Btselem  /1 February 2024

I live with my wife and our two daughters, Basmah, about 2, and Aylul, 8 months, in the old city of al-Khader, in the same building as my parents.

On Saturday, 20 January 2024, at around 1:00 A.M., we were woken by banging, knocking and people’s voices. A few moments later, while we were still in bed, an officer and more than 10 soldiers, some of them masked, entered the room. They broke into the house using devices to open the door.

The officer ordered us to go to the living room right away, and we got out of bed in our pajamas. I told him our two daughters were in their room, and he ordered me to go get them and bring them to the living room, too. My wife and I went into the girls’ room. They were still asleep. I picked Basmah up and my wife picked Aylul up. We sat down in the living room with them.

I tried talking to them, but it was no use. All I heard from them was “Shut up.”

The officer asked me if there was anyone else in the house and I told him there wasn’t. He ordered us to get our ID cards and cell phones, as well as the gold jewelry and money in the house. We got everything he asked for.

The soldiers searched the rooms for about 10 minutes. Then they took pictures of my wife and me. One of the soldiers told me to hand Basmah to my wife and go with them. My wife asked them where I was going, and the soldier answered: “To prison.” They tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth, and then two soldiers grabbed me by the shoulders and took me to the first floor. They left the gold and money on the table and we left.

When we got to the main street, outside the house, the soldiers violently threw me into a military jeep and I fell in, face down on the floor. The soldiers got in after me. They had a dog with them. They trod on my back and kicked me, while the dog sat next to me.

They took me to a military checkpoint. Based on the distance we traveled, I think it was the DCO (Beit Jala) checkpoint. It was a very short drive, about four minutes. The soldiers pulled me out of the jeep and threw me down. I was down on my knees, and then they ordered me to get up. I got up and soldiers attacked me, beating me, hitting me with the butts of their guns and kicking me all over my body.

I tried talking to them, but it was no use. All I heard from them was “Shut up.” I was beaten by several soldiers. It was very violent and painful. I fell down more than once, because it was so painful, and each time the soldiers stood me back up and kept beating me. They swore at me and told me that we Palestinians should die. I was bleeding from my nose and mouth, and my legs and back hurt a lot.

About an hour later, I was again shoved onto the floor of a military vehicle. This time, they took me to another place, which I later found out was the Etzion camp south of Bethlehem. It must have been around 2:30 A.M.

They hit me with their guns all over my body, with the butts and with the barrels. They also kicked me in the ribs on both sides of my body, and in the back.

When I got there, the soldiers dragged me on the ground until we reached a yard, where they made me sit on the ground. They forced me to lie face down, and sometimes on my back. They hit me with their guns all over my body, with the butts and with the barrels. They also kicked me in the ribs on both sides of my body, and in the back.

I couldn’t take it and asked them again and again to stop, but then the soldiers just beat me harder on purpose. I felt that my ribs were breaking. I was handcuffed and blindfolded the whole time, but I got the feeling someone was filming it. It went on like that, on and off, until 5:30 A.M.

Then I was taken to the detention facility. They put me in a room where I was forced to take all my clothes off so they could strip-search me. I had blood in my mouth, my legs were bleeding and my hands were swollen from the zip ties, which were tied far too tight. I was forced to stand and then bend over, naked, several times. I felt very humiliated. A military doctor came in and I told him I was exhausted from the beatings, but he didn’t care.

I couldn’t move anymore, so after that, the soldiers carried me to the yard of the detention facility. Then they brought two detainees there, who carried me into a cell. When I checked my body, I saw I had wounds and bruises on both legs.

I was put in cell 1, which was 3 by 5 meters large and already had 10 inmates and 10 beds in it. I was the eleventh, so one of us had to sleep on the floor. We took turns, so it was someone else every night. Each prisoner had a very thin mattress and two blankets. There were no pillows. We were freezing cold because the window had no windowpanes, and neither did the toilet window. There was a constant flow of cold air, and the blankets weren’t enough to keep us warm. The toilets weren’t clean and we had no cleaning supplies at all.

The first morning, after breakfast, which was some bread and a small tub of yogurt for every inmate, I was handcuffed and taken to the interrogation center.

I was put in an interrogation room, handcuffed, and my blindfold was taken off. There were two interrogators there. One introduced himself as Yusef and the other as Ya’qub. The first one said he was in charge of the city of Bethlehem on behalf of the Shin Bet (ISA). They questioned me about holding weapons, and the officer said he’d found weapons behind my home. I denied the accusation.

Then they took me back to the detention facility, and I stayed there for nine days. We could shower, but there was no soap. There was only one towel for the entire cell, that is, for all 11 detainees. We had no change of clothes. We got three meals a day. We ate in the yard, and they gave us only 10 minutes to do it. The food was very bad, and wasn’t enough for even half the detainees.

Each detainee was allowed to smoke one or two cigarettes a day. When the soldiers came to count us, they’d sometimes tell us to stand up and sometimes order us to kneel facing the wall. The soldiers would come and knock on the cell doors for no reason.

A detainee from Nur Shams Refugee Camp who was wounded in the knee. He was arrested immediately after the injury. He screamed in pain all night, but they didn’t give him any medical treatment.

I remember a detainee from Nur Shams Refugee Camp who was wounded in the knee. He was arrested immediately after the injury. He screamed in pain all night, but they didn’t give him any medical treatment. Most of the detainees in the cell were beaten before they arrived, during their arrest.

On 30 January 2024, people from the Nachshon unit transferred me to Ofer Prison for about one day. They took me, with iron handcuffs on my hands and legs, and put me and 18 other inmates in a truck with iron seats and iron partitions. They had a dog with them.

We were strip-searched at Ofer Prison. My clothes were confiscated, and I was given a brown uniform – a shirt and pants. I also got a towel, a small tube of toothpaste, a piece of soap and underwear.

I was put in cell 9, wing 26. There were 12 inmates and eight beds in the cell, so four slept on the floor. Each detainee had a thin mattress and two blankets. We had no other clothes – just a shirt and pants each. It was very cold and the windows had no windowpanes. The cell had no equipment such as kitchenware, books or pens. Everything was confiscated before I arrived. They confiscated our shoes, too, and gave each prisoner a pair of plastic slippers.

It felt that the prisons had gone back to the conditions of the 1970s. The lights went off from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., but at night they deliberately kept them on. The shower was in the yard, in a structure with the door removed. There was hot water, but we had to put on the same clothes after showering. The food was terrible. I gathered that none of the sick prisoners received medication, except diabetics.

During the day I spent there, they counted us four times, and we had to stand up for roll call.

I was released the next night, around midnight. They drove me in a jeep, handcuffed and alone, to the al-Jib checkpoint in Ramallah and left me there. It was rainy and very cold. Luckily, a couple that passed by their car picked me up. They took me to their house, where I changed and spent the night.

In the morning, the man drove me to a taxi station and from there I went home. When I got home, my family took me to al-Hussein Government Hospital, where I had x-rays and tests. They treated the bruising from the beating in various parts of my body. I’m still resting at home and recovering.

My wife told me that after they took me, the soldiers searched my house and my parents’ house, wreaked havoc and broke furniture. They still haven’t give back my wife’s cell phone or mine.

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Basel al-Adrah on 1 February 2024