Anne Gwynne
The
Murder of Muhammad “Niinu” Al-‘Assi :
The only Eye-Witness Account
Anne Gwynne in Occupied Nablus
Anne with Niinu, on the roof
Photo by Anne Gwynne: "Children loved Niinu"
Photo by Anne Gwynne: Niinu and his sister, Dellaal
Photo by Anne Gwynne: F---Ahmad, the only remaining brother of six, and
his family
"He could easily have been arrested as he ran out of the door but they
wanted him dead."
I felt that I must put the record straight as so many lies have been
written and spoken about this murder.
What follows is the only true account of what really happened on the
night of Wednesday/Thursday, 13/14 July, 2005 at my home in Sharra’
Imreij – a quiet street of villas in the leafy residential neighborhood
of Raffidiya, Nablus – a happy place where I have lived contentedly for
months, a place whose peace was shattered on an idyllic summer evening
by up to 100 Israeli ‘soldiers’ who, without warning, attacked my small
villa, brutally murdering an unarmed man within a few minutes, and
abducting a student to the dreaded Petakh Tikfah torture center.
At the moment of the attack, by Israelis dressed as Palestinians who
poured out of unmarked Palestinian-plated vehicles, there were many
people in the street, including groups of children, some playing, some
sitting and talking, on one of the lovely, cool eventides which have
usually followed the exceptionally hot days of this particular July.
23:00 hours – I had been out walking and I returned home to continue
chronicling the story of a member of the Resistance, Muhammad “Niinu”
Al-‘Assi; our interpreter was Mutassim Adel 'Ayl, a student with an
exceptionally deep understanding of English. He has fulfilled the role
of interpreter for me on many occasions. I am a very close friend of
both families, having known Mutassim for nearly three years and Niinu’s
sisters for more than 2 years since the murder of a second brother,
Faaris. Niinu was incarcerated at that time and we met in November 2004.
Contrary to the wild stories in the press we three were the only people
in the home and we were talking in the reception hall off the verandah.
We were actually discussing Niinu's need for a hearing aid since he lost
all hearing in the left ear, and 50% in the right, as a result of a June
14th 2004 missile attack on the car in which he was travelling with a
close friend, the esteshaad (hero) Khaliil Marshoud. Khaliil and the
taxi driver were killed and Niinu grievously injured. On this very day
Niinu had said he would announce his engagement and, to his joy,
Mutassim had arranged funding for him to get the precious aid. At that
moment…
23:15 hours – …an unusually large motor stopped in the street: I went to
the window - a huge, very long white truck or bus (I could see only the
roof) was outside the gates and the street was full of Israeli soldiers
dressed as Palestinians. Shooting and shouting started. … and
23:16 hours – there were prolonged volleys of Israeli shooting to all
directions, and much shouting and screaming from the Israelis, via a
megaphone, amongst fleeing children. I froze - “Oh my God! Special
forces”- I did not realize yet that my house was the target but was
absolutely terrified since I have witnessed first hand the carnage they
cause. As I turned from the window, I caught just a glimpse of Muhammad
as he ran out the side door, barefoot, in shorts and singlet, into the
garden on the left.
We are all barefoot in the house, never walking on indoor floors in
outdoor shoes and so Muhammad was barefoot, wearing summer shorts and
singlet. He had no weapon, not even a handgun. Why would he have - he
was there to tell a story? He could easily have been arrested as he ran
out of the door but they wanted him dead.
Hunted men
There are lists for two categories of men
hunted by the Israelis, al-maTTloubiin and al-muTTaradiin. The
mattloubiin are generally 'wanted' for capture, although they are often
killed. The list varies – it is possible for men to be on it for many
years, constantly harassed and chased and repeatedly injured; they can
even 'drop-off' the list when it grows too long. The muttaradiin
(assassination) list, apart from being illegal, is different –
muttaradin are, like the foxes Tony Blair has worked so hard to save in
the UK, for hunting to death and killing. The Israeli vengeance is
unrelenting and for ever, and once a boy or man is on the list the only
way off it is into the ground.
‘Niinu’ Al-‘Assi was muttaarad – that is on the illegal Israeli
assassination list – there could have been no escape for him whatever he
did – they were determined to kill him.
Mutassim Adel ‘Ayl is neither muttaarad nor mattloub. He is just a
student – but then scores of students around Nablus have been murdered
on, and hundreds incarcerated from, the road to learning.
