Bteselm / 7 April 2024

I make a living selling vegetables. Over the years, the Israeli military has arrested me five times. The first time was in 2008 and the last in 2023, after October 7. The detentions lasted four to six months. One of these was an administrative detention, and another was for alleged incitement on Facebook. But the detention after October 7 was completely different from all the others.

On 18 October 2023, around 2:00 A.M., a military force led by a Shin Bet officer invaded my home in the Wadi al-’Ein neighborhood. I was at the market in Nablus at the time, buying vegetables for my shops in Ni’lin. When they didn’t find me at home, they invaded the homes of my twin brothers, ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, 29. The officer called me from ‘Abd a-Rahman’s phone, introduced himself as “Bashar” and said they’d arrested my brothers. He threatened that he’d let them go only if I turned myself in. I told him I was in Nablus and he said I had 30 minutes to get there. I told him: “How can I get to you from Nablus within half an hour?” I asked him to let me turn myself in at the Huwarah checkpoint, but he refused. I proposed going to Ofer Camp in the morning, but he refused that too. He insisted that I come to the Ni’lin checkpoint and said I’d be considered a wanted fugitive if I didn’t. I told him I had no intention of running away. I had no choice. I left the market and drove back towards Ni’lin, but the trip took longer because of the checkpoints and the closed roads in the West Bank, and I didn’t arrive until 5:00 A.M.

During the detention, anyone who asked to go to the bathroom or drink water was punched and severely kicked by the guards

When I got to the village, I didn’t find the soldiers there, but then the officer called me and ordered me to come to the Ni’lin checkpoint right away. I went there together with a young guy who was also wanted by the officer. I took a bag of clothes with me, because I assumed I would be arrested. When I got to the checkpoint, the officer called me. He said he’d seen me on the security camera and asked what was in my bag. I said it was clothes, and he asked if there was a bomb inside. I opened the bag and took everything out so he would see there was nothing forbidden in it. Then he ordered us to go into the checkpoint. We went in, and they did a routine search on us.

Muhammad Srur before the war and after his release. Photos courtesy of the witness

At that point, around 7:00 A.M., the Shin Bet officer came and introduced himself. He was wearing a military uniform. It was the first time I saw him. He had two checkpoint security guards with him. From there they took us to a room measuring 1x2 meters. After 30 minutes, the door opened and the officer called “Bashar” told us the rules of the game had changed, that Hamas had killed children and raped women, that they were ISIS. Then he told me they knew I was active and were familiar with my political activity. He told me I was going to prison. After another 30 minutes, soldiers arrived. They handcuffed us. At first, they wanted to tie my hands behind my back, but I told them I couldn’t bend my right arm back because I’d dislocated my shoulder at work, so they handcuffed me in front. The other guy was handcuffed from behind. Then they blindfolded us with pieces of cloth and took us to a military jeep outside the checkpoint. They put us in, on the floor of the jeep. I recognized it was a Jeep by the sound of the engine. From there we were taken to the Rantisi camp (the Rantis military post). When we were there, they brought my brothers ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, and the father and brother of the other detainee, who were also held hostage until he turned himself in. Then they let them go. They put us together with a group of young guys. I recognized, under the blindfold, that they were people from our village arrested that night. They sat us on the floor. There were about 11 of us there. At 9:00 A.M., I was taken to the infirmary to be seen by a military doctor. He asked me in Hebrew about my health. I understand Hebrew, and I answered his questions. It was just a token test. My hands were tied, but I didn’t have the blindfold on. Then they did a medical check for the second detainee and took us back to the group. During the detention, anyone who asked to go to the bathroom or drink water was punched and severely kicked by the guards. I’m experienced, so I didn’t ask for anything, even though I had to go to the bathroom. They beat four detainees like that.

