Posted on 03/30/2002 5:50:11 PM PST by Pokey78
The ambulancemen were carrying the first body out of the Cairo-Amman bank in the centre of Ramallah when I came across them.
His knees were doubled up in rigor mortis. One of the legs of his green parachute jumpsuit had been burned through to the skin by a round fired at such close quarters that the muzzle flash had ignited the fabric. A gaping wound was visible in his chest - also apparently from a burst of fire from close range. What killed him, however, was the gunshot to his temple.
A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the second body, that of a young man, also in Yasser Arafat's elite guard unit, Force 17.
Someone had taken off his boots, revealing his blue socks. The wounds that he had obviously been clutching when he died were also to his upper body. But what must have killed him, like his colleague, was a shot fired at close range to his temple that had demolished the back of his head.
The third body was of an older man, in his forties, grey-haired with a moustache. Someone had pulled his parachute suit above his head to hide the wound. When the stretcher-bearers put him down, the covering was pulled back. The wound was to the head.
What happened on the third floor of the Cairo-Amman bank at midnight on Friday during Israel's occupation of the Palestinian city of Ramallah can only be surmised. But in the few minutes after Israeli soldiers stormed the Palestinian position, five men were wounded and five men were put to death by the Israelis, each with a single coup de grace administered to the head or throat.
Maher Shalabi, bureau chief of Abu Dhabi television in Ramallah, was in his office in the same building when he heard several bursts of heavy shooting on the floors below. 'I heard heavy shooting; maybe it was an exchange of fire. But I believe this was an execution.'
Hassan Asfour, a senior Palestinian negotiator, added: 'They were executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.'
According to local residents, the dead men were part of a large group of Palestinian policemen who had taken shelter in the building, which also houses the offices of the British council, when the Israeli army entered Ramallah.
The men had taken shelter in the foyer area on the third floor next to a dentist's surgery. Yesterday bullet holes spattered the walls and the floor was flecked with blood. On one wall were large splashes of blood. Elsewhere several bloody trails had been marked along the floor where someone had pulled the bodies towards the lift.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers entered the building after Palestinians opened fire from inside and threw a grenade at the force outside.
The coups des graces administered for these five men are a metaphor for what the Israeli incursion is hoping to achieve inside Ramallah. By isolating Arafat within his headquarters, Sharon hopes to decapitate the Palestinian Authority.
Yesterday, inside Arafat's compound, it was clear that, for all the claims of Ariel Sharon, Arafat was neither under threat nor under arrest. Arafat, simply, was surrounded by the Israelis.
As we approached the compound we could see the tanks and armoured personnel carriers ringing his sprawl of offices and barracks. On every side were soldiers taking positions and aiming their weapons.
Approaching closer the Israeli army tried to prevent us following a delegation from the Palestinian solidarity movement into the compound, led by José Bové, the French farmers leader and anti-globalisation protester.
In a surreal touch Bové and his colleagues had marched through the ruins of the town, even as fighting continued. With hands above their heads, and carrying palm fronds as Easter symbols of peace, they approached Arafat's compound with two columns of heavily armed Israeli infantry jogging the last few hundred metres behind.
Seeing Bové, who had marched through the town with a small group of fellow protesters bearing a tray of medicines for those still injured inside Arafat's compound, the soldiers relented and let us enter with him and approach the offices where Arafat was holed up.
Crossing a large car park we could see a three-storey block, its walls splattered with tank fire, two windows blackened by fire with sheets hanging where the occupants had tried to escape the flames.
I followed Bové to the entrance to the offices where Arafat was hiding but was grabbed from behind by an Israeli soldier and pulled away. Arafat may not be a prisoner but it is the Israelis who choose who goes to see the Palestinian chairman.
On every corner yesterday stood Israeli tanks. The devastation that these tanks have wrought inside the Palestinians' most attractive city has to be seen to be believed.
Roads have been dynamited or torn up by tanks. Buildings are burned and shattered. Everywhere there is rubble, spent ammunition and broken glass.
