Israel wird tatsälich ein NATO Mitglieder geworden
96 Palestinians wounded by live, rubber bullets
At least 96 Palestinians have been wounded by live rounds or rubber-coated steel bullets in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers since Saturday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Dr. Abed Rabbo Manasra told Ma'an late on Sunday that 28 Palestinians had been shot with live rounds, while at least 68 were hit with rubber-coated steel bullets.
The 96 were among at least 220 Palestinians to have been injured during the clashes, Manasra said, with others suffering excessive tear gas inhalation or beatings by soldiers or settlers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent earlier on Sunday declared a state of emergency across the occupied Palestinian territory following an upsurge in violence by Israeli soldiers and settlers, including 14 attacks on its own ambulance crews.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767985
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Wanted for War Crime: Killer of Hadil al-Hashlomon
Thank you to Shaul Hanuka for his wonderful work creating this wanted poster featuring the killer of Palestinian student, Hadil al-Hashlomon. http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/09/24/murder-on-shuhada-street/ I appeal once again for any Israelis who know this person to step forward and name him. He deserves to be held accountable for what Amnesty International has called an extrajudicial execution. Please circulate this poster online everywhere you can.
At least 499 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers across the occupied Palestinian Territory since Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Monday.
Spokesperson Errab Foqoha told Ma'an that at least 41 Palestinians had been shot with live rounds, while 143 were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets.
She said that some 297 Palestinians had suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while another 18 were injured when they were physically assaulted.
Israeli forces have also killed two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, in fierce clashes that have swept across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Friday.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768009
Video: Death-chanting Israeli mob rejoices as Palestinian teen is executed
Israeli authorities claimed that 19-year-old Fadi Samir Alloun was killed after a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli teenager. They presented no evidence connecting Alloun to the alleged stabbing.
But videos posted online show that the youth was executed in cold blood as he was chased by a mob of Israeli Jews baying for his blood.
As the video above begins, voices can be heard in Hebrew shouting apparently at police Shoot him! Hes a terrorist! Shoot him! and Dont wait! Shoot him!
Israeli authorities on Monday night said they would not be handing over the body of 19-year-old Fadi Alloun to relatives, despite having agreed to do so earlier that day, a human rights lawyer told Ma'an.
Alloun was shot dead by Israeli forces after he allegedly attempted to stab a 16-year-old Israeli in East Jerusalem on Sunday.
Mohammad Mahmoud, a lawyer with human rights group Addameer, told Ma'an that Israeli intelligence had informed him that the body of Alloun would not be handed to his family due to security concerns and recent clashes in East Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood, where he was planned to be buried.
Mahmoud added that another date had not been set to release the body.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli authorities said the body would only be released on condition that no more than 70 Palestinians attend the funeral.
Israeli authorities demanded that Alloun's family pay a guarantee of 20,000 shekels ($5,200), which would have been refunded if the condition was met.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768012
Israeli army says killing of 13-year-old Palestinian a 'mistake'
Senior Israeli army officials said Tuesday that the killing of 13-year-old Abed al-Rahman Obeidallah in Aida refugee camp was a "mistake," although conflicting accounts have been reported about the circumstances of the shooting.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768043
In photos: Funeral of 13-year-old Palestinian shot by Israeli forces
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768031
Clashes break out after 13-year-old's funeral in Bethlehem, 10 injured
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768026
Over 129 Palestinians injured in latest clashes, medics say
Over 129 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers on Tuesday across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Red Crescent and Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health said.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768039
Netanyahu better not disturb the status quo
......Awad argues that Palestinians are no longer sure what they need to shake off first. Is it the larger occupation, the individual miseries they endure from the settlers and army, or the Palestinian leaders, who have achieved so little for them?
Jerusalem-based analyst Jeff Halper points to the Palestinians mounting hopelessness, describing current events as a kind of lashing out. Palestinians see no political process. They are being locked into their prison cells. They feel they have nothing to lose.
Until now, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is committed to enforcing security in the islands of West Bank territory it ostensibly controls, has mostly succeeded in preventing the protests from spreading to the Palestinian cities.
But the PAs ability to contain these frustrations are in doubt, observes Halper, given that they already suffer from a massive credibility problem among Palestinians.
Israel, Mahmoud Abbas join forces against Palestinian protests
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has called on Palestinians to avoid an escalation with Israel in statements confirming that for now he will continue his role as a subcontractor of the occupation.
We do not want a military or security escalation between us and them, Abbas told a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee in Ramallah on Tuesday.
All of our instructions to our security agencies, organizations, youth and people are that we do not want escalation, but we want to defend ourselves, Abbas said.
