Israeli Occupation Forces Open Fire at “Hindiyya Furniture Palace in Kufr Qalil

On the 29th of July 2008 Hindiyya Furniture Palace, located on the Jerusalem Road in the village of Kufr Qallil in Nablus, was engulfed by a huge fire. The main cause of the fire was the deliberate opening of fire by Israeli occupation forces towards the Palace which contained furniture made of wood, sponge and other flammable materials. The fire led to the burning of all the content of the 700-m2 ground floor. Flames were coming out from all of the windows of the ground floor while the residents of the 9 stories of the building were in a state of hysteria and fear due to the thick smoke coming from below.   

Mr. Awad Abu Salhiya, the head of the Nablus Fire Brigade that put the flames out indicated the following to the Land Research Center’s field researcher: ' At about 2:30 AM we received a phone call from Mr. Mohammad Hindiyya informing us about the fire in the Hindiyya Building. Five fire trucks responded to the phone call. We have tried to fight the raging fire from a number of angles as to assure preventing the fire from reaching the upper floors. At the same time, other firemen were evicting the resident from the building which spared us any human casualties. The fire was under control by about 5:00 AM.'  

Photo 1: Hindiyya Building

Huge Losses:

All of the content of the ground floor was burned. Included are 238 bed rooms, 85 guestroom furniture, 114 dining tables in addition to 307 assorted furniture pieces (including TV tables, wooden frames, local and imported bureaus, wooden watches, closets in addition to raw materials, tools and other furniture). The direct losses of the fire surpassed 811,550 Jordanian Dinars. The structure of the building as well as the furniture of the upper floors was directly and indirectly damaged due to the flames and the smoke caused by the fire. That is in addition to damaging the interior of the building and the falloff of the stones and marbles of the building due to the extensive heat produced by the fire. The following table lists the losses encountered by the Palace due to the fire:

Photos 2 to 7: Hindiyya Palace Furniture after the fire

The Palace Used to be the Source of Income for 60 People:

None of the owners or the workers in the Furniture Palace has thought that a spark of fire from a vindictive Israeli gun would lead them to become another number added to the long lines of the unemployed. The Hindiyya Furniture Palace used to contain the latest fashion in furniture which made it the first destination to visit to buy home and office furniture. In one moment, it became ashes ……. The following table lists the names and the number of family members of the owners of the Palace who were directly affected by its destruction:

The following table lists the name of the employees who used to work at the Palace:

Prepared by:
The Land Research Center
LRC