They pretended they were shooting a kidnapping scene in a movie. I heard the soldiers laughing and asking each other to take a video. It lasted about ten minutes

At around 11:00 A.M., they took us to a bus, blindfolded and handcuffed. One other guy and I had our hands tied in front, and all the others had their hands tied behind their backs. They put us on the bus seats and then a round of abuse started. They ordered us to sing and repeat the phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” (the People of Israel live). They demanded each of us, in turn, to say it. Anyone who refused was beaten. I refused, and then one of the soldiers pushed my head down between the two seats and hit me on the back and head. After that, he told me to say the sentence after him and continued to press on my head. He moved on to someone else each time, and then came back to me. They told us they were taking us to Gaza to kill us there. Later, it turned out they’d taken us to the settlement of Ma’ale Efrayim. Four detainees were taken off the bus there. I later found out they had heart conditions and were supposedly taken for an ECG, but they didn’t get one on the pretext there was no machine. They were brought back to the bus half an hour later, and the drive continued. We didn’t know where we were being taken. On the way, the “party” started: “Am Yisrael Chai,” shouting, “you’ll die in Gaza.” They beat us and swore at us. We were filmed, which I realized when one of them raised my head and pointed it in the direction of his cell phone in order to take a video with me. He lifted my blindfold and demanded that I say that sentence. I refused, and he started hitting me like before. The ride was long. We got very tired, because they didn’t give us food or drink or let us go to the bathroom. It took more than three hours to get to Etzion. We were taken off the bus in an outer yard, where we joined about 40 other detainees. Some of them were forced to lie face down, and others were sitting normally. Some had their legs cuffed, too. They made us sit there.

I heard the screams of other detainees and the guards hitting and swearing. They went from one group of detainees to the next, until it was our turn to be beaten. It comes out of nowhere. Over the course of about two hours, I took more than ten kicks to the side of my body, which hurt a lot. Some of the time, I really couldn’t breathe. They also made me stand up, and from under the blindfold I saw they were wrapping an Israeli flag around me and filming me. Then one of them put his arm around my neck, pushed my head down and ran with me in the yard. Another soldier filmed it. They pretended they were shooting a kidnapping scene in a movie. I heard the soldiers laughing and asking each other to take a video. It lasted about ten minutes. I didn’t see them do it to anyone else.

Then, they put me in a room and took off my blindfold. In the room were three soldiers and a computer. They took my fingerprints and took away my things (cell phone, ID card, money and cigarettes). They were going to throw the clothes I brought with me in the trash, but I asked them to let me wear them – because I’d specifically brought clothes that were supposed to match the prison rules. They agreed. Then they searched me and told me to strip naked, including my underwear. They strip-searched me with a hand-held metal detector. Then I put on the same clothes and they took me back to the yard, where they ordered me to kneel.

I waited for an hour until they were done with the rest of the detainees. Staying like that hurt a lot, and after a while I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. Every time I tried to change position to give my legs a little rest, someone hit me on the head. Then they took me and five other detainees to the prison cells. In the hallways, on the way, the guards pushed us violently against the walls. We were put in cell number 8. It was a large cell with five iron bunk beds but there were no mattresses, only thin foam that was two centimeters thick, or a blanket. There were no lights in the cell. It was almost pitch dark. There was a toilet, but it stank badly and had no door. There was a sink with a tap for drinking and washing hands.

That night, there were only seven of us in the cell, although in that prison they usually cram into the cells twice as many inmates as they are supposed to. It wasn’t until nighttime that they brought us food, a big pot of spaghetti with eggs. They fed us like animals: we were taken out to the yard one cell at a time, and all ate from the same pot with the same spoons. In other words, all the detainees from 12 cells ate from that one pot. We didn’t even know what we were eating, but we ate just to not be hungry. Some of the detainees were so disgusted, they couldn’t eat.

We slept in that cell, and the next morning they called me and transferred me to Ofer Prison in a prisoner transport vehicle with ten other detainees, all from Ni’lin. We were blindfolded and shackled at the hands and feet with metal cuffs that were very tight and really dug into the flesh and hurt us. We were escorted by people from the Nachshon unit. There was a partition between us and them and they didn’t hit us on the way.

