Media sources in Nablus, north of the West Bank, said that soldiers shot dead in Nablus 44 residents including 13 children in addition to wounding 280 residents.
A specialized media office said in a special report covering military assaults in Nablus during the period May – August, 2004, said that among the dead, 13 residents who have been assassinated, and that 3 children were shot dead while they were at home or in front of it.
Among the killed children, Khalid Saleem Al-Usta, 10 years old, who was shot dead to his heart while he was standing in front of his home on August 17, 2004.
The Office added that soldiers, during several invasions, killed civilians who are not affiliated with the resistance, such as Dr. Engineer Khaled Salah, 54 years old, who used to lecture at Al-Najah National University in Nablus, after sustaining a gun shot injury fired by soldiers after breaking into his home on June 6, 2004.
In a separate incident, soldiers banned Abdul-Lateef Mleitat, 60 years old, from crossing a checkpoint in Beit Forik on his way to a hospital in Nablus; the 60-years-old man died, of a heart attack on the checkpoint while trying to convince the soldiers to allow his to pass.
The report also revealed that soldier continuously raided Nablus and the surrounding villages and refugee camps, and apprehended 170 residents including 7 under-aged and 6 females, in addition to wounding more than 280 residents, most of them were shot wounded in the upper parts of their bodies.
Soldiers during the four months covered in the report broke into more than 220 homes and used at least 65 homes as military posts and monitoring towers after forcing the families out or locking each family in one room in their home.
Moreover, soldiers raided the old city of Nablus several times and besieged it for more than 13 continuous days in the month of August and broke into tens of homes causing huge damages.
Army also raided Ein Beit Al-Ma’ refugee camp and Askar refugee camp conducting vast searching after forcing residents between the ages of 16-40 to gather in a school used by the army as a field interrogation center.
Violations in the same period were also conducted against medical teams and ambulances, several cases of shooting at the ambulances were reported in addition to holding medical teams for several hours during emergency.
Ambulances which belong to the Medical Relief and The Emergency Committee in addition to other ambulance sustained damages after being fired at in Nablus and the surrounding villages.
Army during the same period erected several roadblocks, and placed huge concrete barriers between the villages in addition to erecting Iron Gates on Beit Eiba checkpoint, in the West of Nablus, and Huwwara checkpoint in the south.
