Btselem /  7 April 2024

On 12 October 2023, around 1:30 P.M., while I was riding my motorcycle to work, an unmarked Kia Sportage car suddenly blocked my way. Four armed men in gray uniforms got out of it. They didn’t identify themselves and simply pointed their guns at me right away. I stopped quickly and got off the motorcycle, which fell down.

One of them asked my name and then pulled me into the car. I was terrified. They sat me between two of them, and one of them put gray sticky tape around my hands, then zip ties, and then metal handcuffs. While they were handcuffing me, the four men made fun of me and laughed. One of them told the other to put tape on my eyes, too, but he said he would use a piece of cloth instead.

They took my phone. It rang a few times, so one of the men started swearing at me because the ringing annoyed him. He cursed my mother.

During the ride, one of the men told me to speak on the phone with someone who introduced himself as the “captain” in charge of the area I live in. This intelligence agent asked if I was happy that Israelis were killed near the Gaza border. I said of course not. He thanked me for my sympathy on behalf of the people of Israel and told me to say hi to the prisoners; that’s how I understood I was being arrested. I think the people who arrested me were from the Special Police Unit (YAMAM), judging by their gray uniforms.

When they took me out of the car, they shackled my legs as well and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth. They took me to room 4 at the police station in the Russian Compound – where Palestinians are interrogated. When they took me out of the car, one of them put his foot in front of me to trip me up. They tried to trip me up again when I walked up the stairs. They were laughing at me as they did it, and one of them made fun of my weight: “Careful! This one doesn’t break, it explodes!” I weighed 150 kg then.

Every time I asked for water or to go to the bathroom, the police officer told me I wasn’t allowed to talk

They put me in a chair and left me alone for about four hours. I felt terrible. I’d been to see a cardiologist before I was arrested because of heart pangs. I was panting when I went up the stairs. I asked a police officer who was in the room with me to call a doctor and told him I was having chest pain, but he ignored me. They refused to get me a drink of water, too. Every time I asked for water or to go to the bathroom, the police officer told me I wasn’t allowed to talk. It was only after about four hours, before the interrogation started, that they agreed to let me go to the bathroom. They took the blindfold off in the bathroom.

When they put me in the interrogation room, my hands and feet were still tied, but I wasn’t blindfolded. The interrogator, who was in civilian clothes, told me I was suspected of contact with hostile organizations, such as ISIS and Hamas. I told him it wasn’t true. The interrogation lasted about ten minutes. When it ended, I signed a document in Arabic.

Then they took me out to the corridor between the rooms and blindfolded me again. They forced me to kneel, even though I told them I couldn’t kneel for a long time because of my excess weight. The police officer told me it wasn’t his problem. They kept me like that until 9:00 P.M. I was in a lot of pain. I almost cried.

I wasn’t given any food. I was hungry and thirsty, and again they didn’t let me go to the bathroom all those hours. The joints in my legs and knees hurt a lot. While I was sitting there, I heard screaming and crying from people who must have been beaten.

Then they transferred me and four other detainees – who told me they’d been beaten earlier – to the detention center at the Russian Compound. They took us in a police car, even though the ride only took one minute.

The guard doing the search slapped me every time I took off a piece of clothing

At admission to the detention facility, I was searched. My wedding ring was taken from me and thrown in the garbage, along with the receipts for the money they took from me when I was arrested. Then they ordered me to undress and strip-searched me. The guard doing the search slapped me every time I took off a piece of clothing. When I took off my shoes, he picked them up and hit me on the head with them. It hurt a lot. There was another guard there and he also beat me during the search, which lasted about five minutes.

Then they took me to a different room, where they took my picture, and from there to a waiting room, where they had me sit on a concrete bench with my hands and feet tied and my eyes covered with a piece of cloth. I sat there for an hour, until they took me to a cell where there were five detainees. I asked the guard for food and he told me that I should be dead anyway, so why should he bring me food.

I got no food until the next morning, when they brought something to eat. I think it was 50 grams of soft cheese and two slices of bread. It’s been six months since then, so I don’t remember exactly. I was at the Russian Compound for 13 days, during which time they kept putting more detainees in the cell until there were 14 of us, even though it was supposed to hold only 10 people. Ten of us slept in beds and the others on mattresses on the floor.

We were counted three times a day. We were required to stand facing the wall, and every time, the guards beat us and humiliated us: slapping, kicking, beating us with iron batons and wooden clubs. How long they beat us changed occasionally, but they did always beat us. Some of the detainees were injured during roll call. During one count, the guards threw us all on the floor and started jumping on us and laughing. That lasted several minutes.

I had pills for hypertension that I took once a day. One time, when the guard called for me to get the medicine and I put the pill in my mouth, he started slapping me and yelling at me to swallow the pill properly.

The light was on in the cell from 9:00 P.M. to 9:00 A.M. The cell had no windows, so the light had to be on during the day too, but that’s not when they turned it on. Instead, they did it deliberately at night when we were trying to sleep, which affected the quality of our sleep.

The day after my arrest, I was taken to a room. There, I watched a courtroom on Zoom where a lawyer, judge and other people were sitting. They decided to remand me in custody, and six days later, I was told an administrative detention order had been issued for me for two months.

On the fifth day of detention, they confiscated all the clothes the detainees had, except what we were wearing. They took away our towels, too. Unlike in the past, they didn't provide laundry detergent and a place to wash clothes. The toilet was inside the room, and there was also one shower. Five days into my arrest, they stopped providing hot water and we only showered with cold water, without any soap or shampoo.

A week after I was told about my administrative detention, I was transferred to the Negev (Ketziot) Prison with three other detainees – one from the West Bank and two from Jerusalem. Our hands and feet were tied, and while they were taking us to the prison transport vehicle, the guards attacked us, beating and kicking us.

As soon as we arrived at the Negev Prison, they forced us to kneel, like during prayer, with our foreheads on the ground and our hands on our heads. We weren’t allowed to raise our heads from the ground

The trip to the Negev Prison took about three hours. I was hungry and thirsty, because I hadn’t eaten anything since they took me out of the cell, and the whole thing took a good few hours. As soon as we arrived at the Negev Prison, they forced us to kneel, like during prayer, with our foreheads on the ground and our hands on our heads. We weren’t allowed to raise our heads from the ground.

After an hour, I was taken for a strip search and from there to an interrogation room. During the interrogation, I was asked why I was under arrest and which organization I wanted to be in prison with – Fatah, Hamas, Jihad, the leftist factions, or others. The interrogator told me I probably knew where the prisoners hid the phones, because I’d been in prison seven years in the past. I told him: “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and then he started cursing my mother and threatened to hit me with a leather-wrapped hammer he was banging on the table during the interrogation.

After 10 minutes I was taken back to where I’d knelt on the ground before, and was forced to kneel in the same position again for four hours. I still hadn’t been given food or water or allowed to go to the bathroom. That was the worst humiliation and indignity, beyond the physical pain.

In the end, they took me to a cell. I was handcuffed, and the guard who led me grabbed me by the neck and forced me to bend over and keep my head down as we walked. I want to state: I spent seven years in prison before, and was never subjected to such humiliation and never saw such oppression and violation of human dignity. This change started following 7 October 2023.

They put me in wing 26, in a cell meant for five people that had six in it. I was pushed in, and saw the other detainees standing facing the wall in the corners of the room. Some of them were shaking with fear. It was the first time I’d seen detainees standing like that, with their faces against the wall, getting so stressed when a guard opened the cell door. When I did jail time before, the prisoners either stood by the door or stayed seated when the guards came in – except during roll call, when everyone had to stand up, but not in any specific spot in the room. That all changed a lot.

That’s when my Ketziot ordeal started. During roll call, we all had to crowd in one corner of the cell and kneel with our heads on the ground and our hands above their heads. The prisoners had to crowd in one corner of the room. This is a new procedure that didn’t exist before 7 October.

In my first month and a half at Ketziot, there was lighting in the room only after 8:00 P.M. Then they started cutting off the electricity day and night. They’d turn on the light only during roll call, so the guard could count the detainees.

