British activist trapped in Ramallah: Interview

Tuesday, April 02 2002 @ 03:55 PM GMT

These are selected quotes from an interview with a British activist who is trapped the West Bank city of Ramallah, under Israeli siege. The activist is part of a group of British students who went to the West Bank late last month to act as human shields. Rudy al-Fekiaki, 37, Osama Muttawa, 25, and Ramy Aly, 24, from Sussex University are inside a house in Ramallah. Mr Aly, from Hounslow in London, spoke with the The Times Online: "We have been trapped for about four days. We are okay for food, but we have no electricity and we're not sure how much longer we will have water for. There has been a lot of shelling - I've heard 15 in the last half-hour - and we're basically staying inside, waiting.” “The house we are staying in is next to the German consulate in lower Ramallah. We are living with a Palestinian Catholic family whose eldest daughter I met while studying for a Masters degree at Exeter University. There are nine of us in the house. “ “We have asked the British Consulate to help get us out. Initially it was very unhelpful, but I think it is beginning to take our situation seriously, but at the moment we cannot get a diplomatic car in to pick us up. There are three of us in this house and another six in a house near Yassir Arafat's compound. They are running out of food and water.” “We've heard that the water tower has been hit, which means many houses, particularly in the poorer parts of town, will run out completely within a few days.” “We arrived in Jerusalem on the night of March 27 as part of a group of about 300 people. After attending a protest 150 of us caught a bus to the checkpoint outside Ramallah. The Israeli soldiers were distracted trying to stop Palestinians from getting to Jerusalem, so we just ran through as they fired shots over our heads, a bus was waiting at the other side to pick us up.” “Yesterday the IDF came round doing house-to-house searches, which was very frightening. The soldiers went to every home with a list of names of anyone they thought might have anything to do with the resistance movement or the Palestinian Authority.” “They were banging on doors and taking all the men aged between 15 and 50 to makeshift detention centres in schools in order to eliminate the suspects. We were waiting, but we were very, very lucky.” “It is impossible for us just to walk out and leave, because there are snipers in the vicinity. One of our neighbours was shot through the shoulder as she stood near the kitchen window, so we have to be careful not to go too near the windows as well. “ Published by Times Online