What is occurring now in occupied Palestine the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza Strip reiterates the equation of the dumb political mind behind the racial and cultural status of Israel's colonial control. This equation, grounded in the idea that the Arabs understand only the language of force, adds that what is not understood with force will certainly be understood with yet more force. http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1051-stupidity-of-force-in-the-face-of-resistance
Palestinian struggle irrevocably altered
Is a new intifada breaking out? Palestinian commentators are united that regardless of the name, the Palestinian struggle has been irrevocably altered. http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1052-palestinian-struggle-irrevocably-altered
This video shows Israeli undercover forces invading a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus early on Sunday morning and kidnapping a Palestinian patient.
NY Times Botches Reporting on Israeli Police Execution
Yesterday, http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/10/05/jerusalem-descends-into-blood-lust/ I reported on the police execution of East Jerusalem Palestinian teenager, Fadi Alloun, outside the Old City. I noted the false reporting of the Jerusalem Post which stated that the police saw him holding a knife and neutralized him. There has been no supporting reporting in the Israeli media confirming this.
Now the international newspaper of record, the NY Times, gets in on the act. In Diaa Hadids report tonight, instead of focusing on his murder, she focuses on a supposed disagreement between villages and political factions about where he should be buried. The title of her story: Dispute Over a Burial Reveals Palestinian Divisions. Instead of focusing on the real news story of the video showing a flagrant execution, she invents a dispute purporting to show the Palestinian national movement in disarray.
Shabak Arrests 20 Year-Old Israeli Palestinian for Facebook Posts http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/10/07/shabak-arrests-20-year-old-israeli-palestinian-for-facebook-posts/
Jerusalem Descends into Blood Lust
Israel is not a normal country. It is not a western country. It is not a democratic country. It is a country seeped in blood. A country where the hounds bay for fresh blood. The blood of Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Yesterday and the day before it was the blood of four Jewish settlers murdered in the Occupied Palestine. A couple driving their car through the West Bank were shot to death and two rabbis associated with ethnic cleansing group, Ateret Cohanim, were stabbed to death there. Today, it is the blood of a Palestinian teenager, Fadi Alloun, hunted like a dog by an Israeli mob who suspected him of stabbing a Jewish settler teen, whod been attacked near the Old City in Occupied East Jerusalem. The stabbing happened in the Musrara neighborhood and the stabbing happened near the Damascus Gate, which are in the same general vicinity.
Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives; Israel Is Fighting for the Occupation
That we notice theres a war on only when Jews are murdered does not cancel out the fact that Palestinians are being killed all the time , and that all the time we are doing everything in our power to make their lives unbearable.
The Palestinian security forces have been making enormous efforts to improve their reputation within Palestinian society. A number of news websites just reported that national security forces stopped Israeli soldiers from arresting a few minors who had thrown rocks at a military position in eastern El Bireh. All Palestinian media outlets publish the phone numbers of the Palestinian security liaison committee, in the event of assaults by or other problems with settlers the incidence of which indeed increased over the long holiday weekend. And in certain cities, Palestinian security forces stopped forming a barrier between angry young Palestinians and Israel Defense Forces positions, and also stopped using the not-unreasonable excuse that they feared for their lives.
Mehr ... htz.li/3y8
PA at odds with Palestinians as West Bank protests escalate
The fierce clashes that have swept the occupied West Bank over the past week, injuring over 900 Palestinians, have revealed a contradiction in the Palestinian Authoritys claim to represent the Palestinian people.
While President Mahmoud Abbas has called for a political solution through peaceful means and nothing else, a poll last month showed that most Palestinians now view an armed intifada, or uprising, as the only route to change.
The future is black, said Layla, a resident of al-Azzeh refugee camp in Bethlehem, where large numbers of youths have clashed with Israeli soldiers in recent days.
She can recall the devastation of the last intifada -- which most Palestinians believe achieved little -- but said a new uprising was now the only means to end Israels nearly 50-year military occupation.
If there was leadership, there would be no intifada, she said, But there is no leadership.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768091
14 Palestinians killed, 1,000 injured since Oct. 1
Fourteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and around 1,000 injured with live and rubber-coated steel bullets in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since Oct. 1, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Friday.
By the end of the day on Friday alone, seven Palestinians were killed and around 200 injured with live and rubber-coated steel bullets, while seven suffered from bruises after being physically assaulted by Israeli forces in clashes across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768131
Video: Israel plants armed stone throwers among Palestinian protesters
Video: Palestinian woman shot after alleged stab attack in Afula
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768112
Video: Palestinian escapes unharmed as Israeli jeep runs him over
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768119
Palestinian women of the Third Intifada
Thousands of Palestinian youth are resisting Israeli forces all across the occupied territories, calling for a Third Intifada.
