March 4, 2002

Our Jenin students are still missing. The road was cut off again late in the afternoon yesterday, apparently, so Marthame is still subbing for an absent teacher. There were also more bombings in Israel proper today, including one in nearby Afula which - were the road open - we would occasionally pass through. While we were eating lunch on our porch, we saw three UN vans and a UN jeep racing by on the University road with their sirens wailing. No telling what happened or what will happen.

Not even ambulances are protected.

We spoke with a friend who works at the University. She was deeply depressed. She told us that the head of the Jenin Red Crescent Society was killed when an Israeli tank opened fire on the ambulance he was in. Since it blew up soon after, the army claimed it was carrying explosives - as opposed to oxygen tanks, as later reports confirmed (and a little common sense would indicate). She knew him quite well, and we knew of him - Dr. Khalil had come to the school quite a few times to give First Aid training to the Scouts - all without taking a dime. This is the closest we've been to any of the more than 1100 Palestinians and 300 Israelis killed in the last eighteen months - eery. Very eery.

There are worries that the Israeli army, hot on the heels of Sharon's frightening message of "hitting the Palestinians harder", is preparing to enter more and more Palestinian villages conducting house to house searches. People here are feeling worried, sad, angry, and hopeless.