Morning

General: This passing week has witnessed escalation in at least three "fronts" of Israel's war of mass destruction against the Palestinians and Palestine: targeted assassinations, random killings and house demolitions. Assassinations and killings culminated on Thursday (December 26th), in a series of separate IDF (special units and regular forces) assaults on Palestinian people, homes and establishments (including Ramallah hospital) in Kabatya, Tulkarem, Nablus, Ramallah and Gaza, which left 9 Palestinian civilians dead (and many others wounded). These followed two other targeted assassinations earlier that week, and the killing of at least three Palestinian children in Rafah (among them an eleven year old girl killed inside her home, and another girl on her way from school). On the demolitions "front"; at least 16 houses were demolished in Rafah refugee camp (eight) and at a neighborhood near Dir al-Balah (eight) between Saturday (the 21st of December) and Tuesday (December 24th) in the "context" of a vengeance campaign following the killing of a settler in the southern Strip last Friday. However, according to data which appeared in al-Ayyam (Thursday, 26th December), and which is based on UNRWA sources, the extent of destruction was actually much higher: the report mentions that no less than 50 families, all of them refugees, were left homeless as a result of IDF's assault and destruction last week in Rafah alone. UNRWA has so far provided emergency assistance for 15 of these families, which included tents, blankets, some basic provisions, and a sum of $ 500 for each family. The IDF stopped a delegation of highly ranking UNRWA officials, including the deputy of the Commissioner General, at a checkpoint (near Khan Yunis) on their way back from the site of destruction (after hours of waiting only the deputy was allowed to cross back to Gaza). Next week, in- shaa- Allah, I will provide fuller statistics on house demolitions over the last two years. Health situation in the Occupied Territories: Following USAID/Johns Hopkins/Al-Quds University August (2002) report on alarming rates of malnutrition and anemia among Palestinian children and mothers in the West Bank and Gaza, a new research + survey, conducted by MAS, the Palestinian Institute for political-economic research, comes up with similar (and perhaps more alarming) statistics, among which the finding that 48% of the Palestinian women of reproductive age groups, and 49.5% of Palestinian children age 6 months to 5 years suffer from anemia (reported in Sawt al- Nisa bi-weekly supplement, Thursday, December 26th). Our Shift:Arriving at Etzion Checkpoint at around 7.20 AM we quickly noticed the very weak flow of Palestinian traffic going northbound from the direction of Hebron to that of Bethlehem. Unlike last Sunday, when the reason for the thin flow could be traced to the curfew regime imposed on the Bethlehem district at the time, this Sunday a reversal in the "spatial distribution" of the curfew regime produced similar outcomes: Following the Palestinian attack in "Atniel" settlement last Friday, strict curfew was imposed throughout the rural area south of Hebron (including the towns and villages of Dura, Yata, Daharia, Samoa, and others) and the curfew to which Hebron has been subjected since mid November was re-inforced (in the light or rather in the darkness of these measures, additional homes were demolished and a full scale assault on the branch of the Open University in Hebron was launched - all this on Saturday, the 28th). With almost all the Hebron district (except for its northern edge) under curfew, not many passengers boarded on busses moving on the Halhul- al-Khadr line this morning. The soldiers manning the checkpoint were well behaved (for the second week in a row), displaying a somewhat relaxed attitude, with no recordable manifestations of aggression towards the Palestinian passengers (not standing up to the standard suggested by the unit tags decorating their uniform, reading: "wild beasts" (with an illustration of the species)) . With the level of Israeli aggression at its current unprecedented peak, however, it is doubtful whether the Palestinians could appreciate the difference.Reaching al-Khadr junction at around 8.20, we left the car at a close by roadblock east of Husan village, where a new improvised bus and cab station appears to have come to life lately (perhaps on the expense of the Al-Khader roadblocks improvised station, which has suffered a harsh blow over the previous month of curfew). As mentioned last week, al-Khader school- boys and girls are taking their semester exams these days; implying, among other things, that the total time they spend indoors is relatively short (two -three hours daily), and that their teachers are left with little to do apart from watching over students or - as we found them this morning - gathering for chats in the courtyard under the pleasant winter sun. Our French guests, eager to express their sympathy and solidarity, asked about the possibility of supporting the school and/or pupils, a gesture which was not met with much enthusiasm by Headmaster Najajra, who is too overburdened with maintenance issues to open up to potential new contacts. Underneath what may strike one at first glance as an atmosphere of passiveness, however, tensions - fed by the uncertainty of what might happen in the next moment, not to speak of what is in stock for them in the weeks to come - are constantly building. Only last Friday, tell us some teachers, now waiting for the exam to start, troops entered the elementary school, threatened schoolboys and took one teacher for an interrogation at Etzion. Heading - for the first time yet - to the adjacent elementary school (grades 1 to 6), we were soon approached by the headmaster and teachers, who invited us to listen to last Friday's events over tea in the very modest teachers' room. Issa, the science teacher who was detained on that occasion, recounted the story: Friday's exam ended around 11 AM, after which time several teachers escorted the boys through the schools' complex back to the village, as they have been doing each and every day over the last year, in an attempt to prevent any possible friction between students and the soldiers who staff the "watch tower" (that the IDF planted less than 50 meters to the west of the girls' school). Shortly afterwards, however, soldiers stormed the school's courtyard. Claiming to be chasing after a stone thrower, four of them entered the elementary school, where they found Issa and took him along with them on a jeep to Etzion, handcuffed and head covered. After a short "interrogation" he was released. The point all teachers present in the room were eager to stress, however, was the enormous amounts of energy and effort they invest - on an ongoing, daily, hourly basis - in protecting the pupils, especially the smaller kids, from exposure to IDF violence - mainly through preventing measures such as escorting the kids to and from school, guarding the gates, courtyards and adjacent road, etc. Once we were through with this topic, all wanted to raise another one - the unbearable situation of al-Khader residents who own, and used to cultivate land in the vicinity of Efrat settlement, and are barred from entering these areas now. Do not forget, that before everything else we are peasants, one teacher said.