As before, Palestinian youth from both genders have taken to the streets to participate in sit-ins and demonstrations, as well as collide with the Israeli security forces.
Hundreds of Palestinian women resisted along with Palestinian men throughout clashes at Al-Balou neighborhood near Beit-El settlement.
The scene recalls the days of the First and Second Intifadas, when women played a key role in the struggle against Israel. They provided first aid and participated in militancy operations. Even though many women suffered injuries, that did not prevent them from throwing stones and leading protests.
Israel accused of 'deliberately killing' Palestinians
Israel's government is facing serious questions over its use of force in the latest outbreak of violence with protesters after a number of videos appeared online showing soldiers shooting at Palestinians.
Amnesty International told Al Jazeera on Sunday that some of the recorded incidents amounted to "extrajudicial killings", while Human rights Watch was "strongly concerned" by Israel's "indiscriminate and even deliberate" use of fire on demonstrators.
Israeli forces shoot, injure 50 with live fire in Nablus clashes
Israeli forces shot and injured at least 50 Palestinians, including a Ma'an cameraman, during clashes at Huwwara checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank on Sunday, medics said.
Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces trapped Palestinian protesters and fired directly into the crowd, while other soldiers fired from nearby watch towers.
Abd al-Halim Jaafra, the ambulance and emergency director at the Palestinian Red Crescent, told Ma'an that three of the injured were in critical condition and were undergoing surgery.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768171
Kitchen knife - Palestinian weapon of despair
This relative calm existed pending diplomatic initiatives by Mahmoud Abbas, under the guidance of the United States and EU countries. Everything seems to indicate that the extended quiet givento the Palestinian president by his own population has ended. Abu Mazen got nothing, not even on the symbolic level. Instead, he received humiliating slaps from an Israeli government that refuses to even pretend to play the tragic-comic-grotesque peace process.
Israeli forces shoot dead 13-year-old in Ramallah clashes http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768178
Palestinian youth was unarmed when killed by Israel, new video confirms
Israeli reports claimed that Alloun was armed with a knife and had earlier injured an Israeli teenager. No evidence was ever presented linking Alloun with any stabbing.
A new video of Allouns killing confirms he presented no danger when Israel killed him. No knife is visible as the teenager attempts to avoid the mob but finds all directions blocked.
Even Gandhi Would Understand the Palestinians' Violence
Through the haze of self-righteousness, media propaganda, incitement, distraction, brainwashing and victimhood of the past few days, the simple question returns in full force: Whos right?
There are no justified arguments left in Israels arsenal, the kind a decent person could accept. Even Mahatma Gandhi would understand the reasons for this outburst of Palestinian violence. Even those who recoil from violence, who see it as immoral and useless, cant help but understand how it breaks out periodically. The question is why it doesnt break out more often.
From the question of who started it to the question of whos to blame, the finger is rightfully pointed at Israel, at Israel alone. Its not that the Palestinians are blameless, but the main blame lies on Israels shoulders. As long as Israel doesnt shake off this blame, it has no basis for making even a scrap of a demand from the Palestinians. Everything else is false propaganda.
mehr ... http://t.co/ccQCtPjMXZ
Over 400 Palestinians were injured on Tuesday during clashes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Red Crescent said, with at least 31 shot with live fire.
In the West Bank, clashes continued for the 12th consecutive day as Israeli forces suppressed popular demonstrations in Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem and other districts.
Thirteen Palestinians were shot and injured with live fire, 84 with rubber-coated bullets, and 229 were injured by tear gas, a Red Crescent spokesperson told Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768230
2 Palestinians shot dead as attacks kill 3 Israelis, injure 27
Three Israelis were killed and up to 27 injured, several of them seriously, in four separate attacks across Israel and occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, with at least two suspected Palestinian attackers shot dead, Israeli medics and police said.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768213
Bild : Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian from the Duheisha refugee camp Tuesday evening during clashes at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, medics said.
Mutaz Ibrahim Zawahreh, 27, was hit with a live bullet in the chest and was taken to hospital in a critical condition, medical sources at the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital told Ma'an.