When we got to Ofer, we were put in a 2x2 meter waiting room that only had a small window for ventilation and a concrete bench that wasn’t enough for everyone. Most of us stood. Then they put ten more detainees in the cell and we were kept like that for an hour. There was no water in there and only a small bare toilet bowl attached to the wall. We asked for water but they didn’t give us any. Then they took us for a body search, where they threw the shoes and the clothes we were wearing in the trash. I was strip searched, fully naked, with the door open. During the search they passed their hands over my body and forced me to stand and bend over three times. Then they gave me a brown prison uniform, flip flops, a towel and a toothbrush. They only gave me back my underwear. I asked them why they’d thrown away my clothes, because I did bring clothes that met prison rules in terms of the type and color. They said we weren’t allowed to wear clothes we’d brought with us at all.

After the search, I was transferred to cell 2 in wing 14. There were nine prisoners with me in the cell, and sometimes they put in more, up to 12. The cell was 7x3.5 meters. It had three bunk beds, and each prisoner had a mattress and a blanket. There was light, but there were no electrical appliances: no electric kettle, no hotplate for cooking and no dishes or pots for cooking like there used to be. There was no radio either, or books, not even a Quran. We didn’t get cleaning supplies, or a mop, so the cell stayed dirty and smelly. There were a lot of bed bugs and insects. After three days, we were given a mop just once, and we could wash the cell. As for showers, in the morning, the prisoners in each cell would get 15 minutes to go out together to the showers. The water was cold, and there was no shampoo or soap. We had no change of clothes, not even underwear.

There were only two meals a day, at midday and in the evening. In the morning, we only got a 50-gram tub of yogurt, which can’t be considered a meal. At midday, it was half-cooked rice and each prisoner got three or four spoonfuls, and once a week two hotdogs, or sometimes a piece of fried chicken breast and a potato. We stayed hungry most of the time. In the evening, the meal was one pepper, hummus and eggs, not in sufficient quantities either.

During the entire five months I was in Ofer Prison, there were no visits, no lawyers and no Red Cross. On 23 October 2023, I was taken out for a court hearing. They handcuffed me, and until I went into the hearing, they kept me in a waiting cell where the treatment was very humiliating. That was an ordeal in itself.

While the IPS transferred us, some of them behaved normally and others were violent: they beat and cursed us, and forced us to keep our heads down. That day, they took me into an interrogation room at Ofer. It wasn’t really an interrogation. He asked the questions and answered them himself. It went like this: the interrogator asked, “Are you Hamas?” and answered himself, “No.” Then he asked: “Did you take part in incidents?” and answered “No,” and so on. One of the interrogators told me to sign a form he handed me. Then they took me back to the cell. At 6:00 P.M., they brought in two new detainees to our cell. They were both from Beit Sira, and I didn’t know them. One of them was called ‘Arafat Yasser Hamdan. He was 24 years old. ‘Arafat didn’t seem in good shape. It was obvious he was exhausted, and he couldn’t speak. I asked the other detainee what was wrong with him. He said: “He’s sick and tired.” I noticed ‘Arafat kept putting his hands over his belly and that he was limping on his right leg. I understood he was beaten at Etzion. We gave him a mattress and let him sleep. After half an hour, he got up and went quickly to the toilet holding his belly, and started vomiting. Then he came back and lay on the mattress and it was clear that he was in pain. In two hours, he threw up again and again, more than five times. Each time, after he came back to the mattress, he would say, “Help me, help me”, and bang his hand on the floor. When we asked him what happened to him, he said: “They hit me, they tortured me.” Then he told us: “I have a blood sugar problem. If I don’t eat something to raise my blood sugar, I’ll go into a convulsion fit and might pass out. It makes my condition worse. They also hit me in the stomach.”

I told them more than five times that ‘Arafat was dead, and they only said they weren’t allowed to open the door and that the medic would come soon

For two hours, between 6:30 and 8:30 P.M., I asked again and again through the opening in the door for a doctor to come see him. In the end, only a medic arrived, who looked at ‘Arafat through the opening in the door. ‘Arafat explained his health problem and told him he was in bad shape and needed hospital care because of his diabetes. I understood that he needed a special injection, but the medic told him: “There’s no hospital” and left without giving him any treatment.

