I visited with a family in Nablus’ Balata refugee camp who awoke at 2 am to Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) soldiers’ firing from the street at the walls of their 3-story home. The November 7 IOF invasion of Balata left one two-story home destroyed by IOF-detonated explosions and another home damaged by random shooting and a grenade. Local sources further report that several homes in the camp were also invaded and ransacked by Israeli soldiers. Witnesses report up to 40 military vehicles having entered the camp, ending the siege with the detention of 25 Palestinians.

As with most of the homes throughout Balata, the family which I visited has suffered numerous IOF attacks over the years, evidenced by the grandmother’s testimony as well as the testimony of the walls themselves. The grandmother and one granddaughter pointed out deep pocket marks on the balcony off the living room, from the IOF shooting days before.

Similar bullet holes, even deeper, punctured the outer cement wall of a bedroom on the same side of the house. Off that wall, the balcony’s wrought iron railing was twisted, deformed from an IOF hand grenade tossed up from the road. The explosion further cut into the concrete side of the balcony.

Back inside the living room, a curtain pulled back from a window revealed a bathtub-sized hole in the neighbouring house wall, from 2002 IOF attacks. Aged newspaper stuffed into gaping holes in the wall betray further evidence of earlier Israeli attacks.

In addition to the collective punishment of the entire family, three of the grandsons have directly suffered at the hands of the IOF and the invasions. One grandson was imprisoned at 17.5 years old and kept for 1.5 years in administrative detention. This is a technical term for being kept in limbo, without being charged with anything. It is a form of detention which can last for years, the detained not even granted the basic rights prisoners are supposed to receive. The boy was finally released, still without charges. During his imprisonment, he was moved, suspected of being a leader in prison, and consequently kept for months in solitary confinement. When he was eventually brought before an Israeli court to again extend his administrative detention, even the judge saw the absurdity of his detention and thus, finally, ordered his release.

His younger brother walks with a limp, unable to completely bend one of his legs as the knee still suffers from being shot by an Israeli soldier years before, his entire leg bearing the marks of shrapnel wounds and broken bones from IOF shelling. A third grandson, arrested 17.5 years, is currently imprisoned for an unknown duration, accused of resistance activities.

Upstairs, the granddaughter pointed out where ISM activists had lived, where they’d stayed for years, a permanent presence which for one entire year served to prevent imminent demolition from IOF caterpillar bulldozers. One victory. At least 5 other homes that ISM activists were aware of were demolished in Israel’s ongoing policy of punishing families collectively for knowing or being related to Israel’s “wanted men.”

Buckling Walls and Homeless in the Rain

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, after 5 hours of searching and ransacking the house, the IOF exploded the back room of the ground floor, concurrently damaging two neighbouring houses’ walls, as well as the upper floor of the bombed house. The targeted home houses 15 family members, who are now homeless as a result of the collective punishment. They were lucky: they were herded out of the home at 12:30 am, at gunpoint, before the 5 am explosion which took out the bedroom and damaged the weight-bearing walls. The neighbours in the home 2 meters behind were still asleep when the bomb shattered their window and damaged their own wall.

The family, now staying in 3 different neighbours’ homes, have put up support poles in efforts to compensate for the weight-bearing walls which are buckling and cracked from the explosion. According to the family, it will cost a minimum of 30,000 JD [~=$42,355] to reconstruct the house. Appraising the 2nd floor rooms, also ransacked and damaged from the invading soldiers and explosion, the father admitted the house would likely have to be demolished and completely reconstructed.

The 30,000 JD to repair the house does not include the loss of furniture, appliances, belongings, all of which were either damaged and broken in the initial IOF ransacking or later demolition. The sons in the family work as laborers, taking what work they can get. Meeting their new financial demands will be a difficult task, one which they stand to bear alone.

The pretext for this collective punishment was the IOF hunt for one of the sons, 23, a student at university who has been wanted by Israel for the last 2.5 years for alleged resistance activity with Islamic Jihad.

This is the case with many such destroyed homes and collectively-punished families, as with the October 16th IOF invasion in a neighbourhood west of Nablus’ Old City, which ended with the assassination of three men –one a 70 year old resident at home at the time—and the damage and destruction to homes of numerous residents of the attacked area.

Upon leaving the Balata camp home destroyed three days ago, the owner similarly expressed his wish for the world to know, thanking me repeatedly for showing interest in his family’s loss.

His thanks echoed the sentiments of others I’ve met, who’ve suffered from too many IOF invasions and the destruction which comes with them.