Btselem / 11 June 2024

I go to the a-Rashidiya school and live with my parents and six brothers and sisters. I’m the eldest son.

On 12 February 2024, at around 4:00 A.M., Border Police officers blew up our front door and burst into our home. The explosion woke me up. Four Border Police officers broke into the bedroom I share with my brothers, and one of them ordered me to get up and give him my phone. Meanwhile, other Border Police officers led my brothers out of the room. While I was looking for the phone, one of the officers took off his helmet and hit me on the head with it. I screamed in pain. Another officer kicked me and told me to hurry up. I found the phone on a shelf in the bookcase we have in the room.

Then one of the officers ordered me to get dressed. They cuftied my hands behind my back with zip ties, took me out of the room and made me kneel in the doorway. They put the rest of the family in another room. Meanwhile, they searched all the rooms and closets and turned the house upside down. It took about 40 minutes from the time they came in.

The police officers led me outside, covered my eyes with a piece of cloth and walked me to the Shu’fat checkpoint – a five minute walk from our home. There, they put me in a jeep.

The jeep took me to the police station in the Russian Compound, in West Jerusalem. An officer took me to room 4, where they interrogate Palestinians. I told him my hands were tied too tight and he slapped me and said “I know that!” They made me kneel with my eyes blindfolded, and after I sat like that for about an hour, someone came and switched the zip ties on my hands to metal handcuffs. Then one of the police officers kicked me in the right hip. It really hurt and I almost cried. About an hour after they changed the zip ties, a lawyer arrived, and then they removed the blindfold. He read me my rights in detention – including the right to remain silent.

Then they put the blindfold back on, but about an hour later they took it off and took me to be interrogated. I was still handcuffed, and they also cuffed my legs. They sat me on a chair, and a man in civilian clothes was sitting across the table from me. He showed me pictures of children and teens who’d thrown stones towards the checkpoint in Shu’fat R.C. and asked me who they were. I told him I didn’t know. The interrogator said I was accused of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the checkpoint in the camp. I told him I didn't do it.

He said to me: “So you know who’s doing it!” I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, that I didn’t do anything and didn't know anyone who threw stones and Molotov cocktails. The interrogator shouted at me that we’d wait and see if I knew or not. At around 12:00 P.M. they took me directly from the interrogation to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court, where they extended my detention for three days. My father was in the court, but I wasn’t allowed to talk to him.

There were other kids in the waiting room by the courtroom, who came there from the Russian Compound and the police station on Salah a-Din Street. They asked if I’d been interrogated and where. I told them I was interrogated in room 4 rand they said: “Poor thing, God help you, they’ll rip the skin off your bones.” The things they said really scared me.

I told the interrogator I was thirsty and hadn't drunk in the court, either, and asked for water. The interrogator said I was a kid who didn’t deserve water and didn’t give me a drink

When I went back to room 4, the interrogation started again immediately. I told the interrogator I was thirsty and hadn't drunk in the court, either, and asked for water. The interrogator said I was a kid who didn’t deserve water and didn’t give me a drink. He yelled at me and demanded that I confess, and then I remembered what the kids in the waiting room said about room 4, that it was like a slaughterhouse, and I decided to confess to something I hadn’t done – throwing stones.

After I confessed, they took me to another room. They brought me a sandwich with schnitzel, water and a coke. I think it was 3:00 P.M. From there, they took me to the detention facility in the Russian Compound ,and I slept alone in a cell that night. The next day I was joined by detained kids from Silwan, ‘Eissawiyah, Wadi al-Joz and Beit Hanina. They’re all still detained. The cell had two bunk beds and a toilet, and we were seven detainees there, so four slept on a bed and the rest on blankets on the floor, because there weren’t any more mattresses. The food was okay in terms of quantity and quality. I showered every day in the toilet stall in the cell, which had a shower. I stayed in the Russian Compound for two and a half months and throughout that period only saw my family at court hearings.

Four guards from the Nachshon unit came in and started kicking us for no reason

After two and a half months, I was transferred to Ramla Prison. That day, at around 4:00 P.M., they placed me and six other detainees, all under the age of 18, in a room in the Russian Compound where we waited for the prisoner transport vehicle. Four guards from the Nachshon unit came in and started kicking us for no reason. That went on for a few minutes and then we had our hands tied behind our backs. One of them pulled my tied hand backwards, and another hit me in the back with his elbow.

