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Yesterday, Sunday 15
October 2000, PHRMG director Mr. Bassem Eid accompanied
Israeli journalist Mr. Gideon Levy, from Ha'aretz newspaper,
to the police station in Ramallah where two Israeli soldiers
were lynched on Thursday, 12 October, triggering the Israeli
forces to bombard several positions in Ramallah and Gaza
City.
An interview had been
scheduled with the Chief of Police, Mr. Ghazi al-Jabali, but
unfortunately Mr. Eid and Mr. Levy were not permitted by
Israel to cross Erez checkpoint into Gaza to meet him.
Instead, a new interview was arranged with the head of the
Ramallah police Colonel Kamel al-Sheikh, to clarify the
circumstances in which the two soldiers were killed. The
interview took place in the heavily damaged building of the
police station where the killing took place.
Here are the facts as
stated by Colonel al-Sheikh :
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The two Israeli
soldiers have not been arrested by the Palestinian
forces, but instead found refuge in the police station
once they were discovered by the population who started
molesting them. Their car is still parked 50 meters away
from the station.
-
21 Palestinian police officers
were in the station at that point. The total force of
the Ramallah police comprises 600 officers, but two
funerals were scheduled that day, so at 6:30 am, Colonel
al-Sheikh dispatched most of them near the Israeli
checkpoint to prevent the Palestinian people from
approaching the checkpoints in an attempt to avoid
clashes after the funerals.
-
When the two Israeli soldiers
found shelter in the police station, the Palestinian
police officers inside urgently called Colonel
al-Sheikh, who was out of the station at that time. When
he arrived at the scene, several thousands people were
already surrounding the police station, and his
bodyguards had to fight their way through the angry
crowd to allow Colonel al-Sheikh to enter the building.
-
Reinforcements were also
called, but they were prevented by the crowd to approach
the station.
-
Colonel al-Sheikh met the two
Israeli soldiers inside the station, and attempted to
smuggle them out by giving them Palestinian police
uniforms so that the crowd would not recognize them.
-
At that point, however, the
population had already damaged the iron gate outside the
station and tried to break into the building. They soon
managed to enter into the weapon store and 5 pieces of
weapon were stolen. From there, they rushed up to the
room were the two soldiers and Colonel al-Sheikh were
sitting.
-
The Palestinian police officers
tried to protect the two Israeli soldiers as well as
they could. 15 officers, including Colonel al-Sheikh
himself, were injured as they tried to push the populace
away. No Palestinian police officer participated in the
killing.
-
Decision was taken by the
Palestinian police not to make use of its firearms,
since several people in the crowd were also armed and
the confrontation could have resulted in a bloodbath.
Colonel al-Sheikh was
deeply shocked by the event, that he considers an insult to
the Palestinian police forces and to him personally, since
the two Israeli soldiers were under his protection. He
assured Mr. Eid and Mr. Levy that the events were being
thoroughly investigated, and that those guilty would be
punished as provided by the law.
The detailed account
of these events will be published in Friday's Ha'aretz
edition.
The PHRMG would like
to express its humblest sympathy to the bereaved families of
the two victims, and its strong condemnation of the barbaric
act committed by the populace. It would like to emphasize
however that the Palestinian police forces did their best to
prevent the killing, and therefore bear no responsibility in
the event.
In light of this
information, the response by the State of Israel seems
clearly disproportionate and unjustifiable. IDF bombarded
less than an hour later positions of the Palestinian
security forces in Ramallah and Gaza City, as well as
official residences of President Arafat and the antenna of
the radio station the "Voice of Palestine". The
PHRMG strongly condemns these illegal acts of retaliation.
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