Dear All,
Below is a follow-up relating to the shooting of Miras Al-Azza on Friday, 8
December. Soldiers came to Miras' house in the middle of the night on
Friday, 15 December (see the description of events below written by his
father, Nidal Al-Azza) apparently looking for the machine gun. Attached are
also photos of the damage caused to the house by the "search" of the
soldiers. Nidal will also soon send you photos of the bullet holes.
We were wondering if there is anything UNRWA or OCHA can do to protect this
family from such harassment and intimidation, especially the children? Has
the Israeli army provided you with any official explanation on the cause of
the shooting. Nidal is thinking to pursue the matter in court and would need
your help.
You can contact Nidal at: media@badil.org or 277-7086.
All the best,
Karine
Summary of latest event - Search of the house of Miras' family in the middle
of the night, Aida Camp.
by Nidal al-Azza
Friday, 15 December 2006
In the night of Thursday to Friday on 15 December, between 3:30 to 3:40am,
more than 50 Israeli soldiers surrounded Al-Azza family in Aida camp. They
knocked the door strongly and shouted loudly "open the door quickly …"
Nidal and his brother Said woke up. Nidal reached the door first and opened
it. Immediately, they asked him: "Whats your name?" He replied "Nidal Al-
Azza." One of the soldiers took him by the neck and pulled him outside. Nidal
pushed the soldier's hands and shouted "What is going here?" The Israeli
commander interfered and told the soldier to leave him and asked: "Who is
living on the third floor?" "My brother and I" Nidal answered. The commander
said, "Call your brother." Said, Nidal's brother, was standing at the
entrance of the house and said: "I am here, what do you want?" The commander
replied: "Get everybody out of the house, bring them here quickly." Said
replied "they are just children and that they are in deep sleep." The
commander replied: "I said now." Said went up to his apartment. Twenty
soldiers entered the house, one group of soldiers followed Said and another
entered Nidal's apartment, while the others were watching and surrounding the
house. The commander was connected directly to someone in Rachel Tomb. The
one in Rachel Tomb's directed them to the floor, to the balcony and to the
doors and windows shot last Friday, 8 December and during which Nidal's son,
Miras, was shot and injured.
The soldiers searched Said's apartment and turned it upside down. Said asked
"What are you looking for?" The commander replied: "We need the gun machine!"
Said told him that there was no gun machine. The commander said to Said "Come
with me" and went with Said to the balcony where Miras got shot last Friday,
8 December. Meanwhile, soldiers noticed a closed wooden door and started
breaking it, Suheir, Said's wife, told them "I will bring you the key," but
before she had time to finish her sentence, the door was broken. This door
connects the two rooms in Nidal's apartment to Said's apartment.
The commander pointed to the bullets holes and asked Said: "Where do these
holes come from?" Said: "You are a soldier and can determine the direction…
you shot them." The commander replied: "OK, and why did we shot them ?" Said:
"Do not ask me ..ask yourself." He repeated the question and Said told him to
ask the soldier who shot the kids while they were playing. The commander
ordered Said to raise his clothes. They wanted to check if Said had been
shot…and then asked the family to keep quiet inside their apartment.
The commander then went to Nidal's apartment, which was also turned upside
down by the soldiers. He called Nidal to go up to the two bedrooms on the
third floor and asked: "Where do these holes come from?" Nidal replied: "You
shot the kids while they were playing on the balcony and inside their
bedrooms." He said "No" then he said "Well, why?" Nidal responded: "Ask
yourself or the soldier who shot them" and continued, "Are you the one who
was on the tower and shot the kids that day?" The commander was surprised and
shocked, and immediately replied: "NO..NO I was not there!" Nidal continued :
"What are you looking for?" The commander: "The gun." Nidal: "Why did you not
bring your well trained dogs to determine where the gun is?" The commander
looked to Nidal for a while, and said, "We do not need them…next time we will
bring them!"
The commander went down, and moved through the house, then asked Nidal: "Do
you have a camera?" Nidal replied: "Yes, and I took photos of the bullets
holes, and I will take photos of what you did tonight." The commander asked:
"For what purpose?" Nidal: "I am going to sue you, you will see the photos in
court."
The commander and two other soldiers saw Miras laying on his bed, he was awake
and his mother, Afaf was sitting next to him. Afaf moved his bed in the
living room because friends came to visit Miras, and also because she
discovered that it is the only place from which he can only be seen by one
military tower, making it relatively safer. The commander and the two
soldiers stood in front of Miras' bed for two minutes, watching him,
speechless. They left at 4.50 a.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment