Btselem /17 Januatry 2024

I lived in Jabalya R.C. with my parents, Hatem and Khawlah, my three brothers, Ousamah, 17, Muhammad, 16, and ‘Abdallah, 14, and my two sisters, Sarah, 4, and Mays, 9. There were bombings and gunfire at the beginning of the war, but it wasn’t that close to us, so we stayed home. But on 7 November 2023, there were bombings really close to us, and the military also scatted flyers calling us to leave. We didn’t leave right away. We waited to see what would happen. On 18 November, after morning prayers, we gathered some clothes, bedding, documents and our phones, and we left. First we went to an UNRWA school at the al-Falujah area in the camp, and after a few hours, we moved to the house of my uncle Iyad Salem, 53, inside the camp.

I was told to sign a document. I was still blindfolded, and I signed without seeing what I was signing

There were about 20 of us there. The day we arrived, the house was hit by a bombing and we lost three members of our family: my brother Muhammad, my cousin Shams Salem, 13, and my grandfather’s wife, Maryam Salem, 55. Ousamah, ‘Abdallah and I were hurt by debris from the building that fell on top of us. Ousamah was injured in the head and needed stitches. He was evacuated with Mays and Sarah, who had some bruises, to al-‘Awdah Hospital. ‘Abdallah and I were taken to the Indonesian Hospital. Our parents weren’t hurt. They checked us at the hospital and kept us overnight. We buried my brother Muhammad the next day.

When we were discharged, we went to a different uncle’s house – Muhammad Salem, 46, also in Jabalya R.C. The rest of the family was already there. There were 35 people there. It was very crowded and there was constant shelling, with shrapnel landing on the house. We had nothing left, no clothes, no bedding, not even shoes. Everything was lost in the bombing. We stayed there for four days, and then my father decided we had to go south.

On 22 November, we said the morning prayers and left. We found a car to take us to the al-Kuwait roundabout on Salah a-Din Road. We got there at about 10:00 A.M., and from there we took a donkey-drawn cart. We got to the Netzarim checkpoint in about 10 minutes.

There were some tanks at the checkpoint. My mother held my brother ‘Abdallah’s hand. I held my sister Sarah’s hand, and Mays walked ahead of us. We walked in a line, one next to the other. There were a few soldiers on a dirt mound there, giving orders. They ordered us to sit on the ground about 30 meters away from them and not move. One of them aimed his weapon at us. About half an hour later, they ordered us to walk, holding up our ID cards and keeping a meter apart from one another.

I heard a soldier calling on the loudspeaker for the person in the red coat and the other person behind her with the white scarf to go over to him. Mays was the one with the red coat, and I was the one with the white scarf. He swore at us and told us to go over to him again. I took Mays, and we went to stand in the line of people who were called. A soldier who was sitting behind a dirt mound about 15 meters away from me demanded my ID number over the loudspeaker, and asked if anyone from my family belonged to Hamas. I said no, and he asked: Have you heard anything about the Israeli hostages? I said I hadn’t. He asked how many brothers and sisters I had, and in what order. Then he told me they would ask me a few questions with a lie detector and let me go.

Most of that time, the interrogator swore at me and didn’t ask questions. He called us dirty asses and said we didn’t deserve to live

The soldier took us and made us sit on the ground. Then we were blindfolded. I peeked under the blindfold and saw a woman in front of me and some dirt mounds. I heard female soldiers approaching. They made us stand up and walk for two minutes and then sat us down on the sand again. My blindfold was removed, and a soldier asked for my full name and ID number. He wanted Sarah’s ID number, but I told him she was little and didn’t have an ID card yet. He told me to go over to the other line with her. We stood there for about 15 minutes, and then it was our turn. A soldier told me to go over to a small dirt mound alone. I saw my mother from a distance and told Sarah to go over to her.

Then the soldier told me to go over to the two green flags. I went there. There, I went through a passageway and saw I was behind a fence, on my own, with three female soldiers and one male soldier. They told me to go into a tent nearby. When I went in, there were female soldiers there who told me to undress and put my phone and bag on the ground. My bag had my mother’s jewelry in it. I undressed, and then one of the female soldiers told me to turn around and then get dressed.

They blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and handcuffed me in front with white zip ties. Two soldiers held me on either side and led me from there to a place where I was told to sign a document. I was still blindfolded, and I signed without seeing what I was signing. They made me sit on a chair. My blindfold was taken off, and there was a man there who asked me in Arabic what my full name was and how old I was. He asked me what I was studying and what year I was, and asked for the names of my parents and siblings and what they did. I told him my mother was a teacher at an UNRWA school, and my father was a doctor and a lecturer at the university. I heard the voices of other female detainees there. I think there were about six. The soldiers brought us water. It was cold and one of the girls asked for a blanket, but she wasn’t given one. They tied a piece of plastic to my hand with the number 12 on it.

