btselem /15 May 2024

I’m married to Hanaa Abu Saleh and we have four children, ‘Abd a-Rahman, 14, Iman, 13, Aya, 12, and ‘Issam, 10. Before the war, I worked as a taxi driver, but now I’m unemployed and live with my family in a tent in the al-Fukhari area in Khan Yunis, near the European Hospital.

On 7 October, we left our house in the ‘Abasan al-Kabirah area of Khan Yunis, because it’s close to the border and there were a lot of bombings there. At first, we moved to my parents, who live one kilometer away from our house. We stayed with them for about three days, and then moved to a relative’s house in downtown Khan Yunis and stayed with them for almost 50 days.

During the interrogation, they beat us with a stick and kicked us, especially in the back and neck area

During the ceasefire, at the end of last November, we went back home and stayed there for about a week. When the ceasefire ended, the city of Khan Yunis came under heavy bombardment. We moved to a mosque far from the border, and stayed there for five days, and then we went to an IDP camp at the Harun a-Rashid school in al-Amal neighborhood, in the western part of the city of Khan Yunis. We stayed there for two months in very difficult conditions, because it was extremely crowded. There was no water or electricity, and there was hardly any food.

On 14 February 2024, the army surrounded the school, and the soldiers ordered the women to go with the children to the al-Mawasi area in western Khan Yunis. They kept the men inside the school. The soldiers divided us into groups of ten men each and ordered us to strip down to our underwear and hold up our ID cards. They checked our names against the ID cards, and then scanned each one with a device, tied our hands in front of us, blindfolded us and led us to what I think were warehouses that they converted into detention facilities. They forced us to kneel in the prayer prostration position on the ground until the evening.

Then we were taken to an interrogation center. I think it was in the Japanese neighborhood in downtown Khan Yunis. In the interrogation, they asked my name, where I was on 7 October and what my affiliation was, about Hamas and about the Jihad. During the interrogation, they beat us with a stick and kicked us, especially in the back and neck area. There were about 80 of us there. They kept us naked, in the same position, until midnight. It was very cold.

Then they gave us white see-through clothing (like the clothes from Covid times) and put us all on a truck – about 80 people piled one on top of the other. We weren’t allowed to move or talk. If the soldiers sensed any movement, they beat us. I felt they’d injured my left leg, nothing serious.

I felt weak and lost sensation in my legs, but I didn’t move so I wouldn’t get beaten

Then they transferred us to another truck, tied our hands behind our backs and took us to an interrogation center that I understood was inside Israel. I felt weak and lost sensation in my legs, but I didn’t move so I wouldn’t get beaten. Then they took us to another place, where they told us to take off the Covid clothes and gave us prisoner uniforms to put on.

On the first day in detention, we were kept on gravel all day long, with our hands and feet tied. I only slept two hours at night. Soldiers took our information and scanned my eye. They gave me a number and took me to a doctor for a checkup. The soldiers laughed and made fun of us. The doctor asked if I had any medical conditions. I told him I had none.

Two days later, I felt pain in my leg and slight swelling. I asked the prison guard to get someone to check my leg. A female soldier came and took a picture of my leg, twice, to show the doctor, but she never got back to me.

A soldier asked me: ‘Which of your legs is hurt?’ and started hitting me hard on that leg, brutally

I was in pain for a week and had a high fever. The soldiers took me in a minibus to a hospital in the interrogation center, and on the way, they hit my injured leg with batons and with their guns and stepped on my legs. I screamed in pain. A soldier asked me: ‘Which of your legs is hurt?’ and started hitting me hard on that leg, brutally. Even when they took me off the minibus, they kept hitting me on the leg and head. Pus started oozing out of the wound. They swore at me, too: “I’ll do this and that to your mother, your sister and your wife” and “Damn your dignity, you son of a whore,” and other similar abuses.

When we arrived, I waited about two hours for the doctor on the ground, blindfolded, with my hands and feet tied. Then they put me on the bed and took off my clothes, still blindfolded and with my hands and feet tied.

They put me in a diaper. I passed out. I didn’t even feel them examining me. When I woke up, someone told me: “You’ve had surgery.” I was still blindfolded. I didn’t know if the person talking to me was a doctor or a soldier. I wasn’t given any information about the surgery. I asked them how my leg was doing, and they said it was fine. They gave me intravenous painkillers and did a glucose test. Three days later, I had another operation. They said it was to clean and disinfect the leg.

I was in a lot of pain and was very hungry, but I couldn’t say anything. I stayed there for about 10 days, and they just changed my bandage. I looked underneath the blindfold and saw bones and a bandage.

Then they took me in an ambulance, blindfolded and handcuffed. Some soldiers got into the ambulance with me and they hit my injured leg the whole way. I was in a lot of pain. I didn’t shout, because they beat those who shout more.

When I got to the hospital, I heard them saying ‘Shiba in Tel Hashomer.’ A vascular doctor came and told me: “Your leg needs to be amputated. We need to consult an orthopedist.” The soldiers laughed and made fun of me: “Cut off his leg.”

My body was covered, because it was a civilian hospital. The soldiers were in the room during every examination, the x-ray and even during the surgery, and said I was a terrorist.

When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: “You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice.” It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, deciding to have my leg amputated

When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: “You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice.” It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, deciding to have my leg amputated. I was shocked, especially because I was alone and there was no one from the family with me to consult.

I understood from the soldiers that the operation would take five hours. I was taken into surgery handcuffed and blindfolded. It was on 19 or 20 March. I don’t remember anything after that, until I woke up and asked for a drink of water. They brought me water and then immediately took me in an ambulance, with oxygen and blood transfusions, to the military hospital. I think it was in Sde Teiman, a detention facility in the Negev.

When I got to the military hospital, they hooked me up to an IV and changed my diaper. I had the same bandage on my leg for five days, and it was changed only after that. Then they took me back to the detention facility. I kept hearing dogs barking there. It was meant to harass us. No one checked me at the facility. The soldiers punished me twice for asking to sleep. They said it wasn’t allowed, and the punishment was standing on one leg for half an hour.

After the operation, they didn’t beat me anymore, but I was in severe pain and even though I asked for painkillers, they didn’t give me any. There was very little food. Three small slices of bread, a cucumber and an apple. The soldiers would take me to the shower. They would pick me up and sometimes I would slip out of their hands onto the ground. I think they dropped me on purpose.

The soldiers punished me twice for asking to sleep. They said it wasn’t allowed, and the punishment was standing on one leg for half an hour

It went on like that until I was released on 15 April 2024. The soldiers called out my name at night and asked me some questions about my family, and about Hamas leaders and the tunnels. It was about 2:00 A.M. They handcuffed me, blindfolded me and ordered me to walk, on my own, without crutches or a wheelchair. I started hopping. I hopped four times and fell to the ground, and then I started screaming.

Then the soldiers put me in an ambulance and some time later, I found myself at Kerem Shalom Crossing. UN workers at the crossing took me to Abu Yusef a-Najar Hospital. They ran tests there and about a month later, they removed my stitches.

Now I’m living in a tent with my children and my wife near the European Hospital in Khan Yunis. The conditions here are very difficult, with no electricity or water. I’m emotionally very unwell, a broken man. I cry for myself and over what happened to me. I lost a leg for no reason. I didn’t have any medical condition. This only happened because of the medical negligence in the detention facility. Now I can’t work, either, and I’m stuck inside the tent all day.

* Testimony given over the phone to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 15 May 2024