Monday, July 26, 2004

The IDF sends troops into Bayta nr. Nablus, sparking stone-throwing, then firing on protesters, wounding 1; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis (fatally shooting an 11-yr.-old Palestinian girl in the courtyard of her home and wounding 3 others, including a farmer in a field 300 m away), Rafah; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah. The IDF also beats, detains an off-duty but uniformed Palestinian paramedic attempting to aid an ailing Palestinian in a broken-down taxi outside Nablus; the International Comm. of the Red Cross intervenes to secure his release. Elsewhere in the West Bank, an IDF soldier severely beats in the head with his rifle butt a Palestinian student who steps out of line at a checkpoint; Israeli women volunteering with Checkpoint Watch peace group intervene, saving his life. (VOI 7/26 in WNC 7/28; PM 7/27; VOI 7/27 in WNC 7/29; PR 7/28; MM, PCHR 7/29)