http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1136426,00.html
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
Sunday February 1, 2004
The Observer
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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