As we stare at a bullet-ridden wall, two young Palestinian boys stand behind us on a stoop and look on in fearful awe.
“It’s the military,” one boy in a beige hoodie tells his friend. His friend stares at the wall with wide eyes and gives a little nod.
Balata camp in Nablus, the commercial centre of the West Bank, has just come out of a two-day Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid when we go to visit.
Mounds of dug-up dirt line the tarmac of the main road through the market. Shop owners sullenly stare at the reminders of the violent exchange of gunfire that shook their neighbourhood hours earlier. On the wall are decorated portraits of killed armed militants from various factions in the area.
A pile of shattered glass marks where 80-year-old Halima Abuleil was shot dead. Her son says she “fell to her knees” after Israeli forces fired at her six times when she went to buy groceries on Thursday morning.
The IDF says it is aware of the reports that “during the exchanges of fire with the terrorists, uninvolved civilians present in the area were harmed”.
“My mum was elderly and had cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. They could see she was an old woman – why would they fire at her?” asks Halima’s son.
He’s happy to be filmed but won’t share his first name – not a sign of irrational paranoia but a need for safety in a climate of increasing IDF raids and surveillance. A name translates into an ID number that can be tracked down.
He takes his six-year-old son to the local mosque for Friday prayer. We film men of all ages pouring into the foyer but are not permitted to film the sermon that follows. The building tension is felt in every corner of the camp – even in the rooms reserved for God.
“No one is with the Palestinians but God,” he told us at his mother’s funeral 20 minutes earlier.
“Every single Palestinian is targeted, no one is exempt. Not children, not the elderly, no one.”
Sibling not new to sudden loss
He sits next to his sister who is not new to sudden loss. She says her two sons are gone – one was killed last year and the other is in prison.
“What law is this? Children and pregnant women are killed. Our sons leave the house and don’t come back,” says Halima’s daughter.
“They can see she’s an elderly lady but they shot her six times – in her legs, in her chest. When she was first shot in her legs, she knelt on the ground,” she adds.
IDF statement
We approached the IDF about Halima’s death. This was their response:
“Early on Thursday, the IDF conducted a counterterrorism activity to apprehend an individual suspected of terror activity in the area of Balata in Nablus. During the activity, the IDF soldiers engaged in exchanges of fire with terrorists who opened fire and hurled explosives toward IDF soldiers. Hits were identified. In addition, IDF soldiers encircled a structure in which terrorists barricaded themselves. No IDF injuries were reported.”
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In Balata camp, decorated portraits of killed militants are plastered all over the walls. There are no dominant armed factions but a medley of affiliated fighters.
“When they see oppression like this – they want to fight,” says Halima’s daughter. Her sons were loyal to the armed resistance growing in their neighbourhood.
As men pour out of the mosque into the street where Halima was killed, I ask an older man where the fighters are today.
“We don’t see them anymore,” he says in a hushed tone. “They are in hiding because of the increased raids.”
“These are just young men with guns – meagre protection in the face of Israeli military hardware. What’s an M16 to a tank?”
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As diplomats scramble to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, peace feels more elusive than ever in the West Bank.
