A follow-up on the telephone report from 26.1.15

The army has been running amuck in Bardala for two consecutive nights.  Maneuvers were conducted concurrently around the small village of Aqaba, including near the kindergarten in the morning!!!  And every round of firing leaves behind people who have been damaged psychologically, not to mention destroyed gardens and fields of broad beans.  That is in addition to the unforgiveable disregard for the countless duds and unexploded ammunition the army leaves behind and which present a mortal danger:

21.6.14 – Sahar Darajmeh, age 18, was killed while grazing his sheep near Hamam el Malih by an artillery shell the army had left behind following a recent exercise.

23.11.14 – A father of four from Bardala was killed while grazing his sheep when he came across an artillery shell the army had left behind, following a recent exercise.

Yesterday, 28.1.15, Ahmad Alian Awwad, age 15, was wounded in his arm and leg while grazing his sheep by an artillery shell the army had left behind near his home, below the Maskiyot settlement.

Maneuvers conducted specifically in areas of Palestinian settlement in the Jordan Valley, which is mostly uninhabited and offers wide open spaces, are evidence of the brutal indifference to the lives and welfare of Palestinians.

It would appear that the state of Israel doesn’t even see the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and does whatever it wishes without considering them.  But that’s not the case – Israel sees the Palestinians very clearly and it doesn’t at all like what it sees – a stubborn, determined people, a people whom the blows it suffers – cutting off their water, demolition of homes, closures and blockades – fail to subdue.

Thus, the military maneuvers have a clear purpose.  The night raids on peaceful villages, maneuvers in the midst of a civilian population, including firing by tanks, leaving behind thousands of shells and ammunition, unguarded, in an area known to be grazing land for sheep and cattle, evacuation of dozens of families from their homes for a days without providing them alternate accommodation, all these are brutal tools used to threaten, frighten and expel the civilian population from the Jordan Valley and push it to Area A.