Two days ago I received the following e-mail from an Australian friend in Nablus, Palestine:

The night before the problems I was walking through the Old City at about 11pm. I came across some militants who were looking uncharacteristically serious. Usually they make jokes, but that night they weren't themselves. The same night I entered the Old City from the gate closest my house. It is always important to be careful when entering the Old City at that time. You must walk with a measured pace and keep your hands clearly in view so that no one mistakes you for Israeli Special Forces from a distance. Sometimes there are nervous 16 year olds with rifles on the Old City gates, so you have to be careful.

Anyway, as I approached the militant on guard from a distance, he cocked his rifle and slung it into a position at the ready. When he recognised me he bade me a good evening, but the fact that he had made ready to fire as I approached was unusual. I did not ask anyone why the militants were nervous that night - asking questions makes people suspicious - but I suspect that there were Israeli units moving through the greater city of Nablus on reconnaissance. This sort of activity is often the prelude to a larger scale invasion that evening or the next night.

The next night I was up late and around midnight at least 2, maybe three spy drones began to circle the center of Nablus in a repeating pattern. At 1am I sat on my roof for about an hour listening to the bloody things because they make me nervous and I couldn't sleep. The spy drones are messengers of death. Whenever they are in the sky, the Israelis are planning to kill someone.

At about 1:55am I heard an Israeli hummer (they make a very distinctive whirring noise) driving very quickly on the main road near my place. I heard a few militants excitedly moving along the alley below towards their positions, and now sure that problems were about to start, I decided to get off my roof in case a sniper in the nest above the Old City mistook me for a militant on lookout. I left the roof at about 2:05am and as I walked down the stairs I heard two explosions in quick succession. There was a pause of ten minutes, and then bursts of gunfire began. From what I could hear the fighting was occurring in at least three different places. I tried to get some sleep and for the next two hours I dozed fitfully and was woken up periodically by the fighting. At about 4am the fighting finished and I finally went to sleep.

The following excerpt was printed in Haaretz the next morning.

----------------------------

An IDF force of paratroops, police anti-terror teams, and members of the Duvdevan anti-guerrilla unit and Haruv infantry battalion carried out the raid, aimed at locating and arresting militants in the area.

More than a dozen explosions and several exchanges of fire were heard as soldiers in 15 jeeps raided an eastern part of Nablus and arrested eight suspected Hamas members and three more in other areas of the West Bank.

Witnesses said Hanawi had been shot while trying to flee the troops, and had sustained a head wound at close range. An AK-47 and a pistol were found on his body.

Hanawi is believed to have mastermided several suicide bombings in Israel in the 1990s.

Neighbors said the soldiers who raided the area first ordered Hanawi's family out of the house. While most members came out of the house, Hanawi refused the order and tried to escape. He was shot as he tried to climb a fence.

Hamas members then drove through the streets of Nablus, announcing Hanawi's death over loudspeakers. A funeral was planned later on Monday morning.

The army declined direct comment. But military officials confirmed there had been an arrest raid in Nablus overnight, and that one person opened fire on troops and tried to escape before being shot.

--------------------------------------

The witness testimonies that Hanawi had sustained a head wound at close range suggests a summary execution by the IDF. To sustain a head wound at close range is a difficult thing to do when you are trying to escape. Executions of militants that should be taken prisoner happen all the time. If that happened, and I am not saying that it necessarily did, it would not be anything unusual.

I happened to be at the rally the next day because I wanted to pick up some dry cleaning and the shops was closed until after it was finished. It was not very large and there was a sense of impotence about the whole thing. Militants shot in the air while the leaders railed hysterically over a sound system mounted on the back of a ute. The fact is however, that despite the rhetoric of the organizations, the capabilities of militant organizations have been severely curtailed by Israel.

To add insult to injury, the same morning of the funeral, some guys were caught trying to smuggle explosives through Huwarre, possibly on the way towards a retaliation bombing.

The situation continues on it's slow downward spiral while the Israeli government and settlers continue to build facts on the ground (wall, settlement outposts) to grab more land.