Someone called the Israelis to tell them that Niinu was in the house – a
collaborator, that most despised of people bred by occupation. The
Israelis do not mount a big operation like this unless they are quite
certain of a kill. The collaborator will, like most of the others, be
found out and he will pay the ultimate penalty for his crime.
Niinu is killed
There were no warnings - I did not hear
any and neither did Mutassim.
Mutassim slumped down on a sofa, muttering - what can we do? - and we
despaired - ‘nothing’. All the lights in the house were on so whilst he
was putting on his cargoes, shirt, and boots and socks I crawled under
the line of fire to put out at least those in the three front windows of
the house and the verandah. With them on we really were sitting ducks.
In a minute, 4 or 5 jeeps, a troop carrier, and a prison van arrived
with much shooting and noise in the street and the so-called ‘special
forces’ withdrew very quickly – they do not wish to be photographed of
course and as soon as the legal, uniformed soldiers come they melt away
as though they had never been.
The Israelis had powerful beams of light and Muhammad was clearly caught
in them several times – they saw he was unarmed and how he was dressed -
he could have been arrested at any time without harm to the ‘soldiers’ -
dozens of them with at least 4 dogs who were trampling over my
beautiful, peaceful, tree-filled garden, firing bursts from M16 assault
rifles at Muhammad; the firing was coming from all directions.
About a minute after Niinu ran out there was sustained firing from the
road at the rear. I believe he ran up the terraces to the rear wall and
road and, on finding that way closed too, he must have run back and to
the other side of the house because, in the brilliant Israeli lights,
from a side window I saw him jump onto the garden wall, where he was cut
down by multiple M16 bullets inside his left leg just above his ankle,
shattering bone, flesh and tendons - virtually severing the foot. Other
bullets slammed into his body - at least one grievously wounded him in
the groin and blood poured from the severed artery while 3 hit his right
leg. Wounded, but not fatally so, Muhammad jumped down into the adjacent
garden; the shattered leg folded under him and he dragged himself about
20 feet to a small wall where he collapsed onto his back. He could have
been arrested here too.
I repeat because this is important:
These shots did not kill him – he could still have been arrested at any
time.
No warning shots were fired – no warning was given.
Muhammad was unarmed, without even a handgun, barefoot and wearing only
singlet and shorts and this was clearly seen before he was shot.
23:30 hours - Multiple shots were then fired into his head from an M16
at very close range, “much less than 10m” said the pathologist, causing
severe injury and instant death. The scalp and bone of the crown above
the right eye and behind were completely destroyed and most of Niinu’s
brain was blown onto the garden. Dr Samiir Abu Zaghour opined that
between 4 and 7 bullets were fired into Muhammad’s defenceless head: he
could not be sure because the horrifically damaged head did not hold the
bullets and they had fallen somewhere with the brain. In pathology, the
term ‘crush injury’ is used for such a massive injury that a part of the
body -for example the skull, bone and brain- is completely destroyed.
Niinu was dead some 10-12 minutes from the arrival of the Israeli
uniformed soldiers - so much for their later reports that they 'warned
militants in the house' and that it was 'some hours later' that they
attacked.
Niinu al-‘Assi had a very beautiful, level gaze from large, wide-set
eyes and, at the moment of his death his eyes were wide open looking
straight into the eyes of his executioner and a small smile parting his
lips over very white teeth: No screaming or pleading – he met his death
with supreme courage asking for no mercy, not with hatred, anger and
fear, but with the quiet softness of the love in which he had lived.
The smile and the soft open eyes remained (we could not close them), and
this is how he now lies in the earth of the beautiful, tragic maqbarra
of Mukhayyam Balaata, the Cemetery of Balata Refugee Camp, at the side
of family martyrs – his younger brother Faaris, and his older brother
Khaaled, amid the hundreds of his beloved friends, the shuhadda
(martyrs) who have given their lives for Palestine in this Intifaada and
before.
Whilst still in the direct, clear gaze of these eyes an Israeli officer
found in himself enough hatred to then fire 7 bullets from his handgun
into Muhammad’s right rib-cage and upper-arm (already defiled by the
scars, shrapnel and proudflesh of previous attacks) and two more bullets
were found in his back. The entry wounds are tiny, indicating extremely
close range – the X-rays show the bullets in his body beside many bright
pieces of shrapnel which remain after extensive surgery following his
miraculous escape from the missile attack I referred to earlier.
