Btselem / 5 December 2023

I’m from East Jerusalem. I was arrested in 2021 on a security charge and sentenced to 12 years in prison. I was put in Wing 3 of Damun Prison, the women’s wing.

On 7 October 2023, we heard on the news that Hamas attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border. That day, about 20 guards burst with batons into the cell I shared with five other inmates and beat us for about half an hour.

The guards came into the cell, hit us on the head from behind and sprayed large amounts of pepper spray in the cell. We all started suffocating. They handcuffed us with metal handcuffs, which they opened by hitting them on our hands. The pepper spray burned our faces and stung our eyes. We asked for cream to soothe the pain, but they refused. Later, we were taken to isolation cells on the second floor.

I was put in an isolation cell with a prisoner from Nablus. It’s a tiny cell, with no bed or mattress. There’s a toilet right there in the room, with no partition or privacy. It was very cold. There’s a security camera in the cell, too. After four hours, we were taken out of the isolation cells and taken back to our regular cells. There was still gas in the air and it was very hard to breathe in there, but we had no way to get out. We tried airing the cell for three days to get rid of the gas and the smell.

The day they put us in isolation, they also confiscated everything we had in the cells: fans, kettles, food and such, and cut off the power to all the cells in the prison. When we came back, the cell was completely empty. They put our belongings in the library. Because the power was cut off, we couldn’t follow the news. They also turned off the hot water in the showers.

On 19 October 2023, guards came barging into the cells again. These invasions of our cells by men were a serious violation of our privacy. They entered unannounced, when some of the inmates didn’t have their headscarves on and weren’t dressed modestly. This time, they confiscated the tables and chairs and even the shoes, and beat us with batons.

That lasted about two hours. One of them said they’d been given a green light to do whatever they wanted to inmates in prisons. They sprayed pepper spray in the cells again and took some of the inmates to isolation cells on the second floor. One of the inmates they took was taking care of a paralyzed prisoner who was with us, and she was left without help. To protest the inmates' isolation, we refused to eat. We gave them the food back. We also refused to stand in line for roll call or come out of the cells. In short, we rebelled against all prison rules until they brought the inmates back from solitary confinement a week later.

Because they put all our stuff in the library, including the refrigerators with food we bought in the canteen, and because the power was cut off and the refrigerators didn't work, the library stank of rot. The prison administration ordered us to clean the library and throw away the rotten food, but we refused to do it.

Until 7 October 2023, inmates would cook for themselves and serve the food to the cells. But after that day, we were banned from cooking as part of the punishment policy. Instead, the prison administration provided spoiled food, like moldy bread. We were banned from baking pita bread, and we only got sliced bread. When we got chicken breast, it was white and undercooked. The rice was sticky and inedible. The eggs were blue and smelly. I was so hungry I tried to scrape mold off bread and eat it. I also had to eat the eggs, even though they were disgusting. Before, we used to buy mineral water in the canteen, but after 7 October, we had to drink the tap water in the cell, which was yellow and dirty with bits of rust in it.

Prison yard outings were canceled and so were family visits. Before, prisoners from East Jerusalem were entitled to a visit once every two weeks, and prisoners from the West Bank were only allowed a visit once a month.

All medical treatments we used to get in prison also stopped. They even tried to extort information about plans to protest the punishment policy from prisoners, in exchange for medical treatment. I remember a 21-year-old prisoner from Hebron who almost fainted from hunger and thirst in the shower because there was no proper drinking water. As “treatment,” they gave her a bag of salt to eat, so she'd have to drink a lot of the foul tap water after. She refused to eat it, of course.

I was supposed to be released in the fourth round of the prisoner swap between Hamas and the occupation authorities. On the day of the first round, the guards came into the cells and told us some of us were being released. Because we weren’t getting any news from outside, we didn’t know anything about the deal and they didn’t explain why. They handcuffed 24 prisoners and dragged them out of the cell by the handcuffs, which was painful.

Then, one of the guards explained that they were going to release the female prisoners, both adult and minor, as well as male minors, but he didn’t tell us it was part of a deal and how it would work. So we prepared to be released every day. We got dressed at 7:00 A.M. and waited all day for them to release us. Waiting to be released was very difficult. Imagine knowing you’re going to be released but not knowing when.

One Saturday, guards came and took me and another eight prisoners from East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. They deliberately handcuffed us in a painful way and dragged us by the handcuffs. Only one inmate from Jabal al-Mukabber stayed in prison and wasn’t released with us. We left the prison at 9:00 A.M. and got to the Russian Compound at 11:00. When we got there, our handcuffs were taken off and a police officer took a video of us. He asked each one of us: “What’s your name? How are you?” Then we were handcuffed again and taken to a waiting cell. Three hours later, I was transferred to another cell, alone, supposedly because I was a minor and I wasn't allowed to stay with the older women. The guard told me: “If you talk, they won’t let you go.” But in the end, they put me in a cell with adult women from Jenin.

One of them felt unwell because of the long wait and hunger. I started shouting and asking them to come help her. Someone came with a toolbox, which meant he was a maintenance worker and not a medic. He told her to drink but she refused to drink the tap water, which was dirty and yellow, so he brought her a bottle of ice water. She was afraid to drink that, too, so she was still dizzy and in pain.

Then they moved us to another cell for the night. There were no blankets, and only thin mattresses you couldn’t sleep on. There were several cameras in the cell. The next morning, they brought each of us one slice of bread, a piece of cheese and a cucumber.

In the end, they sent me back to Damun Prison. I don’t know why they didn’t release me with the others. On Monday, 27 November 2023, they took me to Jerusalem again to release me. They held me at the Russian Compound from 11:30 A.M. to half past midnight, and then drove me home. My dad came to pick me up but he wasn’t allowed to drive me in his car, so he sat next to me in the police car. When we got home, the police kicked out all the journalists, relatives and neighbors who were waiting for me there. They allowed only members of the immediate family to greet me at home – my father, mother, brothers and sisters.

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 5 December 2023