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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Canadian Citizens under fire in Ramallah |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Holland (via jay morris)
(No verified email address) |
13 Mar 2002
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Some scary news from Ramallah |
STATEMENT
Canadian Citizens under fire in Ramallah
Wednesday, 13 March 2002
On Tuesday, 12 March between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m., I was trapped in a house in an area of Ramallah that came under heavy fire from Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles as well return fire from Palestinians. The house is less than one kilometer from the Ramallah hospital where the Israeli soldiers had taken up positions as they entered Ramallah. During this two-and-a-half-hour period of time, three other people (one Swedish national and two Palestinian civilians) and I huddled together in a corner of one interior room while the near-constant gunfire blazed just outside our walls. The building contains a number of other apartments with several Palestinian families and children, as well as a Palestinian employee of the United Nations. At approximately 2:20, a shell fired from an Israeli tank hit a car just in front of our house and knocked out most of the windows in the building.
Throughout this entire time, I was in intermittent contact by mobile phone with Peter Holland, an employee with Oxfam Quebec and the resident warden for the Canadian Embassy. I was informed that the Canadian Embassy was trying to get an armored car into Ramallah from Jerusalem to evacuate Canadian civilians, but that the District Command Office of the IDF forbid any consulate or diplomatic cars from entering, even for evacuation purposes. The IDF international liaison officer had stated earlier on Tuesday that internationals were allowed to leave Ramallah. However, they would not allow their respective governments to facilitate that evacuation.
We were in desperate need of evacuation from this particular house, and by 4:30 p.m. there was enough of a lull in the shooting to attempt an escape. We first consulted with our neighbors and observed the situation in the street. Mr. Holland agreed to pick us up at a meeting point less than five minutes walk from the house. At approximately 4:50 p.m. I left the house with the Swedish woman and the two Palestinians. We met Mr. Holland at the arranged place and, with the exception of one of the Palestinians who chose not to come with us, we soon arrived in a safer location at Mr. Holland’s house on Jaffa Road.
For much of the remainder of the day and into the morning of Wednesday, 13 March the area of Ramallah from which we had escaped remained a dangerous clash zone. As I write this at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, we can still here recurrent gunfire from across the valley in that direction. Additionally, there is currently sporadic gunfire and Israeli armored vehicles in our present general vicinity, as well as several Israeli attack helicopters overhead.
We understand the reluctance of the Canadian Government to send in an armoured vehicle as the IDF have already opened fire on several “neutral” parties. One member of the press, an Italian journalist, was killed this morning, having been hit in the chest six times with bullets. We heard a report that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have suspended most operations in Ramallah after some of their ambulances and escort vehicles were fired upon. There was also another ambulance fired upon yesterday. Last week, five medical relief workers were killed by the Israeli Defense Force in two days.
For further information, please contact either Peter Holland or I at (972)-2-295-1192.
Sincerely,
Richard Johnson |
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wrong author |
by jay
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
13 Mar 2002
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This was written by Richard Johnson not Peter Holland. Peter sent it to me. |
