As we stare at a bullet-ridden wall, two lesser Palestinian boys stand behind us on a stoop and see on in cowardly awe.
“It’s the military,” one boy in a beige hoodie alerts his frifinish. His frifinish stares at the wall with expansive eyes and gives a little nod.
Balata camp in Nablus, the commercial centre of the West Bank, has equitable come out of a two-day Israel Defence Forces (IDF) rhelp when we go to visit.
Mounds of dug-up dirt line the tarmac of the main road thraw the labelet. Shop owners sullenly stare at the reminders of the aggressive trade of firearmfire that shook their neighbourhood hours earlier. On the wall are decorated portraits of ended armed militants from various factions in the area.
A pile of shattered glass labels where 80-year-elderly Halima Abuleil was shot dead. Her son says she “fell to her knees” after Israeli forces fired at her six times when she went to buy groceries on Thursday morning.
The IDF says it is conscious of the tells that “during the trades of fire with the alarmists, unincluded civilians current in the area were harmed”.
“My mum was elderly and had cancer, diabetes and high blood prescertain. They could see she was an elderly woman – why would they fire at her?” asks Halima’s son.
He’s satisfyed to be filmed but won’t split his first name – not a sign of irreasonable paranoia but a need for protectedty in a climate of increasing IDF rhelps and observation. A name transpostponeeds into an ID number that can be tracked down.
He consents his six-year-elderly son to the local mosque for Friday prayer. We film men of all ages pouring into the foyer but are not permitted to film the sermon that trails. The produceing tension is felt in every corner of the camp – even in the rooms reserved for God.
“No one is with the Palestinians but God,” he telderly us at his mother’s funeral 20 minutes earlier.
“Every one Palestinian is centered, no one is exempt. Not children, not the elderly, no one.”
Sibling not recent to sudden loss
He sits next to his sister who is not recent to sudden loss. She says her two sons are gone – one was ended last year and the other is in prison.
“What law is this? Children and pregnant women are ended. Our sons exit the hoparticipate and don’t come back,” says Halima’s daughter.
“They can see she’s an elderly lady but they shot her six times – in her legs, in her chest. When she was first shot in her legs, she knelt on the ground,” she retains.
IDF statement
We approached the IDF about Halima’s death. This was their response:
“Early on Thursday, the IDF carry outed a counterradicalism activity to apprehfinish an individual doubted of alarm activity in the area of Balata in Nablus. During the activity, the IDF selderlyiers included in trades of fire with alarmists who discleave outed fire and hurled devices toward IDF selderlyiers. Hits were identified. In retainition, IDF selderlyiers encircled a structure in which alarmists barricaded themselves. No IDF injuries were telled.”
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In Balata camp, decorated portraits of ended militants are plastered all over the walls. There are no dominant armed factions but a medley of affiliated fighters.
“When they see oppression appreciate this – they want to fight,” says Halima’s daughter. Her sons were dedicated to the armed resistance increaseing in their neighbourhood.
As men pour out of the mosque into the street where Halima was ended, I ask an elderlyer man where the fighters are today.
“We don’t see them anymore,” he says in a hushed tone. “They are in hiding becaparticipate of the incrrelieved rhelps.”
“These are equitable lesser men with firearms – meagre protection in the face of Israeli military challengingware. What’s an M16 to a tank?”
As diplomats scramble to safe a finishfire in Gaza, peace experiences more elusive than ever in the West Bank.