‘Arafat’s condition got worse. He had trouble breathing and was panting. He threw up again and again. We couldn’t help him at all. I took turns with another detainee, staying up to watch over him at night. I tried to help him, and mostly lifted him every time he had to throw up, so he wouldn’t suffocate. He started vomiting a black liquid that looked like coffee grounds. In the morning, he passed out. For four or five hours, I begged more than 30 times to send the medic again. When he finally came, he saw ‘Arafat unconscious through the opening in the door and told me he had to go to the infirmary. I asked how he was supposed to get to the infirmary if he was unconscious, so the medic asked us to drag him to the door of the cell. After we dragged ‘Arafat on a blanket to the door, the medic asked us to get him on his feet. I asked how he was supposed to stand on his feet when he was unconscious. In the end, he gave me a blood sugar test device, with sticks. We checked, and it was very low. After two minutes, the medic came back and asked the guard to open the cell door to get ‘Arafat out. We put him on a mattress and dragged him about 15 meters to the administration office. They brought him back 40 minutes later. He was walking and it looked like they’d given him fluids. Then a nurse came and brought a glass of sugar water. He gave me the glass and told me to let ‘Arafat drink from it every time he started to get tired. He also asked us to feed him. We tried to get him to eat bread with labneh, but he couldn’t eat. He would take a bite and it would stay in his mouth for 15 minutes, because he couldn’t swallow.

I tried to give him the sugar water, but he couldn’t swallow that either. After an hour, he started getting worse again, and he passed out. I asked the guard again and again to call the medic, but he refused. At midday roll call, ‘Arafat couldn’t stand up. The officer asked me why he wasn’t getting up and I told him about ‘Arafat’s condition. He said he’d asked the medic about him and he’d told him that ‘Arafat didn’t have anything and there was nothing that could be done for him. After roll call, they left the cell, and ‘Arafat stayed like that until 3:00 P.M. At one point, I fell asleep because I’d stayed up at night to watch over him. Then the other prisoners woke me up and told me ‘Arafat had stopped breathing. I saw he was foaming at the mouth. I checked for a pulse, but there was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing. For five to 10 minutes we gave him CPR, with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but he didn’t respond. I know a bit about first aid, and because he showed no signs of life, I thought he was dead. We started calling the guards. A guard would pass by every now and then. I told them more than five times that ‘Arafat was dead, and they only said they weren’t allowed to open the door and that the medic would come soon.

It went on like that for an hour or an hour and a half and only then, suddenly, everyone came, management people, guards, doctors and medics. They opened the door. I dragged ‘Arafat out to the yard on a mattress along with two other detainees. From there, they took him on a stretcher towards the administration office. We don’t know what happened to him after that. Half an hour later, a guard came back and told us ‘Arafat was okay and had no health problem. He said he’d been taken to the hospital and was doing well. I said, “Are you kidding us?!” I didn’t believe what he said. ‘Arafat was dead when he left the cell, without a pulse and not breathing. I asked: “How can you say he doesn’t have any health problem?” but he didn’t respond.

After the hearing, on the way to the cell, the IPS people took revenge on me for complaining about their behavior. They hit and kicked me brutally the whole way

I stayed in that cell until 1 November, and then they took me and 49 other detainees to a waiting cell for transfer. It was a tough transfer. Our hands and feet were tied (without blindfolds), and the Nachshon people who escorted us set their dogs on us, beat us with batons, mainly on the back and legs, and kept cursing Hamas leaders. We received humiliating treatment in the waiting cell too. From there, they took us to the bus. The whole business, from the moment they took us out of the cells until they put us on the bus, took from 6:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., meaning five hours in a row of humiliation, abuse and unbearable beatings. The bus was divided into compartments, and each compartment had room for three prisoners. There were two young guys with me, one from Ramallah and the other from Bethlehem. The guy from Ramallah told me that at Ofer Prison, they shot a tear-gas or pepper-spray canister at his leg at point blank range. His leg was bandaged and you could see the blood underneath. He said he had deep wounds and burns and that his leg was paralyzed for a while after the shot.