After half an hour in the waiting room, we were put on a minibus, where they forced us to sit hunched over. One of us fell on the way to the minibus and they kicked and slapped him.

The bus arrived at a prison, where they transferred us to a prisoner transport vehicle that had separate compartments. The guard who took me from the minibus to that vehicle car pressed his finger into my neck and then scratched my neck.

They put us in the vehicle, which took us to Ramla Prison. Inside, they tightened the zip ties on our hands, which were still tied behind our backs. We arrived at the transit wing of Ramla Prison. While they walked us there, the guards punched us in the head several times. When they released our hands from the zip ties, they would release one hand and tie the other hand. I felt like my wrist was going to break.

They put me and five other boys from Jerusalem in a cell that had no detainees in it. When we entered, they untied our hands and then brought each of us an egg and a slice of bread. We drank water from the tap in the restroom in the cell. The guard ordered us to kneel with our hands behind our backs, and said we were forbidden to fall asleep or change positions, or else he’d beat us up. It was already night-time and we were very tired from the entire transfer process, so despite the guard’s threat, we fell asleep and slept on the floor. We didn’t care what happened to us anymore.

The guard ordered us to kneel with our hands behind our backs, and said we were forbidden to fall asleep or change positions, or else he’d beat us up. It was already night-time and we were very tired

At round 4:00 A.M. the guard came to count us and found us sleeping. He grabbed the fingers on one of my hands and started bending them and twisting them. He threatened to break our fingers if we refused to obey and cursed us. He demanded that I say that my father was a collaborator, and I said it because I was afraid he would break my finger.

The next day, we had breakfast and were transferred to Megiddo Prison. They tightened the cuffs on our hands and feet painfully and I cried quietly from the pain. When we arrived at Megiddo Prison, they took away our clothes and gave us prison uniforms. My throat hurt and I felt like I had a fever. The medic gave me one paracetamol a day for two days. I was also hungry and thirsty, because we hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since breakfast in Ramla Prison. But that evening they didn’t give us food, and we went to sleep hungry. We were 11 detainees in one cell, even though it wasn’t designed to hold so many people. Some of us slept on mattresses on the floor.

The next day, for breakfast, each detainee got one spoonful of white cheese, a quarter of a loaf of bread and four slices of tomato. We were only taken out of the cell to the yard for one hour a day, which we also had to use to shower. I heard from other detainees that before 7 October, they were allowed to be in the yard for 12 hours a day. Each detainee was given half a plastic cup with shampoo, which was supposed to last for a week of showers. Because there was only one hour for both walking and showering, and due to the lack of soap, we didn’t shower every day, and on some days preferred to use the time for physical activity in the yard. We also saved some of the shampoo for washing clothes, since we didn’t get any laundry detergent. I only had one pair of underwear, one shirt and one pair of pants, which I was given when I got to the prison.

We received a small amount of food that didn’t vary: lunch and dinner were three spoonfuls of rice, without anything else. I went to bed hungry each night, waiting for breakfast, which included: one spoonful of white cheese, a quarter of a loaf of bread and four slices of tomato. The other detainees said that before 7 October, they used to buy food in the canteen, but it was shut down and all the equipment they had in the cell to prepare food and other things was confiscated.

Because of the poor ventilation and difficulty maintaining hygiene, I got a skin condition in my last month of detention. It itched and hurt a lot, and the only treatment they gave me was a paracetamol pill

After we did laundry, we hung the clothes up inside the cell, on two windows and on the beds, but because there wasn’t any sunlight and nearly no air came in through the small windows, they didn’t fully dry. Because of the poor ventilation and difficulty maintaining hygiene, I got a skin condition in my last month of detention. It itched and hurt a lot, and the only treatment they gave me was a paracetamol pill. There were four other detainees with skin conditions like mine in our cell.

Me and my friends in the cell weren’t beaten, maybe because we’re minors, but the guards would burst into other cells and beat them up, claiming they’d disobeyed the guards’ instructions.

My last court hearing was on 4 June 2024. During the drive to the court in Jerusalem, the guards punched me in the head, neck and back for about a minute. In court I was sentenced to six months in prison, but I was released on the day of the hearing, even though I had only served five. I was also fined 3,000 shekels (~USD 830) in 10 payments, and my parents paid it in installments.

After I got out, I found out I'd lost 20 kilos from malnourishment, both in terms of quantity and quality. The guards laughed at me. They were pleased with the outcome. Now I weigh 44 kilos.

*Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 11 June 2024