A Palestinian living in North London asks his local representatives to speak out about what Israel is doing in the West Bank

My family live in the suburbs of Nablus in the West Bank. Their neighbourhood has been regularly targeted by Israeli soldiers. People are in fear and several have had to go into hiding. The Israeli soldiers then threaten their families and demolish their houses if they don’t give themselves up.

Twelve families have been driven out  of the neighbourhood since 7th October. They told two families they had to evacuate their homes by 5am in the morning, the time of morning prayers. They also broke into several Palestinians houses (of people who were away) to use them as control centres.

They don’t just knock on the door: they blow the doors up, with no warning. Forced entries to houses are a regular thing. But when and how they do it is always different. They shout, they are intimidating; they use sound and light bombs to terrify us.

They are allowed to ransack and destroy anything they find in our homes, even normal everyday items, when we have done nothing wrong.

For the last two weeks, Israeli soldiers have been targeting the neighbourhood every single night. And they don’t just stick to the targeted homes and areas.

One night last week, the Israeli soldiers entered our house without warning at 11pm. The next day at least six soldiers, all men and heavily armed, came back at 7am and entered our house by force, knowing my sister-in-law and 19-year old niece were alone there. They were vulnerable and terrified, and scared that the soldiers might assault my niece.

The Israeli soldiers forced them to stay in one room for hours while they searched the house and used our roof to surveil our neighbours’ homes. After around four long hours, they eventually left, leaving their rubbish including bullets.

For my niece it is not safe to go out on her own anymore. The house is just meters from the main road which leads to the biggest Israeli settlement in Nablus where violent settlers are protected by Israeli soldiers.

One night, two or three days before this, when all the family were home – five adults and five children – Israeli planes dropped bombs on homes in the neighbourhood. The impact shattered the windows of our house.

The bombing went on all night until the early hours of the morning. The family couldn’t leave the house and escape to safety because of the threat of bombs and attacks from Israeli soldiers and settlers. Instead they had to hide in a back room, petrified that the next bomb dropped could be on them.

The children are traumatised and having constant nightmares – not just from this but from experiencing heavily-armed Israeli soldiers routinely beating and arresting their dads, their brothers and their uncles for no reason. Is this how a childhood should be?

The family is exhausted but scared to sleep. They don’t know when or at what time it will happen again. “Is it going to be us next or my next-door neighbour?” They are living under threat every single night.

This is my family’s life in the West Bank, many miles from Gaza, where Hamas does not exist.

I ask you, Gareth Thomas, Bob Blackman, Krupesh Hirani, Primesh Patel and all Harrow councillors: how would you feel if your wife,  daughters, children, siblings and elderly parents were in the same situation as my family and your home was never safe?

The author is a Palestinian, resident of Harrow in North London, originally from South Nablus, who has family residing in that area.

Image: March for a ceasefire in London on November 11th, c/o Labour Hub.