After about three hours of a tough, tiring journey, we arrived at Nafha Prison. We were taken out of the bus and on the way to the cell, were treated the same way we were treated at Ofer Prison. They set dogs on us, beat us badly and hurled insults at us. Before we went into the cells, they took me and another detainee to a room where they sat us in front of a computer to participate in a live court hearing. Before the hearing began, we were attacked and beaten hard with metal batons all over our bodies for more than 30 minutes. At the court hearing there were judges, prosecutors, a translator and a lawyer. When the lawyer saw me on the computer with my face red, swollen and bruised, he asked what happened to me. I told him what happened before the hearing and he asked me to tell the judge. I did get the chance to speak at the hearing and I told the judge what happened. He asked me if I had been taken in for a medical check and if a doctor had treated me. I said no. He recommended taking me to a doctor. During the hearing, I found out I’d been issued an administrative detention order for six months. Because of my health condition, and because of the severe beating and abuse, it was shortened to five months.

During the hearing, I also spoke about what happened to ‘Arafat, and about how we were brutally attacked and abused by the guards during transfers, but the judge didn’t pay attention to that. After the hearing, on the way to the cell, the IPS people took revenge on me for complaining about their behavior. They hit and kicked me brutally the whole way. When we arrived, they put me in cell 68 on wing 12. I think that wing is designated for Hamas prisoners. The cells were dilapidated and it looked like we were the first ones to be put in them. It smelled damp and there was mold on the walls. It was impossible to breathe inside. All you dream of in there is a breath of fresh air. The cells had no windows facing the yard, and they were connected by a long, roofed corridor, so no sunlight or clean air came through. The cells were 7x3.5 meters. There was no electricity in there and nothing for basic needs. There were only four bunk beds, which could hold eight people, but they put 10, 12 and sometimes 14 prisoners in each cell.

On the first day, all we got was a mattress, even though the nights are very cold because ofthe desert climate. We were shivering with cold and tried to stick to each other as much as possible to warm up a little. It took three days until they brought us blankets. Each prisoner got one blanket. I was very cold, because I only had a short-sleeved shirt after they confiscated my clothes. There wasn’t enough water. We could only drink from the tap in the bathroom sink, which smelled very bad. The toilet cubicle had a shower, but there was no hot water in it most of the time. When we did get hot water, it was only for one hour and not at fixed times. Sometimes there was hot water day after day, and sometimes there was none for a whole week. There was cold water for one hour almost every day. The cell was very dirty and full of bedbugs and other insects that bit us and caused allergic reactions, and sometimes real swelling. It stressed us out and kept us from sleeping well. The main feature of that prison was disruption of daily routines, for example, with transfers from place to place, sudden attacks, noises from outside, a policy of starving us for food and water. In short, it felt like slowly dying. We were cut off from the outside world. There were no visits from family, the Red Cross or lawyers. When I was finally released, the lawyer told me he had submitted three requests to visit me, but they were all denied.

From time to time, they brought Israeli visitors and Israeli journalists and show them our situation and how we were being mistreated. Sometimes, they’d bring some of the visitors into the cells and tell us to kneel on the floor and bend over, in a very difficult and humiliating position, until the end of the visit. Sometimes they jeered and laughed at us.

We felt our bodies were rotting with dirt. Some of us had rashes Some of us had rashes. There was no hygiene. There was no soap, shampoo, hair brushes or nail clippers

There was nothing in the cells to help pass the time – a book, a Quran, a radio, even a clock to know the prayer times. We could only guess them by the light outside, and by our biological clocks or inner sense of time. We felt our bodies were rotting with dirt. Some of us had rashes. There was no hygiene. There was no soap, shampoo, hair brushes or nail clippers. After a month and a half, we got shampoo for the first time. There were no cleaning supplies either, and it was impossible to clean the cell or the toilet, or to wash clothes. After a month and a half, they brought the end of a rubber mop without the stick.