Zawahreh was rushed to the operation room but quickly succumbed to his wounds, they added.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768226
A day of rage and the killing of Mutaz Zawahreh
His family are a very active family in his camp for PFLP, al Qaisi said, pointing out that six of Zawahrehs brothers are currently in Israeli prisons. He was a popular guy, everyone in the area knew him and had some kind of relationship with him.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768236
Bilder , Thousands of Palestinians on Wednesday attended the funeral of Mutaz Zawahrah, 27, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes in Bethlehem the day before.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768252
3 Palestinians injured with live rounds during Gaza demo
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768248
2nd Palestinian killed after stab attack, Israeli woman injured
A second Palestinian was shot dead on Wednesday by Israeli forces after allegedly stabbing an Israeli woman by the central bus station in West Jerusalem, Israeli police and media said.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said that a 70-year-old Israeli woman was moderately to seriously injured in the stabbing attack, with a Palestinian suspect shot at the scene.
The Palestinian is believed to be Ahmad Shaaban, 23, from the Ras al-Amud neighborhood.
Amjad Abu Asab, head of a committee for Jerusalem detainees, said that Shaaban was detained on April 29, 2012 and was convicted by an Israeli court for a confrontation with Israeli settlers. Shaaban spent three years in prison and was released seven months ago.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768249
Israeli settler praised for throwing pork on body of Palestinian
Online incitement by Israelis against Palestinians has skyrocketed in recent weeks, according to a report in Israels Haaretz newspaper.
Much of the incitement has been in response to videos posted on social media showing Palestinians wounded or killed following alleged stabbing attacks against Israelis.
On 9 October, 19-year-old Muhammad Faris Abdullah al-Jabari was shot dead in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, after allegedly attacking an Israeli Border Police officer with a knife.
The following day, a video surfaced showing an Israeli throwing pork at al-Jabaris body as he lay on a stretcher.
As the man dangles the meat before the camera and then drops it on al-Jabaris face, he shouts, Here, see this? This is pig meat. Friends, just in case you dont know it, they really love pig meat. He should enjoy with his virgins, with the pig meat.
The Palestinian generation that came of age in the first intifada during the late 1980s has frequently decried its successors.
Many times we have accused younger generations of being apolitical and politically uneducated. I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard the accusation that younger Palestinians are self-absorbed; that they do not understand the meaning of collective resistance and sacrifice.
Upon listening to these complaints, you would be forgiven for believing that the very idea of popular resistance did not exist until my generation came along. But recent events in Palestine have shown us just how wrong and unfair these criticisms were there was nothing unique about the generation that came of age in the first intifada.
Israel deploys extra border troops as Hamas calls for 'day of rage'
Israeli forces have announced heavier deployments at the border area with Gaza following the announcement of a Hamas-prompted "day of rage" planned to take place on Friday, an Israeli army spokesperson said.
An Israeli army spokesperson said Israeli authorities undertook a "situational assessment" following increased clashes and upheaval along the Gaza border area and have decided to deploy two more battalions along the Strip for Friday's so-called "day of rage."
Clashes have been frequent along the border fence recently, as Gazans have planned protests in solidarity with demonstrations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Since the start of October, Israeli authorities have reported multiple breaches at the border fence during clashes and Israeli forces have shot dead at least nine Gazans at the protests.
Additionally, the spokesperson said that Israel authorities announced that two battalions and two companies of Israeli troops would be deployed in the occupied West Bank..... .......Since the beginning of the month Israeli forces have killed 32 Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, with at least 17 shot dead at demonstrations.
Over 360 Palestinians have been shot with live fire, 932 with rubber-coated steel bullets, and 2,365 have been injured by tear gas in daily protests across the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Red Crescent.
At least seven Israelis have been killed and 100 injurend in the same time period, the majority of which have been killed in stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and other parts of Israel.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768264
Families given 72 hours to evacuate homes before punitive demolitions
Israeli authorities overnight Wednesday and during the day Thursday executed punitive measures against the families of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israel, giving four families 72 hours to evacuate their homes before demolition, and raiding the homes of three others. http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768261
Ahoi Ihr Killer, mit Kugel und mit Messer, tötet schnell!
Bibi Netanjahu gerät in Verzweiflung: « Der Messerterror wird uns nicht besiegen ». Vielleicht nicht. Aber er bringt ihn schon durcheinander. Wie kann die summarische Hinrichtung von beliebigen, zwischen 7 und 77 Jahren alten und mit bloßen Messern bewaffneten PalästinenserInnen rechtfertigt werden? Im Zeitalter der Massenvernichtungswaffen erfinden nun die PalästinenserInnen den Widerstand der Armen wieder. Als hätten sie das französische Partisanenlied gehört, das Joseph Kessel und Maurice Druon 1943 verfassten. Da lautet nämlich ein Vers: Ahoi Ihr Killer, mit Kugel und mit Messer, tötet schnell!