A little later, I met Hossam Sharkawi and Mohamed Awad, two senior officials in the Palestinian Red Crescent who I had met before.
Sharkawi, a co-ordinator for emergency services, told me the Israelis had arrested five of his drivers.
'They have them blindfolded and handcuffed. I cannot understand what the Israelis are thinking. They also used one of our ambulances today as a human shield. They sandwiched it inside a convoy.'
Sharkawi was able to reveal something of life inside Arafat's compound. 'We know there are injured inside,' he said. 'But they have been blocking ambulances entering to give treatment.' How many injured he could not say.
'All that we hear is that there may be between 50 and 100 people trapped with Arafat inside the building, without food, or water or any electricity and no telephone communication.' He shook his head and walked away.
It will be (and has been) interesting to observe Palistinian tactics in the face of overwhelming force.
Something to learn about for the future. Or not.
I guess if this wacko reporter had been around in WWII Berlin as it fell his story would have been:
A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the second body, that of a young man, also in Adolph Hitler's elite guard unit, the SS or perhaps an innocent member of the patriotic and outmanned Hitler Youth.
Sounds like the aftermath of one of Arafat's suicide bombings. Minus all the severed limbs of course.
They raise their children to strap nail bombs to themselves and blow up innocents in shopping areas and meeting places.
.Calling them anything but uncivilized monsters is wishful fantasy.
You're right. They should just disintegrate the place and get it over with.
What....This fellow has things a little mixed up. It is the Pals who execute in cold blood, these men were armed and could defend themselves. It is the Pal bombers that execute in cold blood. Perhaps this Palestinian negotiator thinks we are stupid.
This is the same numbnut paper that was claiming the prisoners at Gitmo were being tortured because they were wearing earmuffs.
Ever seen a room-to-room batle against guys who were still alive and kicking, but not surrendering?
The rag makes it clear they didn't surrender and goes to great lengths to claim Arafat is not a prisoner, so do you think these peckerheads were waving a white flag of surrender?
Here's another one for you: do you know anything about the Geneva Convention definition of a prisoner of war?
If you did, you would know that these people do NOT fit it the lawful combatant requirement because they do advocate the use of suicide bombing, forbidden as it is in the rules of war. They sure as heck don't fit in as noncombatants. Hiding asmong civilians - in with the British counsel no less... is not the act of soldiers in a properly organized armed force, but an act typical of terrorists.
How dare you compare these SOBs to a SEAL. The SEAL was wearing a uniform, the uniform of a nation which does NOT advocate suicide bombing and which does NOT hide its armies among civilians or dress its 'heroes' up in women's clothes and wigs to blow up pizza parlors and bat mitzvahs and to deliberately target people in grocery stores. The SEAL was part of a force which does NOT threaten to assasinate reporters and cameramen for filming street celebrations. The SEAL was part of a force which does NOT threaten to exterminate entire populations as do the scumbags clinging to Arafat's employ.
In North America that was the American culture. The American Indian made the same foolish mistake that the Palestinians have made. Just as America was victoriuous, so will Israel be victorious.
No,I think YOU should be embarrassed.I believe the poster was trying to convey the pro-terrorist,pro-arafat,pro-arab slant that is being portrayed in the media.
Sniff. Sniff.
What happened on the third floor of the Cairo-Amman bank at midnight on Friday during Israel's occupation of the Palestinian city of Ramallah can only be surmised. But in the few minutes after Israeli soldiers stormed the Palestinian position, five men were wounded and five men were put to death by the Israelis, each with a single coup de grace administered to the head or throat.
What happened to this article is that the writer is a self-proclaimed forensic expert, medical examiner, judge, and jury, without having any official examination conducted at all. More than likely, the writer just was standing on the sidelines taking notes, and dreaming up this article. This is pure conjecture and bull$hi*. It is also specifically written to make the Palies look like the victems, when they are bloodthirsty, cowardly, coldhearted, evil thugs. It tries to make military men and women fighting to maintain order in their country - overrun with these thugs - look like the villian.
Well, it ain't goina work. We here in these United States can smell a varmit a mile off. And this writer is a varmit-lover.
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