First of all, to be honest, I didn’t expect people to reply [to my first message]. But the replies are very important, especially now, because they’re not only for me - I’ve been calling friends and telling them about your support. This support is so important. We live in a prison and feel like we are so alone here so it’s very encouraging to have such replies.
In general, the past two days have been the same as before and worse. There are very heavy clashes in Jenin. They are calling men from 16-40 to go out. In Bethlehem there are many people dead and injured that the ambulances cannot reach. Also today the Israelis also entered Nablus. So by now they’ve entered almost all the West Bank and now they say Gaza will be next.
Today is exactly one week since they entered Ramallah.
For one week people have been imprisoned in their homes. All kinds of life has stopped.
There’s a serious problem with water now, especially in Ramallah. For the past 2 days there has been no water at all in some areas because [the Israeli army] hit a main water distribution system in Ramallah.
There are food shortages too. For so many people the food in their homes is finished. This is especially bad for kids. There is a serious lack of milk, people need milk urgently. These are basic needs.
The last time the Israelis lifted the curfew on Ramallah was 3 or 4 days ago, but actually no-one really trusted it because the people were so scared. And the shops were already closed. So people only went out in the last half hour because they thought it was a game and the Israelis would arrest people. So far there are more than 700 or 800 people arrested in Ramallah. We know that some of them are injured because they were arrested from the Ra’a hospital in Ramallah. So we don’t know if they’ve received the medical treatment they need.
And it’s so cold here now. And people are running out of gas for their heaters.
The electricity has been out in some areas for a week. In other areas in comes and goes. And they can’t fix it because [Palestinian workers] can’t go out into the streets.
I feel so frustrated and so angry. I don’t want to say hopeless, but useless. We have been disconnected from the outside world.
My whole family have been in the house all week. Everyone has been with their families except the people like students who live away from the families. But it’s very boring. Our life has totally stopped. There’s no compensation for all this.
We can’t even go to the windows to look outside because there are Israeli snipers in all the buildings and if they see anything moving they just shoot so it’s very dangerous. We can’t even be in some areas in the house. We can’t go onto the front porch, for example. Yesterday, my Mom was taking the clothes off the line outside and a sniper started shouting at her to go inside or he would shoot…
So I’ve been doing some reading and speaking to people on the phone. Of course I can only speak to the people whose phones are still working, but we are trying to talk to each other and give support to each other.
The last two days the Israeli soldiers were in my area. About 5 hours ago they entered one of my neighbor’s houses and arrested all four sons. No-one knows where they went. I spoke to their parents. The mother said that when the Israelis took her sons she tried going into the street to talk to the soldiers and to give her sons their jackets because it’s so cold. But the soldiers wouldn’t let her. She’s going crazy. She doesn’t know what to do, who to speak to, who to call…
I want to say something about the issue of the media.
The Western media, especially in the USA, is very biased and doesn’t tell the truth at all. It doesn’t say what’s happening in reality and on the ground. We have to change this attitude the media.
Also, it’s clear that without the green light from the US government, Sharon wouldn’t be able to do what he’s doing. Especially now, because the whole world is asking him to withdraw and it doesn’t matter because the US government has given him a green light to do what he wants.
Palestinians are paying the price for 10 years of useless negotiations which did not get the minimum rights for the Palestinian people.
The world must understand that this is not Afghanistan. Sharon keeps comparing himself to Bush and saying that Bush is fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. Sharon wants to show that he’s fighting terrorism in the same way. This is ridiculous. This is a war against civilians, against innocent people.
People have to distinguish between resistance and terrorism. We never agreed with Bin Laden and El Qa’eda. We are against the terrorism.
We are the indigenous people in this land and we are fighting for our land. We are fighting for our freedom.