One of the girls was in pain. The soldiers asked me to translate what she was saying into English, and I translated that she thought she’d miscarried. One of the soldiers said, ‘Oh my God.’

We sat and waited until, at night, the soldiers put us in a vehicle and someone kicked us. We drove for about half an hour. We heard men shouting. They must have been in another jeep. We were taken out of the jeep and led to a tent where they made us sit on the ground, which was full of rocks. There were six of us girls. It was cold, and we asked for blankets. They brought a light blanket for each of us. One of the girls was in pain. The soldiers asked me to translate what she was saying into English, and I translated that she thought she’d miscarried. One of the soldiers said, ‘Oh my God.’ A doctor came in and covered her with a blanket. She was told to put on shoes, so she wouldn’t be so cold. The soldiers told us to sleep, but it was too cold and we were lying handcuffed on rocks, so we weren’t really able to.

In the morning, a soldier led us, barefoot, along some ground covered in rocks to a bus. They sat us each in a different seat and ordered us to bend over and keep our heads down. We rode on the bus for a long time. We got out somewhere I didn’t recognize. I later found out from the detainees that it was the Anatot camp. They sat us on rocks in an area that was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

From there, they took us one by one into a room where there were a few female soldiers. In the room, they took our blindfolds and gave us other clothes to wear. They were light clothes, gray pants and a beige shirt. They told us to take off our headscarves. When I asked to keep mine on, they said it was forbidden. They took my gold necklace and two bracelets I had on, as well as 700 dinar I was carrying, and had me sign a deposit slip without translating it for me. They took a photo of me without my head scarf on a cell phone. One of the soldiers asked me how I knew English, and then they took us to an infirmary where they checked some things like temperature and blood pressure. They asked me if I had any illnesses, and I said I had thalassemia and took folic acid.

Then they handcuffed us to each other in pairs, so one of was cuffed on the right leg and the other on the left. The female soldier tightened them. We were blindfolded and put on a bus, and we rode for five minutes. On the bus, I heard the girl who said she’d miscarried earlier screaming in pain. An officer yelled at her. When we arrived, we were led out of the bus. The handcuffs were removed and we were taken into interrogation one by one, still blindfolded.

When it was my turn to be interrogated, a female soldier took me into an office. She took my blindfold off and sat me down. An interrogator came in and asked me how old I was, what I was studying, how many brothers and sisters I had, about the uncles on my father’s and mother’s side, what my parents did, if we had weapons and if I knew people from Hamas. He showed me a picture of my paternal cousin and asked me about him. I told him I didn’t know where he worked and that I had no contact with him. He asked for his phone number and when I didn’t know it, he yelled at me.

I was handcuffed and taken somewhere outside that looked like a metal cage [...] they kept us in that cage for a week

He asked me about the Israeli hostages in Gaza and told me to mark my house and the neighbors’ houses on a map. Every time I said I didn’t know something, he yelled at me. The interrogation took about an hour, and most of that time, the interrogator swore at me and didn’t ask questions. He called us dirty asses and said we didn’t deserve to live. He cursed my brother who was killed in the bombing, and said that the children in Gaza should be exterminated, that we should all be deported, that our houses should be destroyed and that we should be erased. He said the Palestinian people were garbage. At the end of the interrogation, he told me: “You are rude, rude, rude!” And then he said: “Take her away.”

I was handcuffed and taken somewhere outside that looked like a metal cage. The girls who were with me before were in it. They kept us in that cage for a week, during which I was taken into interrogation twice more. Each of us was given one light blanket. For food, we got yoghurt, an apple and a piece of bread. They would take us to the bathroom in handcuffs. The toilets were very dirty, and there was no water to wash our hands.

In the second interrogation, I was asked about the location of several sites: Al Yamen as Saeed Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, UNRWA schools, the market in Jabalya R.C., and the names of businesses in the market.

On 29 November 2023, we were taken, in handcuffs, to buses that had the AC running really high. It was freezing. We were driven to Damun Prison. At the prison, we were put in a small cell with a toilet, all six girls together. On Tuesday, 9 January 2024, soldiers came from the prison, called our names and told us we were being released. One of the girls, Nihal al-Ghandur, was released before the others.

They transferred us to another detention center, with our hands and feet tied. I saw a sign that said Beersheba. We stayed there for three days. We were treated particularly badly there. We were forced to sit on gravel, and the female soldiers were very violent. They pushed us and hit us on the head. That went on for three days. We weren’t allowed to lie down, move or touch the blindfold. They only took us to the bathroom. All we got to eat was a bit of tuna and bread.

The female soldiers were very violent. They pushed us and hit us on the head. That went on for three days

In the end, they gave back my bracelets and necklace and the 700 dinars there, and took us to the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza. When I got there, I called my family and my mother came to get me. Now I’m with my family at the IDP camp in Khan Yunis.

No one from the ICRC visited us during my arrest, and we weren’t allowed to speak with a lawyer or tell our families where we were.

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 17 Januatry 2024