My pictures show what seem to be several other points of entry of
bullets in Muhammad’s body and extensive, parallel abrasions indicating
that he was dragged some distance over a hard surface. No report on
these exists for there really was no purpose to be served by further
disturbing the ‘soft flesh of the young fighter’ (Fadwa Tuqaan) to
investigate any more wounds. He had suffered enough.
Not content with murdering Muhammad, the Israelis then dragged the body
of this unarmed man, murdered in cold blood as he lay looking up at his
killer, to the street. They dumped Niinu into a vehicle in an inhuman
fashion, and took him away even though there were two ambulances outside
my house – one driven by the brave Tony Ghratiit (Red Crescent), the
other by the fearless Jareer Kanadillo (PMRS) as well as doctors,
including the courageous PMRS manager Dr Ghassan Hamdan. The Israelis
dumped Muhammad back in Nablus some 5 hours later. It is hard to see any
reason for, or to excuse, this utter inhumanity.
The murder of Niinu Al-‘Assi was finished 15 minutes after the Israelis
arrived and the abduction of his body by about 00:15.
The House is Besieged
00:15 hours - For an hour, Mutassim and I
had been in the besieged house, to which the Israelis now turned their
attention. We huddled together in a corner of the front bedroom which we
hoped was out of the line of fire, our arms around each other for
comfort. All the time we felt that we would die here too - I could hear
Mutassim’s rapid, heavy heart beat on my ribs and I’m sure he could feel
mine.
There was intensified shooting from all sides coupled with the
explosions of grenades and “sound-bombs” all around the house as well as
hundreds of rounds of M16 fire. Sound bombs are terrifying as they mimic
real bombs exactly and cause multiple reverberations and explosions,
especially when detonated from several sides, as well as severe nerve
damage to the ears. Afterwards I found the remains of four such bombs
and one grenade in the garden – there may well have been more.
01:00 hours – By megaphone we were told to “come out or we will bomb the
house”. We could hear a helicopter attack gunship, and it was not my
house, so we agreed that we had to go out and, in any case, it seemed a
choice between ‘death by crushing’ or ‘death by shooting’ and we
definitely preferred the latter. This was the only warning we were given
the whole time.
I knew that the moment Mutassim emerged they would kill him on sight,
but felt that they might not be so ready to murder a saHaffiyya
ajnabbiya, a foreign woman journalist, so I went out first – calling out
“don’t shoot, don’t shoot - I am a journalist” many times. I told them
clearly, slowly and calmly that I was going to put on the verandah light
and pull the screen aside, and asked them again not to shoot, holding my
hands vertically, palms facing them, and also my blouse up to my bra, as
they seem to believe that everyone here sleeps in a commando belt.
I had committed no crime, neither had Mutassim – well, other than being
alive – but here we were, two innocent human beings pleading for our
lives with a hundred gunmen with their assault rifles all pointed our
way!
When I felt confident that they had understood, I asked Mutassim to join
me but behind.
We walked the path and down the steps to the gates hand in hand, where I
was unable to locate the correct key, but Mutassim calmly took the ring
from me and unlocked them.
All the neighbours had been put into the street with the exception of
one family from the next-door house. The soldiers gestured to us to walk
slowly forward with our shirts pulled up to the neck. It doesn’t feel
great walking up a street of people like that, believe me.
01:15 hours - An Israeli grunts something from the other end of an M16.
I think he asks if I am English and say an emphatic No - (I am Welsh).
‘You don't speak English?' he repeats. But I needed none anyway!
Rapping out “there” and pointing to a ‘stalls seat’ on the tarmac with
his multi-purpose M16 rifle, he indicated that I should sit in the
street with two of my neighbours, a Christian family, Suhayla and her
daughter from the basement flat in the next-door Jaaber house.
No one asked me my name, no one asked Mutassim his name; no one warned
Muhammad or asked who he was. No soldier asked for ID or anything. They
just blindfolded Mutassim, a hard plastic electrical cable tie was
pulled painfully tight around his wrists, and he was taken to the next
door garden where Muhammad was murdered and where his ankles were then
manacled. I could not see any more of that. Mutassim did not beg or
plead – he stood strong and proud and dignified and he walked tall.
Most of the soldiers with their dogs then went into my garden and
surrounded my house, approaching it as though they believed there was
one of Israel’s 400 nuclear missiles ready to fire - and after a while
they all went in and ransacked my simple possessions.
01:45 hours - Of course, having found nothing since there was nothing
there to find, they came out without speaking and hung about until 02:15
when the troop carrier returned and they all got in, putting Mutassim in
the prison van and telling me “you can enter house after 5 minutes.”