Two months after I got there, the hot water wasn’t always on. Until the 60th day, I unfortunately showered once every two weeks, outside the rooms. There were 10 showers, and each prisoner was given five minutes to shower. We showered without soap or towels.

The cold water taps in the rooms ran only one hour a day, from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. You could only use the toilet – which was inside the cell – during that hour, because otherwise it was impossible to flush. But sometimes people couldn’t hold it in, and it was disgusting, causing a stench and unhygienic conditions.

For drinking, we had two 1.5-liter water bottles, which were supposed to be enough for 10 detainees for 23 hours, until the tap ran again. We would do the prayer ablutions without water, because we simply didn’t have any. In my last month in detention, starting on the second day of Ramadan, they turned on the supply of cold water to the rooms throughout the day again.

They confiscated all the Qurans, and when the guards found a Quran during a search, they would throw it on the floor and stomp on it

After 7 October, they also confiscated all the Qurans, and when the guards found a Quran during a search, they would throw it on the floor and stomp on it. The prayer mats and prayer beads were also confiscated, and prayer was prohibited in general – both group prayers and individual. It was forbidden to pray out loud, and there were prisoners who were beaten for praying alone out loud. They allowed detainees to resume praying individually a month before Ramadan, but silently. Prayer with a silencer!

In addition to the daily count, which was meant to humiliate the detainees, they would conduct a daily search of the cells: they would handcuff us, take us out of the cells, and beat and kick everyone; then they would search the cell, including the windows, walls and floor. That happened every day: three counts and one search a day. Sometimes, during the daily search, they would wet our clothes and mattresses.

Yard outings were canceled, and we had almost no opportunity to walk, move or get a breath of fresh air.

During roll call and bring one paracetamol pill for all ten prisoners in the cell. In other words, the treatment for everyone’s ailments was one paracetamol pill

Since 7 October, the infirmaries have stopped operating. They reopened the infirmary in the last month of my detention, but they didn’t let more than two prisoners a day in, out of 1,300 prisoners in Wing C, where I was. These are people who didn’t get medical attention for five months. A medic would come with the guards during roll call and bring one paracetamol pill for all ten prisoners in the cell. In other words, the treatment for everyone’s ailments was one paracetamol pill.

Because of the terrible lack of hygiene, the limited access to water, the denial of hot water and the fact that we were forbidden to wash or change clothes, some detainees developed skin conditions. Some also suffered from hemorrhoids because of the lack of water and the fact that we could only use the toilet when there was running water. The poor diet, in terms of quality and quantity, made the constipation worse and caused detainees to develop intestinal diseases.

The food they brought us was undercooked. For example, they would give us rice that had just been soaked in hot water, without cooking, and the amount was about three spoonfuls per prisoner. They’d add a spoonful of beans or grains per person to that. Or we would get two hotdogs and seven slices of bread each, plus a spoonful of cauliflower, a quarter of a cucumber and a quarter of a tomato. We got one meal a day, sometimes two. The food had no seasoning or salt. The hotplate prisoners used to warm food was confiscated, and we weren’t allowed to buy from the canteen, either.

The fact that they confiscated all our clothes except for what we were wearing, and that we weren’t allowed to wash, also caused a stench in the room, in addition to the lack of hot water in the shower and water for the toilets in general. I personally wore the same clothes, without washing them, for six months.

Visits were banned and the whole time, there was no contact with anyone on the outside – family, lawyers, the Red Cross – no one. It wasn’t until a month before my release that I was allowed to see a lawyer in prison.

My administrative detention order was extended again and again during my detention: first for two months, then for two more, and then for another 50 days. Every time, they would take me at 8:00 A.M. to the room where I attended the hearing, which started at 2:00 P.M., via Zoom. Until then, they forced me and the other detainees they brought there to wait, crouching on the ground, without food or water.

I was released on 30 March 2024. I was taken out of my cell at 7:30 A.M. and brought to a different room, where they forced me to wait in the same painful position – kneeling with my head on the ground and my hands on my head. They kept me like that for four hours, without food or water and without going to the bathroom. All that time, my family were waiting for me outside the prison.

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 7 April 2024