Our life stops’: West Bank childhood shattered by Israeli military raids

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – In the narrow alleyways of the Dheisheh refugee camp, three children debate which of their encounters with the Israeli military is worth telling, and who gets to tell it. Yanal, 14, wins the opening round on language skills alone. He speaks three languages: Arabic, English and Spanish, and insists on telling his story in English. Recommended Stories list of 3 items end of list “Life in the camp is complex,” he says, because, as he explains, there is nowhere to run away to when the army comes. Yanal keeps returning to one memory: a football match, soldiers entering the field, and there being no way out. Mustafa Abu Aliyah, 13, counters with a raid that he ran into as he was on his way to his grandfather’s house. The Israeli army fired live rounds and tear gas, he says. “We were in the middle of the fire.” He can’t remember his first encounter with soldiers, “but I definitely saw them when I was little, because they are always coming here”. His sister Diyar, 12, was mid-piano lesson the last time the army came through. “Whenever the army comes, there will be tear gas,” she says. “People will be beaten. There’s usually someone injured or killed.” She compares it to life elsewhere. “I see children in other countries, in other worlds, living in safety, but we can’t even leave our front door without suffering.” The raids happen so often that the children often can’t remember the dates of specific incidents. …