Then they all drove off leaving more lives destroyed, more families
devastated, more murder and mayhem, and an even more determined
Resistance in their wake.
As for the ‘soldier' who, at point-blank range, first pumped the bullets
into Muhammad’s head as he lay grievously wounded at his feet, and the
officer who later emptied his hand-gun into the soft flesh of the
already-dead young fighter, I cannot but wonder what will they see when
they look into a mirror – will they forever see the wide hazel eyes
which continued to look into theirs for long after Niinu had left this
life? Will they, and the rest of them, hear the sickening squelches of
Muhammad’s brain and lung and duck from the sprays of blood in their
dreams? How will they be able to live with these pictures and sounds?
"Look upon your works, O Ye Israel and despair!" - I pity your
inhumanity.
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Note from Anne Gwynne -
Dear reader: I have many more photographs of Niinu in life and in death.
Please visit this link to view them.
© Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com
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Anne Gwynne is an elected member of the International Federation of
Journalists and the National Union of Journalists (U.K.). She
contributes articles to Al-Ahram Weekly, the Washington Report for
Middle East Affairs, and Axis of Logic, and has reported for the
Pacifica Radio Network. Anne's work in Palestine has been the subject of
television and radio programmes on ITV and BBC Wales. Anne can be
contacted at gwynne_anne@hotmail.com
Excerpt from press report:
Israelis kill Palestinian militant in Nablus raid
14.07.2005 - 06:48
By Nadia Sa'ad
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – [Israeli] Troops killed Mohammed al-Asi, a
local commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus, during an
exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen after surrounding a building
and calling on militants inside to surrender, the army said.
"After several hours they identified one of the wanted men trying to
escape. They called on him several times to stop and eventually opened
fire," an army spokeswoman said.
Photographs by Anne Gwynne
Niinu bubbled over with fun and laughter
Niinu - much at home in the kitchen
Niinu after the murder
From the verandah at Anne's home
Mutassim relaxes between lectures
(The following note is from the editor of Axis of Logic:)
Ed.
Note: We are also in receipt of a very disturbing photograph of Niinu's
legs - shattered by the Israelis. The photograph was taken by Anne. We
decided not to publish it but the reader should know that Niinu could
not possibly have escaped after having his left leg utterly and
painfully destroyed by the weapons of the Israelis. One can only
conclude that he was murdered after having been completely disabled. -
Eds
Other Reports from Palestine by Anne Gwynne
"until when will we remain refugees…?"
'Eid Al-Adhar in Nablus: A Night of Terror and Destruction (with
photos); Revised: See how you can help!
"Look upon your works, ye Israel, and despair" ... a comprehensive,
critical analysis of conditions in Palestine under the iron boot of the
State of Israel
Anne Gwynne, Independent International, was working with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees in Nablus.
(The following explanation accompanied the Axis of Logic online source:)
This is an extremely rare eyewitness account of just one of the hundreds
of “targeted murders” by Israel of young Palestinian men, members of the
legal Resistance. As such, its importance cannot be overstated. It is
the only eyewitness account of this particular brutal murder and thus
supersedes the plethora of erroneous reports that have circulated in the
media in recent weeks (see, for example, the press report excerpted at
the end of this piece.)
As a professional journalist, an elected member of the National Union of
Journalists (UK) and of the International Federation of Journalists,
Anne Gwynne is entitled to interview whomsoever she wishes, wherever she
wishes and whenever she wishes in pursuance of truth and justice.
Anne was part of a team from ITV Wales which made two films in Balaata/Naablus
shown in the UK in January 2004 and January 2005. The second featured
Muhammad Al-‘Assi. She was gathering material for a follow-up of that
interview, to piece together the story of the Al-‘Assi family’s
unequalled suffering since 1948, when they were driven from their home
near Jaffa by well-armed, invading Jewish colonists.
* all timings may have 5 minute error.
* the report is not definitive, as Anne indicated that she may remember
more details of this devastatingly traumatic night as time goes by.
After running this eyewitness account in our front page Featured Section
for a two-week period, we will move it to our Featured Activist section
and tell you more about the life and work of Anne Gwynne, an
extraordinary human being. You can read other riveting reports by Anne
in our section captioned, "Letters from Palestine" (also cited at the
end of this article). We would like to encourage Axis of Logic readers
to write to Anne to learn how you can support her work and help those
who live under the heel of the State of Israel. - Les Blough, Editor