Three brothers in the West Bank, kept apart by Israel’s war | Israel-Palestine conflict

Occupied West Financial institution – That is the story of three brothers; Ayman, Yamen and Wajid. Yamen and I (Ayman, the creator of this piece) are one yr aside, 37 (him) and 38 (me), whereas Wajid is the “child” at 35. All three of us work between the cities of Nablus and Ramallah and our residence village, al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, situated midway between the 2 cities.

Now, my two brothers and I are every caught in one in all these three locations with no method of reaching one another. Since October 7, the West Financial institution has been subjected to unprecedented navy measures by Israeli forces. The one time such stringent measures have been seen earlier than was maybe throughout the first days of June 1967, the beginning of the Israeli occupation.

Stringent curfews and clampdown measures applied by armed settlers and Israeli forces on all cities, cities and camps within the West Financial institution have utterly lower areas off from one another. Israeli forces have erected new navy checkpoints and closed entrances and roads utilizing iron gates and earth mounds. In the meantime, Israeli settlers have ramped up harassment and assaults on Palestinian residents every single day, throwing rocks and stones at Palestinian automobiles and capturing bullets at civilians who dare to go away their homes and step into their streets or fields – particularly troublesome throughout the olive season, which begins every year at the start of October and lasts till the tip of November.

Our residence village of al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya is 21km (13 miles) south of Nablus and 27km north of Ramallah. Over the previous two months, it has been closed off on three sides. The street accessing it from the east – the principle one – is closed off with an iron gate, blocks of cement and lumps of dust, and the street has been dug with trenches. The roads to the north and south are additionally stuffed with trenches which stretch for 2km from the outskirts of the village. Autos can’t cross. Just one street stays, resulting in the town of Salfit within the central West Financial institution.

Wajid – in Ramallah

My youngest brother, Wajid, works as a photojournalist for the Palestinian Ministry of Data.

He tells me: “The roads are very, very troublesome round Ramallah. Each time I head out to examine the standing of limitations and closures, they’re dangerous. One street could also be satisfactory however it’s lengthy and winding and passes by way of many villages earlier than you may get to our village.

“For the reason that starting of the conflict, I’ve seen the household solely as soon as, because of the troublesome street circumstances. Getting out of the town would require an extended detour and the route is interspersed with Israeli checkpoints. The household communicates with me repeatedly. Daily to examine in, my mom calls at night time and asks me if I’ve eaten and if the room is heat. She tells me each time to handle myself and never exit an excessive amount of.”

Issues weren’t straightforward for individuals within the West Financial institution earlier than October 7, however they’ve change into many instances worse since then. “Right here in Ramallah, the place I’ve remained because the starting of the conflict, the town is subjected each night time to Israeli raids, particularly after midnight and lasting till midday.

“Each night time, the sound of gunfire, bombs and fuel bombs could be heard. The solar rises and life begins another time. It is rather noticeable how few persons are shifting round due to the closures and tight limitations across the metropolis and the sieges of villages in all areas of the West Financial institution.

Mom asks me every single day once I can be coming residence, however I’ve to inform her – I simply don’t know

As for Ramallah itself, the town recognized for its vibrant, bustling spirit and tradition, has utterly modified, he says.

“There’s solely minimal motion across the metropolis,” he instructed me. “If anybody makes it to the outskirts, it begins to really feel much more harmful.”

There are generally protest marches after afternoon and sundown prayers, however at half previous midnight, the raids start.

“Ramallah was essentially the most energetic and vigorous metropolis in Palestine,” he says. “Now it’s nothing! This metropolis that used to remain awake till daybreak now closes the doorways of its houses and outlets shortly after sundown. Some individuals collect within the night at al-Manara roundabout, the place they arrive from all neighbourhoods to exhibit. Within the centre of the town at night time the numbers develop and marchers roam the streets – principally dominated by youths chanting for Gaza, shouting anti-occupation slogans and declaring their assist for the resistance. They don’t seem to be simply sympathisers! They’re a part of this conflict.

A number of individuals have been arrested for exhibiting their assist for the resistance, he tells me.

“The arrests have centered on everybody who participates in supporting the resistance, particularly those that publish something on social media websites,” Wajid says.

“I nonetheless consider Ramallah is safer than al-Lubban due to the everlasting presence of settlers and the military,” he says. Life is tough, nonetheless. “Salaries have been delayed and the already excessive costs have risen much more. Whereas I’ve been caught in Ramallah, I do know the household has run out of some issues, however due to the state of the roads, I can’t return to our residence within the village to offer them.

“Mom asks me every single day once I can be coming residence, however I’ve to inform her – I simply don’t know.

“I actually miss my household, particularly Sarah, my niece.”

Yamen – in al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya

Whereas safety circumstances and navy measures have trapped Wajid in Ramallah, our center brother, Yamen has remained in our village, within the household residence. Yamen is a press correspondent for the Palestinian Information Company, Wafa.

About 3,500 individuals stay in our village, together with greater than 200 who stay proper on the principle avenue coming into the village in about 20 homes. There are Israeli settlements shut by and there was hassle between them and the village earlier than. In June this yr, settlers blocked the street coming into the village, stopping kids from getting to highschool.

“The individuals in these homes have lived in a state of instability and each day anxiousness because the starting of the conflict,” says Yamen. “They’re near the Israeli settlements, other than the remainder of the village and so they have typically been attacked. Their houses, possessions and vehicles have been ransacked by the settlers. Within the first weeks of the conflict, a few of them moved to stay with their kin contained in the village – they have been displaced.