When someone got sick, they didn’t get treatment. Every now and then, a medic would come and ask the prisoners about pain or illnesses, but he didn’t really check us. He just talked to us through a small opening in the cell door and asked the prisoner, “What’s wrong?” and then he would suggest a drink of water or give him paracetamol. In the last week or 10 days of my detention, the medic didn’t come at all. At midday, we got a bowl of half-cooked rice for 14 prisoners, with a hotdog for each one. In the evening, we got a piece of white cheese with a piece of green pepper or a piece of tomato. Each prisoner would also get six slices of bread a day. We tried to save some of the lunches and dinners so we’d have something for the morning, because there was no breakfast.

We were counted three times a day. It was done in a humiliating way, with the guards shouting. The unit would come in heavily armed with gas and batons. It was absolutely forbidden to not stand up for roll call. Those who didn’t obey were punished with isolation or beatings. You couldn’t talk or do anything during roll call, not even move. If you scratched your nose, for example, you were in for it. There was also a policy of collective punishment and random searches of the cells about once a week. They would force us to undress and then search us, take us out of the cells into the corridor and do a thorough search of the room. It could take an hour or even several hours, and included shouting, assaults and beatings with batons. When they wanted to collectively punish us, they confiscated our mattresses for the whole day, from 6:00 A.M. to nighttime. They punished us for the most ridiculous things. For example, they spoke to us only in Hebrew, and we had to answer them only in Hebrew; if one of us mistakenly said something to them in Arabic, they punished all of us.

There were no walks or breaks in the yard, and our legs almost atrophied from too much sitting. The cell was very crowded, and it was almost impossible to walk. We repeatedly asked to meet representatives of the prison administration, but they always refused.

Anyone who entered Israeli prisons, especially after 7 October, was as good as missing or dead. People who get out of prison are considered reborn. There were detainees who died in prison, like ‘Arafat for example, and there were people who were wounded and seriously ill, who only wished for heaven’s mercy. I consider myself born again because I was released from prison. I got out on 18 March 2024. Normally, the release process lasts from early morning until around 11:30 A.M. On the day that my administrative detention was supposed to end, my name was not read out on the list of people being released. I later realized they were deliberately toying with me. Because of past experience, I assumed my administrative detention was extended and I lost hope of being released. I was waiting to hear how much they extended it by.

Administrative detention is one of the worst detentions there is. The prisoner is not accused of anything; there are no court hearings, and it’s impossible to know when the detention will end. They decide on a specific period of detention and then renew it once or twice, or ten times or even more. That’s why the major difficulty with that kind of detention is the detainee’s mental state, sitting and waiting to be released, not knowing if it’s going to happen, or whether the order will be renewed again.

That day, at 4:00 P.M., my name was suddenly called. I wasn’t told I was being released, so all kinds of thoughts ran through my head, for example that they were going to take me to isolation. Two of the guards lunged at me for no reason and beat me for 30 minutes, until I couldn’t move anymore. Then they took me to a transport vehicle and put me in a cage inside it. I was shackled like this: iron cuffs on my legs, on my hands, and tying in my hands and legs. Being shackled like that bent my back and it hurt. But the worst was the fear. I didn’t know where they were taking me. The ride took a long time. I don’t know how long, because I lost my sense of time. We reached a dark area. I was taken out of the vehicle and the shackles were removed. They forced me to walk in front of them, pointing their weapons at me. I thought maybe they were going to kill me, because no one knew what was going on with me and it would be very easy to claim that I’d been shot trying to escape. They led me left and right. We walked about 500 meters. They led me to a checkpoint, which I later found was a-Dhahiriyah Checkpoint. When we got there, they threw a bag at me with my stuff in it – my ID card, the clothes, which it turned out they hadn’t really thrown out, and my cell phone. They said: “Raweh” (go home).

When I heard that word, I was overcome with joy. I felt happiness like I’d never felt in my life, as if I was reborn. I crossed the checkpoint and went towards a-Dhahiriyah. There was no public transport because it was nine or ten at night. I ran into someone from the village and he drove me to Hebron. I called my brothers and asked them to meet me in Ramallah. I took a taxi there, and my brothers paid the driver when they met me there and then took me home with them. We arrived around 1:30 A.M.

After my release, I had medical tests. It turned out I’d caught some bug. I lost about 15 kg. I still suffer from nausea, and sometimes throw up and have strong pain in my gut.

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 7 April 2024