This is Independence?

At first I thought it was firecrackers- it was Palestinian Independence Day after all, but it had been a quiet affair with just public buildings and schools on holiday. The main shopping street in Ramallah was its usual crowded bustling self. Lots of traffic, women food shopping, kids in tow, traders standing outside their shops ready to do business with anyone who cast more than a 2 second glance at their wares on display. Men in the coffee shops- doing whatever it is they do between drinking coffee and smoking. I was in the internet cafe on the corner, on the second floor. It was quiet there, but from the balcony windows overlooking the main street, I could hear the muted hubbub of Ramallah daily life below. So, at first I thought it was firecrackers, but it persisted. When the manageress of the internet cafe abruptly pushed back her chair and ran to the wall of windows opposite- I knew it wasn't firecrackers.

She opened the window and the distinct, unmistakeable sound of automatic gunfire pounded from around the street below, people were yelling, car brakes screeching. I joined her pressed against the wall between two large front windows. I managed with her direction to look down to my left where a large grey minivan had blocked off the street, its back doors lying open vomiting out Israelis soldiers in full fatigues, rifles firing. The street was in chaos. Women huddled in doorways, traders lying on their bellies outside their shops while a wave of young Palestinian men came surging up from the Menara ( the main square located at the opposite end of the street) straight towards the gunfire of the IDF, dodging and wending their way between the hastily abandoned cars whose drivers were crouched for cover behind their own vehicles.

The firing continued and as we peeked down I saw that scores of other witnesses in the first floor shops and cafes opposite were also looking down at the scene below- some eyewitnesses even calling out to the young men on the street to be careful. It was then I saw one Israeli trooper- stand right in the middle of the road with the kind of powerful, casual arrogance derived from being fully armed among unarmed people and point his rifle upwards and begin firing at the windows above street level. It did the trick, we all pulled back from our positions overlooking the street and hit the floor. The gunfire continued for at least 15 minutes but the noise of approaching Palestinian men and youth grew louder too as they ran down the middle of the road, determined to push out the Israeli troops by sheer force of numbers alone.

Just as suddenly as it jacknifed into the street, the grey minivan began to screech back into action, soldiers throwing themselves through its open doors, but they were not alone, we could hear the shouts and struggles of at least one , or it may have been two Palestinians whom they had dragged off the street. The ambulance sirens started to drown out everything else- but it also gave us a chance to raise our heads to the window again. Below, the street was packed tight with people, cars being pushed to the side to allow the ambulances through and on two of the street's corners, it was clear that casualties had occurred as people gathered round prone figures and attempted to give aid.

Twenty minutes of mayhem, determined shooting up of the most crowded street in the whole of the West Bank, terror instilled into its population, 2 or 3 people snatched from the street, others fallen bleeding and wounded, some unconfirmed reports say two dead, children left shivering in fear with nightmares to come. Palestinian Independence Day- some kind of Independence.