SINCE September 11, the world’s press has been filled with eye-witness accounts of the events of September 11 in New York and the aftermath. But this grim result of terrorism should not be allowed to obscure the daily reality of state terror wielded by the Zionist state in its efforts to maintain its control over the dispossessed Palestinian population.
The following eye-witness account from a Palestinian woman – who for understandable reasons does not want her name revealed – describing recent events in Ramallah helps to redress the balance.
You would not believe what we have been through two days ago. I saw death with my own eyes and to tell you the truth it was not pleasant. I thought to write you all about it just as an example of what people have to go through here every day.
I finished my course in Birzeit on Monday, my last three days were very intensive where I had 15 hours of teaching. In celebration, I decided to go out with my mother and sister to my cousin’s on the outskirts of Ramallah. The building is on the edge of town, right opposite to one of the Israeli firing posts.
So we drove to her house and went to the third floor were she lives. We spent a really pleasant time and then decided to leave around 8:30 in the evening.
Reem, my sister, went first because she drives the car, and then my mother and I followed down the stairs.
We got to the bottom of the stairs, Reem was just outside the main doors of the building and she switched on the car from a distance, with the car remote key, at that exact moment, the Israelis started firing heavily at us.
What seems to have happened is that, as Reem was leaving the building, the Israelis saw some Palestinian policemen passing by the same building.
So the Israelis started showering the entire neighbourhood with bullets using machine guns. However, we did not see the policemen because they’ve already passed the main door of the building and only saw the showers of bullets fired at us.
By that time my mother and I were just a few steps away from Reem, but still did not exit the building, we were just at the door.
We shouted at Reem to enter and the three of us just fell on the ground with the bullets still flying over our heads. I really do not know how Reem managed to fall on the floor because if I were in her place I would have instantly died of the shock. Luckily she did fall quickly.
The shooting did not stop for a second and there was the three of us lying on the ground at the entrance of the building without any cover.
My mother and I were not sure that Reem did not get hit and kept on shouting till she raised her head and said something, so we were sure then that she was not hit. We did not see the Palestinian policemen and did not know what happened to them, but later found out that they escaped unharmed.
The bullets were coming inside the entrance of the building where we were sheltering and we could not move back inside to get into any of the flats because the bullets were barely missing us. We shouted for someone to open their door so we can crawl into their flats, but no one could come near their doors, the bullets were going through everything.
I really do not know if the Israelis could see us, but the main doors of the building were open and the bullets kept on flying for while, which seemed like a life time for me. Then suddenly all the lights in the building and around it went off, all we could see is the light of the flying bullets over our heads.
The next thing that followed was a huge burst of water, the Israeli bullets hit all the water tanks on the roof and there were rivers of water pouring from the roof. The sudden water burst made the Israelis stop for a second, then we crawled to the nearest flat door and started screaming to let us in and they did.
What we saw inside was even more terrifying. There was a mother and a father and their three very young children, the eldest child must be 3 years old. The mother and the children were screaming and in a state of hysteria. The father was trying to calm them down and seemed so helpless.
The room that we walked in, supposedly the safest in the flat, had no furniture but mattresses on the floor and a small table with a TV set on it, so there was no furniture that we could use to shelter behind. We realised that they could not open the door for us earlier because the kitchen door faces the flat’s main door.
Their kitchen is right opposite to the Israeli post and thus all the bullets were coming through the kitchen door and hitting the main door. So it would have been impossible for them to let us in without getting killed. If it was not for that water burst that made things calm down for a second, we would have surely been killed.
Anyhow, the minute we walked in, we all clustered in a little space, next to the wall in the middle of the room, which seemed the safest in that flat away from any doors. Then the firing started again. This time it was not bullets anymore, it was shelling, the woman and the children were screaming. They were so terrified. For us, it was heaven compared to a minute ago.
Then came a big shell to the veranda, which is attached to the room where we were, and blew it out of existence, all of us flew off the surface of the earth, but luckily were not injured badly. Just rubble and dust everywhere and our terror, shock and slamming into the floor and walls.
Then a flying bullet hit the opposing wall and bounced back and hit the man’s leg who was sitting right next to us, for five minutes he did not say anything and did not want us to know. When his wife saw the blood coming out of his leg, she nearly died, the poor thing, we all were terrified.
By that time the woman nearly lost it and wanted to walk outside the flat to run away, under the bullets. She was in such a state and none of us could do anything but carry the children on our laps and try to calm them down. The shooting and shelling went on for about half an hour.
With every shell fired we looked at each other to see if we were still alive. The scariest thing was Reem’s face, she was totally yellow, she wanted to cry but could not, she was in a state of total shock because initially she was the most exposed to the firing. I felt so bad for her, but could not do anything.
We remained like this for a long while, saw death with our own eyes and I felt so bad for people who will later mourn us. We all knew deep in our hearts that that is it. No way we were going to leave that room alive and it is only a matter of time.
The bullets kept on flying around us and bouncing back here and there. We all stayed in the same spot clustering and waiting. Then the shooting started to die down, to intensify again and then die down.
Eventually it calmed down and there was just random firing with regular guns and no more machine guns. Someone then came to the flat’s main door, there was no need to knock or anything, it was full of bullet holes and half of it was blown up.
It was my cousin’s husband, he was on his tummy and told us that he crawled like this from the third floor to see what happened to us. He said that the rest of the building only had bullets and that the flat where we were was shelled because it is the most exposed.
He said that we have to crawl quickly to leave that flat because if another shell comes into it, that side of the building will fall on our heads. Another person came from the upper floors as well and helped us carry the children and the wounded man and we left to my cousin’s on the third floor.
It took us some time to get there because we had to crawl and avoid the random bullets that were coming inside the building from the windows and main door of the building. We managed to get there in one piece despite our terror. We found everyone living on that floor in my cousin’s flat because it is the safest. They could not believe it when they saw us alive.
After that the shelling stopped totally and the firing went on for nearly another half an hour, but not as bad as before. We just waited till it died down totally. Everyone’s faces were pale as the freshest lemons.
There was a young couple clinging to one another like two statues petrified with fear. There was a mother with her 8 days old baby girl, the mother could not handle the terror and kept on fainting. We then started thinking how could we leave the building alive, if the shelling starts again the whole building will crumble down. We were not sure if we will be shot at if we attempt to leave the building. There was no back door to the upper floors of the building.
There were at least 50 people in that building, nearly 30 of them are children. We thought we could throw something out, if it is shot at, then we will not leave, if it is not then we will attempt to leave.
So one of the people went to the flats facing the Israeli post and dropped a plastic pot from the window, when it hit the floor a million bullets turned it into liquid plastic. So there was no question about attempting to leave. The Palestinian policemen whose passing near that building initially started the entire thing were not around anymore - there was not even a cat in the neighbourhood.
We were so helpless and did not know what to do. Then we thought if we call the ambulance maybe the Israelis will not shoot at it and then we can leave in it. So we phoned them, apparently they were just 100 meters away trying to reach us and were not able to. The entire town was watching what is happening to that building and not able to do anything.
They told us to just calm down for another 15 minutes and then they will try to move in. We did and they came and stood next to the doors of the building. They were not shot at and provided us with cover as we all left that building. It was the only building hit – and the flat was totally damaged.
I must say I am glad to be alive. For two days my entire body has been aching and I stayed in bed. But I am really really happy that no one got physically injured in that building, apart from that man. Though I am sure the psychological scars will remain with everyone for a lifetime, especially the terrified children.
I really do not wish that you were here.