Rafah: Activists Sleep in Threatened Houses

Rafah: Activists Sleep in Threatened Houses / Youth Murdered in Home

Residents of the area near Saleh e-Deen Street in Rafah began evacuating their neighbourhood today in response to a series of home demolitions carried out in the area by Israeli occupying forces. Also today at 3 pm a Palestinian policeman was shot and wounded through the window of his office by soldiers stationed in the Saleh e-Deen tower of the Apartheid Wall.

To protect the remaining homes from demolition five ISM activists (from the US and the UK) will be sleeping in two houses of the neighbourhood to protect the families still residing in them.

At 6 pm this evening all but two of the activists were called away from the Saleh e-Deen area to Tel e-Sultan when the residents of the area were fired upon from a tower at the Al Mawasa Checkpoint and a tank that drove along the Shareh Nusf road firing into their homes. Eleven people were wounded in the attack. The ISM were summoned because the ambulances that had been sent to rescue the wounded were being fired upon and so could not reach them.

By the time the activists arrived, however, the tank had left the area and the ambulances were allowed to retrieve the wounded.

For Ahmad Abu Elwan the ambulances arrived too late and he died of his wounds. Ahmad was 13 years old. He was shot through the back by a bullet that entered through the window of his house.

Susan Barclay to be Released on Bail

This afternoon Susan Barclay was granted her appeal to be released on bail. A friend of her family is raising the bond of $15,000 for her release and has informed the ISM that he expects her to be released in the next 48 hours.

Susan was arrested at Howarra Checkpoint outside of Nablus last Thursday. She has been working as a human rights activists in Occupied Palestine for more than six months. The Ministry of the Interior has cited security as the reason for her arrest and impending deportation.

Susan has been given until March 10 to leave the country. The ISM is uncertain as to whether she intends to appeal against her deportation since we have been denied any contact with her since her arrest.

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