Israel ist wie der Geizhals, der das Futter für sein Pferd stufenweise abbaut. Es hat die Politik des Teilens, des Zerkrümelns und Eroberns in seiner Behandlung der Palästinenser perfektioniert. Aber es kam noch dazu, dass die Hauptstadt Ost-Jerusalem - von seinem Volk abgeschnitten wurde. Wie dieser Geizhals dachte Israel, all dies würde laufen, um ins Guinness-Buch der kolonialen Rekorde zu kommen.
Aber das Pferd starb und Jerusalems Palästinenser rebellieren. Der Geizhals ist schockiert. Wie konnte das Pferd gerade jetzt sterben, wo es sich daran gewohnt hatte, nichts zu fressen? Viele Israelis taumeln. Wo kommt diese Gewalt denn her?
Die Palästinenser kämpfen um ihr Leben, Israel kämpft um die Besatzung
Uns fällt erst auf, dass es einen Krieg gibt, wenn Juden ermordet werden. Aber dies klammert nicht die Tatsache aus, dass die Palästinenser jederzeit getötet werden.
The violence rocking the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and now Gaza is on the verge of spilling into Israel, Palestinian leaders in Israel warned.
A wave of unrest has swept Palestinian towns in Israel over recent days, with repeated clashes with Israeli police in Nazareth, Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Taibeh, Sakhnin, Rahat, Kfar Qassem and elsewhere. Dozens of protesters have been arrested.
On Thursday, as Palestinians declared a day of rage, police fired tear gas and stun grenades and led baton charges against several hundred protesters in Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city in Israel. Sixteen demonstrators, five of them minors, were arrested.
We want the world to see the reality of what is going on here. The massacres and the discrimination have to end, said Dima Kfeeny, 20, who added that people had come to protest peacefully. Her cousin was one of 13 demonstrators killed 15 years ago at the start of the second Intifada.
Read their lips: Israeli leaders plans for the Palestinians
History in the Holy Land seems stuck in a loop. In 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, at the time leader of the opposition, visited the Al-Aqsa compound in a deliberate provocation that triggered the Second Intifada. Israel launched operation Defensive Shield to crush the protests and eliminate the Palestinian resistance. As a result, more than 3,000 Palestinians and almost 1,000 Israelis lost their lives between 2000 and 2004, and the peace process was forever derailed.
Fast forward to 2015: The peace process is now dead and what hope Palestinians had during the early Oslo years has turned into bitter disappointment and despair. Jewish colonies, illegal under international law, have expanded on Palestinian land throughout the years of negotiations and now fully surround Palestinian communities. Palestinians, still living under occupation, are denied basic human rights and harassed by the Israeli military and the armed extremist settlers on a daily basis. To take just one example, Defense for Children InternationalPalestine reports that Israeli soldiers and settlers killed 1,951 children since 2000.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768259
5 Palestinians dead, 150 injured by Israeli forces
Five Palestinians died and at least 150 were injured by Israeli live fire and rubber-coated steel bullets in the occupied Palestinian territory on Friday, the Palestinian ministry of health said.
Ihab Jihad Hanani, 19, was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes in Nablus, Yahiya Abd al-Qader Farhat, 24, and Mahmoud Hatim Hmeid, 22, were killed during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, and Shawiq Jamal Jabr, 37, died from wounds sustained during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip last week.
Separately, Eyad Khalil Awawdeh, 26, was shot dead after stabbing an Israeli soldier in the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron.
Friday marked another deadly day in the occupied Palestinian territory, where clashes between Palestinians and Israeli military forces have erupted on a near-daily basis since the beginning of the month.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768289
Israel, the Media and the Anatomy of a Sick Society
The video of 13 year old Palestinian Ahmed Manasrah bleeding to death on the pavement of an East Jerusalem neighborhood has been described as shocking, disturbing, and painful to watch. The callous verbal abuse and insults from Israelis watching the child writhe in agony are variously characterized as heartless and cruel; and indeed they are. Die you son of a whore. Die! Die! the Israeli onlookers can be heard shouting in the video which has since gone viral on social media.
- A few weeks before an Israeli soldier shot him through the stomach, Mutaz Zawahreh discovered a love of the sea.
On the coast of Brittany, Mutaz and two friends from Duheisha refugee camp, Murad Ouda and Issa al-Saifi, amazed the French by running into the frigid waters of the north Atlantic.
Even in the rain they went to the beach, Issa told Maan, sometimes just to sit and watch the ocean -- because we already knew we would not see it again.
The three Palestinians spent two months in France as part of an educational program organized by a center in Duheisha.
But as their visit progressed, the first signs of unrest began to show in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the three grew anxious to return home.