CPTnet
September 23, 2003
HEBRON: CPT delegation documents human rights violations near destroyed
building

by Maia Williams

The Israeli army entered the Zeyad Fakhouri's apartment building on
September 9, broke windows, furniture, and tables, ordered Fakhouri and his
family out of the building and kept them locked out of their home for six
and a half hours before allowing them to enter again.

In the meantime, the army shelled the eight-story building next door until
they flattened it.

The Israeli army returned the next day at 5 am and ordered the Fakhouri
family out of the building for several hours. Fakhouri told the CPT
delegation that the Israeli army cars arrive every night and park at the
corner of the building for fifteen minutes, sometimes shooting at their
rooms. The army also has damaged their neighbors' home, breaking out
windows, destroying furniture and shooting at the building.

Fakhouri's son was Fadi Fakhouri, who was killed by the Israeli army after
he and three friends shot four settlers in Kiryat Arba settlement last June.
Fakhouri questioned why the Army had damaged his building, since already
they had demolished the homes of his son and the others, and arrested two
men and three women accused of being involved in the settlement shooting.

"The actions of the Israeli army are criminal," Fakhouri said. "This is not
international law. This is terrorism."

Twelve Red Cross tents now shelter some of the families made homeless by the
demolition of the building next door. The Israeli attack killed an 11
year-old boy, Thayer Soury, and wounded a 13-year old girl. Basin Dajani, a
young father, suffered bullet wounds to the neck and head. He is still
hospitalized but in good condition, according to a neighbor. His wife is
expecting their second child. Also living in the apartment building were
Nasir and Sayid Aboufeni and their eight daughters, the youngest of which
was fifteen days old at the time of the attack.

The Israeli army started firing into the apartment building without
evacuating the families. After they fled the building, the families asked
if they could re enter to retrieve their identification cards, marriage
certificates, and other essentials, while the building was still standing.
The soldiers refused to allow them back in and destroyed the building with
tank shells.

"We spent all of our savings on these homes," said Sabroua Abrouzani, a
fifty-year-old Palestinian woman who now lives in a Red Cross tent with her
sick husband, her sixteen-year-old daughter, and her sons. "We don't have
our money, our gold," she said. Then pointing to the black dress she was
wearing, she said "This is all I have." The children are traumatized by
this attack, she said, and are afraid to go to school.