israa Zeidan
tearfully recounted the horrific hour she and 74 other blind children spent jammed under a
stairwell seeking safety from Israeli machine gun and tank fire. “The loud noises of
bullets woke us up from our sleep, and we had to be taken out of our bedroom. I was
shouting while I was looking for my 6-year-old brother. I was freezing and scared and I
didn’t know what was happening because I can’t see and I couldn’t find my
brother. We were all bumping into each other and everyone was screaming”
Israa’s school is a boarding school that houses 75 blind children age 6-12 who come
from different areas of the West Bank to Al-Bireh for special instruction. Throughout the
current Intifada, these children have lived day in and day out with the sounds of Israeli
gunfire, but on 19 and 20 of February, Israeli forces stationed at the illegal settlement
of Pisagot, opened fire in the direction of the school, no more than one- half kilometre
away, for three hours. On Monday night, heavy machine gun fire sprayed the
windows and the walls, and on Tuesday night, a tank shell tore off a section of the roof,
heavily damaging the ceiling of the dormitory below where teachers had evacuated the
children only minutes before.
On the day we visited, the ceilings inside the dormitories were leaking due to structural
damage caused by the tank shell and machine gun fire, workmen on the roof were repairing
the bullet riddled water tanks, and the electricity wires cut by gunfire had yet to be
restored, leaving the school without heat and hot water. Downstairs, small children, both
boys and girls energetically banged away at Braille typewriters in a small classroom,
while in the corridor a large group of teenage girls sang a song about Salah Eh Din. The
children we saw in the classrooms and in the hallways giggled when they were told that we
were visiting, but their sad, tired and scared faces betrayed their giggles and you could
tell they knew what we had come to see.
Across the street, a school for boys and an adjacent Islamic college was also hit, though
fortunately it was shut for the night. Almost all the windows on one side of the building
were destroyed and the walls, bookcases and books were riddled with bullet holes. One
teacher showed us a book with a bullet lodged in it and a metal file cabinet that had been
shot through.
Another teacher showed us a plate piled high with whole and mashed bullets they had pried
from the walls. The teachers explained to us that the Israeli soldiers stationed on the
hill above this area know that there are schools and a Red Crescent hospital nearby. We
were also told that the Israeli’s know that one of these schools is a boarding school
for the blind.
Looking across the valley you can’t miss the settlement looming in the background
high above the residential area. While we talked on the roof of the Boy’s school, we
could see with our naked eyes the concrete bunkers erected by the military, and we watched
a military jeep and tank slowly making their rounds of the settlement’s perimeter.
The fact that the Israeli forces know exactly where and what they are shooting at was only
further illuminated during our visit to the Hayat Al- Jedeeda newspaper office several
blocks from the schools. Large windows that face the settlement surround the large single
story office building. From the office you can clearly see the military fortifications and
at night the office pressrooms are brightly lit up so that any one passing by can see
inside.
On February 12, at 8:00 in the evening, a staff member was sitting at his desk in front of
the wide windows that face the settlement, Just when he reached back to get the phone, a
single bullet, the only one fired that night at the building, penetrated the window and
shot across his chest, lodging in the wall next to him.
According the newspaper’s director, there are about 30 staff members who work the
night shift at the office and on Thursday February 15 at about 10:30 pm, Israeli forces at
Pisagot opened fire on the main pressroom. According to one staff member, they all ran for
cover into another room but were again fired upon. As they fled from room to room,
they were fired upon
directly and according the staff, systematically.
As we walked from room to room, it was easy to discern the path of machine gun fire. On
one side of the building, there are two offices next to one another with large windows
facing the settlement. One office window is in direct view of the settlement, but a
concrete pillar and part of the outside wall obscures the second one. Thinking that they
were safe in the second office, the staff ran for cover, but was again directly fired upon
from the direction of the settlement. Several single shots penetrated the window one
after the other, each making its way through a 4-foot wide gap between the wall and the
pillar outside. When we asked about this rather amazing shot, staff members reiterated
what we have heard many times before. The Israeli forces are armed with highly
sophisticated weapons, including night vision equipment, high-powered binoculars and laser
guided sniper rifles. They are also stationed above the cities of Al Bireh and Ramallah
and have a clear view of the areas below the settlement.
From our visit, several unshakable facts were highlighted. First, the Israeli forces are
indiscriminately targeting residential areas, hospitals and schools that are in full view
of their outposts. Second, these soldiers are armed with highly sophisticated weapons that
allow for full sight even at night and are excessive even in the face of a random shot
fired by a lone gunman. Third, these forces are also using this heavy ammunition against
boarding schools and fully staffed offices, and in the case of the Al Hayat
al Jedeeda office, they are discriminately targeting civilians.
Source: www.palestinemonitor.org
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