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----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: AMANA Media and other E-mail Members <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 5:47 AM Subject: Urgent: Eyewitness report from Ramallah (The way it came!) > Tuesday, April 2, 2002 > Urgent: Eyewitness report from Ramallah > > Ramallah, Occupied Palestine -- My name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an > American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in > Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being > massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of > Israeli settlers. They are shooting outside at anything that moves. > > I am urgently pleading for as much outside help as possible to help > save lives here. > > I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to > the Palestinian city where I had been previously living and > studying. On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli army began sealing off > each entrance to Ramallah and there were rumors that they planned to > invade. > > ... > > Women carrying their children were trying desperately to flee from > Ramallah, carrying infants and toddlers, and their young children > were running along in the rain through the fields, slipping and > falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety. Israeli jeeps were > speeding across the terrain pulling up from every direction and > shooting at the women and children, and also at me, as we ran in > opposite directions. They were chasing down people, hunting them > like that in the fields. > > ... > > When night fell, Israeli tanks began to invade and also we saw > Israeli troops coming on foot from the valley, and surrounding our > house. I could hear them calling to each other in Hebrew. They were > against our door and all around. They were firing everywhere a > barrage of bullets and there was tank fire. We had to lay on the > floor and keep silent. We stayed there, on the floor, for nearly > four days in the darkness. > > We knew that our circumstances were better than others because old > people or infants or people with medical emergency needs had no > help. It was very cold, with most families packed all in one room. > Some people are without life sustaining medicines like insulin, and > they are altering their doses dangerously if they have any medicine > left to take. People are becoming dangerously sick from lack of food > and water and heat. The fear and terror only makes things worse, but > it cannot be avoided. > > In the daytime, we heard them shooting people in the streets, and > could hear them screaming and screaming. No ambulance was allowed > through. Then their screams stopped and there was just silence. > > ... > > They keep taking doctors and medics, just now another call. Again, > this time the wife of a doctor telling us her husband has been taken > from the ambulance. > > Large groups of people have been found in rooms, shot dead, there are > blood marks where they have lined people up on their knees and shot > them, with their ID cards laying on top of them. They are taking > people from their homes, blindfolding them, removing their clothes, > taking them away or lining them up and shooting them against the > wall. > > People are making phone calls and saying that these soldiers and > militia have come in and are shooting people and then the line cuts > off. > > The numbers of these killings I fear are much greater than the > numbers confirmed in the press, because the human rights offices and > the media centers have been stormed, and everything is shut down. No > one can move without almost certain chance of being shot by the > Israeli snipers, who are everywhere. > > The Israelis are demanding that all journalists leave Ramallah and > today another foreign journalist was shot. They do not want any more > Internationals here and are deporting people. It seems quite clear > that they do not want eyewitnesses which is only heightening my own > fears. > > The hospitals have also been surrounded and invaded and Israeli > troops are taking the injured people and interrogating them. Today a > woman, a patient, tried to walk out from hospital. The Israelis shot > her in the neck and killed her. > > The Palestinian Ministry of Health is saying that they fear the > spread of diseases because of the number of unburied corpses. > > The numbers are only growing in reports of the mass killings here and > Israeli troops continue to round up people. People are calling > frantically, missing a relative and we do not know where they have > been taken, including children. > > The numbers we have now exceed 600, and we are estimating between 700 > and 800. All human rights groups and legal advocates are being > denied any information of where the detained are being held. From > what we know confirmed is that 10% of those taken so far have been > children under age 18. > > ... > > When I went outside, there were cars all shot up and hit by multiple > bullets and shells in the middle of the road, un parked. There must > have been people in them but I don't know where their bodies are. > There are no reports of them, but they must exist. > > ... > > This afternoon the Israelis suddenly lifted the curfew, suddenly > announcing that everyone had two hours to go out to get food. > However, the Israeli soldiers also took food from many of the > stores, looted, and there is no bread or things. People went to get > whatever they could. > > Even though the Israeli army said it had lifted the closure for two > hours -- in which we still were not able to transfer medical > supplies and still was not long enough to everything that was badly > needed -- the Israelis continued shooting people in the streets > indiscriminately on their way, so people were running around trying > to make it to the store or find a safe route only to have to run > back home again. It was an added cruelty and terror tactic in this > macabre situation, a sick joke: starve people and then shoot them > when they try to find food with your permission. > > In an apartment building in Beitunia neighborhood where I used to > live, they took 60 people who were my neighbors, including several > families, and pushed them into one room since last night. The > Israelis told them that they are to be used as "human shields", as > the apartment building is across from a building that they were > invading. > > One child needs to go to the hospital since last night and, > initially, the families were able to call outside. Now, the Israelis > have taken their phones. > > There are reports that they are rounding up men between the ages of > 14 and 45 in that neighborhood, and these civilians, from these same > Palestinian families trapped in that building, were just used to > walk in front of an Israeli tank as it invaded the Preventative > Security Compound. > > Reports also have alleged that the Israelis were saying that some > could leave but shot them when they attempted to leave. The > buildings there are burning, and people are trapped inside. > > ... > > There are more explosions outside now and more shooting. Another > explosion. More firing, it just doesn't stop. > > This is a massacre. The foreign delegations tried to get in but were > turned back, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying > to help but they are being ignored. Please help. > > I am not only scared for myself and for people here, but if this > cannot be stopped, I am truly scared for all of humanity, for a > world in which we send men to the moon but cannot stop ethnic > cleansing. > > On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. > What are you doing over there? > > There do not seem to be any reports of what is happening. In truth, > its got to stop. Please go out to the streets, please demand a > response from your representatives. Be loud, march up to the > capitals, refuse to leave until the Israelis withdraw. Act now! Tell > them the Israelis are murdering innocent people whose only crime is > being born in their own homeland, a Palestinian under a military > occupation. > > Demand international protection for the Palestinian people, scream > that this is an affront to humanity and that it is time that the US > not only stop supporting Israel, but that the US stop its abuse of > human rights within its own borders. This is about all of our > struggles. For the love of God, please stop this slaughter. > > Please help. > > > > -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* > To Un-Subscribe from this list go to: > www.theAMANA.org > Indicate your e-mail and click on "Un-Subscribe". > If you do "Un-Subscribe"! You may lose good news in the future. > > > > "Say NO to attacks on Muslims Civil & Human Rights" > The AMANA Voice > > http://www.myplace.com/ - find what you want @MyPlace.com! > > --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
