In a carpentry store within the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, Noor Assi is at work packaging a wood desk. He tears off strips of tape, tying it to padded cardboard, earlier than flipping the desk on its facet.
He says he’s 15 “and a half,” a measurement in age cut up between the innocence of youth and a want for manhood.
The conflict in Gaza has brought on tensions to flare throughout the Center East, particularly in locations just like the West Financial institution. The Israeli-occupied territory is essentially the most violent it has been in a long time. United Nations figures say that nearly 700 Palestinians within the space have been killed, both by Israeli forces or settlers, previously yr. Noor’s father was amongst these fatally shot.
“My childhood is gone,” Noor says. He was compelled to develop up by a grim ceremony of passage.
On Dec. 2, Israeli settlers raided his village within the central West Financial institution and shot his father, Ahmed Assi, useless, in response to the household, residents and native officers.
The Israeli navy informed NPR that they responded to a bodily confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli residents in Qarawat Bani Hassan with riot disposal means and dwell fireplace and that the circumstances of Assi’s dying had been nonetheless underneath overview.
Ahmed Assi’s mom, Noor’s grandmother, reveals bloodied garments and a sweatshirt with a single bullet gap within the again. Assi’s 5-year-old daughter, Jenna, appears on, sporting a necklace with an image of her useless dad.
“When my father was martyred, I began to work, I took over my father’s occupation, I began working and spending on the home. I used to be good and managed issues, which means I grew to become liable for the home,” Noor says.
Noor dropped out of college, working full time within the household’s carpentry warehouse, generally for 13 hours a day, to offer for his 5 siblings.
“I’m liable for them now. I care for them and no matter they need, I get them. I don’t allow them to need for something.”
Noor appears younger, is shy and has a boyish haircut — lengthy on high, a fade on the edges and again. He maintains his look with common visits to the village barbershop.
Within the Center East, the barbershop isn’t just a spot to chop your hair. It is also a spot to socialize, hang around and discuss every part from household to sports activities and politics. Not lengthy after Noor will get his trim, the village’s mayor, Ibrahim Assi, enters. He’s a distant relative of Noor’s. It’s a small group and household ties are robust. A poster of Noor’s deceased father is plastered outdoors.
The mayor explains that Qarawat Bani Hassan is surrounded by an ever-expanding community of Israeli settlements and outposts. About 500,000 Israeli settlers dwell within the occupied West Financial institution, in response to the United Nations. The settlements they dwell in are deemed unlawful by the worldwide group. Israeli politicians like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nevertheless, have promoted their enlargement, they usually’re rising by an internet of smaller outposts.
The mayor says that violence from the settlers is terrorizing the Palestinians who dwell right here.
“The West Financial institution is presently residing in a nightmare, a nightmare that has misplaced its safety and security as a result of violence of the Ministry of Settlers, who’re — every day — assaulting, killing and harassing and stealing. They’re committing actual crimes towards residents and farmers which are current on their very own land,” the mayor says.
On Dec. 2, he says, settlers entered the village, damaging property, burning automobiles, wounding one man and capturing Noor’s father useless. His lifeless physique was discovered hours later in an olive grove on the outskirts of Qarawat Bani Hassan.
Noor could preserve his teenage haircut. However he has the hardened arms of an older working man, now not hanging out with buddies, devoting himself, as an alternative, to work, religion and household.
At residence, he helps out with the family chores, studying to prepare dinner from his mom. He generally feels pangs of envy for different youngsters.
“I do get jealous, I generally really feel like enjoying, like them, nevertheless it doesn’t work. I’ve a household to care for,” Noor says.
On Friday, the holiest day of the week in Islam, Noor prays on the village mosque earlier than his weekly ritual of visiting his father’s grave, draped in a Palestinian flag.
Prayer is necessary to Noor, from morning to nighttime. Preventing again tears, he says the Islamic funeral prayer for his father on the porch outdoors his residence.
“O God, forgive him and have mercy on him, and heal him, and pardon him, and grant him an honorable reception.”
Noor says that every evening, after prayer, he speaks to his father.
“I inform him what is going on, what we’re doing, and who’s coming over, for instance,” he says. “Final time, he got here to me in a dream and informed me, ‘Deal with your loved ones and your brothers.’ “