“Then half of them started to return to their houses. They stay in a state of fixed anxiousness, particularly the ladies and youngsters. They preserve houses shut up all day and night time.”

Yamen himself is working from residence, overlaying occasions he can within the space, significantly throughout the Salfit governorate. “I can’t go to my office in Ramallah, and I can’t attain Nablus,” he tells me. “Public car drivers inform me that the street may be very totally different from earlier than October 7, and so they haven’t labored a lot because the starting of the conflict – a few of them haven’t labored in any respect.”

Taxi and bus drivers who do handle to work exit simply as soon as a day, fairly than 4 or 5 instances as could be extra ordinary.

“The primary roads are all closed and people who find themselves pressured to go away their houses should cross bumpy dust roads between villages and are sometimes stopped by emergency Israeli checkpoints, or what we name a ‘passing checkpoint’.”

From mates, he has heard that the journey to Nablus, simply over 20km away and which used to take 25 minutes, now takes as a lot as three hours.

Each night, when our mom makes use of her cellphone to attempt to talk with me and our different brothers by way of Messenger and WhatsApp, “She is unhappy as she follows their information and checks on them. She typically repeats that she misses us getting collectively, particularly because the olive season, which is the season of bringing households collectively in Palestine, has handed with out us assembly.”

On October 8, the day after the conflict started, the principle entry to the village was closed off. That was the one street which is paved and Israeli forces have now dug a trench stretching alongside it for 1.5km. The opposite entry routes to the village are dust tracks which have been created naturally by the village’s positioning between a hill and a plain.

There’s one remaining route out of a neighbouring village in direction of Salfit, by way of which you’ll be able to attain Ramallah. However this provides 20km to the journey and many individuals would not have the cash to pay for the extra gas.

A couple of days in the past, settlers stormed the ladies’ faculty in our village, tore down the Palestinian flag and raised the Israeli flag as a replacement.

“Earlier than the conflict, there have been 5 public transportation automobiles that took villagers to the town of Nablus,” Yamen says. “These automobiles, that are an important technique of transportation within the village, stopped utterly for greater than 15 days.”

One villager instructed him that the price of commuting to work has almost tripled from $2.25 to $6 and her taxi should negotiate limitations and lengthy, dug-up roads to get there. 

“The conflict has modified all the things within the village,” he tells me. One main challenge is that kids have been unable to go to highschool within the village because the begin of the conflict.

Yamen explains that the village faculties, from the seventh grade and thru secondary faculty, are situated on the principle Nablus-Ramallah Road, by way of which hundreds of settlers go each day. Israeli military jeeps are stationed on the gates of these faculties from 6am. Whereas the streets of the village was filled with the comings and goings of schoolchildren, they’re now virtually empty. Some pupils have reported receiving threatening messages from settlers on social networking websites and are too afraid to exit. Different college students have been injured by bullets and suffered fractures and bruises.

“Ultimately, they [armed settlers] forcibly closed these faculties with the military defending them,” he says. “A couple of days in the past, they stormed the ladies’ faculty, tore down the Palestinian flag and raised the Israeli flag as a replacement.

“Once I stroll within the neighbourhood, I take heed to the ladies and boys from the village faculties speaking about how a lot they want they might get again to face-to-face schooling and to return to highschool.”

The youngsters usually are not the one ones lacking from the streets of our residence village.

“The road exterior resembles a navy barracks, with nothing passing aside from Israeli navy automobiles, generally chasing and capturing at Arab vehicles attempting to go away our village or the encompassing villages. I lived by way of the tunnel rampage in September 1996, throughout which violent confrontations continued for every week, and the second Intifada in September 2000 which continued till 2005. They have been very violent years of confrontation, however not as soon as did the road change into utterly empty of [civilian] automobiles like this. It is a new stage of worry and warning.” Yamen says.

It’s significantly uncommon for the village to be so quiet presently of yr, throughout olive season. “There’s often a variety of motion of individuals backwards and forwards to their lands to select olives,” says Yamen.

He explains that about 40 % of the timber are situated in areas which have change into very troublesome to achieve due to the threats from armed settlers and troopers, who’ve been capturing on the farmers. Some have ventured out, unwilling to let the harvest go to waste, however say that settlers and troopers have stolen their crops.

“Greater than 1,500kg of olives have been stolen right here,” Yamen tells me. “That’s price $3,000. And, greater than 4,000 timber stay unharvested – there are complete households that rely on producing olive oil to make ends meet. It is a loss amounting to tens of hundreds of {dollars}.”

Ayman – in Nablus

After which there may be me, their eldest brother. I stay caught within the metropolis of Nablus, together with my kids who have been longing to get to the village for the farming season.

I wish to try and go to the countryside however the checkpoints, harassment and probability of assaults by settlers make it unattainable. At this time and every single day, my kids, Julia and Amin, simply anticipate the conflict to finish and for the roads to open once more.

My kids love the wilderness of the village, its mountains, plains and seasons. Julia needs to select daffodils and take photos and movies of the land. She says the military has stopped her from going to the land and chasing small bugs and butterflies. Amin particularly misses the tea made on firewood, a practice within the village throughout the olive season. He wished to movie the wooden smoke and the teapot boiling over on his cellphone, as he did final yr.

They inform me: “We need to go to take advantage of, even when we’ve got exams.”

The factor that upsets them most is that the household has misplaced their olives this yr.

I by no means imagined being away from my household for this lengthy, particularly since I had not visited them for 2 months earlier than that. Now, 4 months have handed with out sitting with them and sharing a meal or a cup of espresso.