Life under occupation: 8 family members arrested in violent night raid of their home; 7 released, most of them after a week

6 December 2016

At around 2:00 A.M. on 3 November 2016, Israeli soldiers raided two adjacent home s of the Salems, a Palestinian family who lives on the outskirts of al-Am’ari Refugee Camp in the Ramallah District. The soldiers detained eight family members, including a minor: Jihad and Zuhdi Salem, both 49, and six of their children - Dib, 28; Muhammad, 26; Mahran, 24; Fadi, 23; Ihab, 22; and Baha’, 15.

Jihad and Zuhdi Salem. Photo by Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 14 Nov. 2016

B’Tselem’s inquiry found that on 3 November, at around 2:00 A.M., two groups of seven to ten soldiers each raided two adjacent two-story buildings where the Salem family lives. Some of the soldiers were masked. Du’aa Salem, 25, who lives on the second floor of one of the buildings with her husband Dib and their four children – Adam, 8, Malak, 5, Nur, 3 and Jihan 2 – heard people walking on the roof of her home and told her husband, who went to open the door. In her testimony, given to B’Tselem field-researcher Iyad Hadad later that day, Du’aa described what happened next:

We saw soldiers standing by the door, and other soldiers who were positioned along the stairs leading to our apartment and to the roof. As soon as they saw my husband, they jumped him and tried to handcuff him in our doorway. He protested. They were seven armed soldiers and they pushed him, forced him to lie on the ground, cuffed his hands behind his back, and took him outside.

About an hour later, the group of soldiers returned to the home with Dib Salem blindfolded and handcuffed. They had an Arabic-speaking officer with them. They went into the kitchen with Dib and, from her room, Du’aa Salem could hear the officer questioning her husband about his work for Palestinian Authority intelligence and about his brothers who live in the adjacent building. Meanwhile, the soldiers searched the apartment, took things out of cupboards, and left the place in shambles. The couple’s children woke up during the search.

Home of Du’aa and Dib Salem, al-Am’ari R.C. Photo by Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 3 Nov. 2016

About half an hour later, the soldiers again took Dib out of the house. They ordered Du’aa Salem and the children to go into the living room and searched the bedroom and the children’s room. Some ten minutes later, the soldiers left the house, detaining Dib’s brother Muhammad Salem, who lives on the first floor, on their way. One of the officers remained in the house for about half an hour. Du’aa Salem related:

One officer, who didn’t speak Arabic, was watching my movements and where I was looking, as if he was trying to see whether I was hiding something or knew something. He didn’t ask me anything. He stayed in the house for about half an hour. The children were scared and cried. He started playing with them so they would stop crying.

At the same time, another group of about ten soldiers, some of them masked, surrounded the house next door, which also belongs to the Salem family. One of the sons, Ihab, woke his parents up and told them that soldiers were surrounding the house. The parents, Zuhdi and Jihad Salem, went out to the balcony, where they could see the soldiers tying the hands of two residents of the camp behind their backs and blindfolding them.

A few minutes later, the soldiers entered the Salem house with a muzzled dog. The soldiers led Zuhdi outside and handcuffed and blindfolded him. Jihad Salem asked an Arabic-speaking officer, “What have we done? What do you want?” She was told the soldiers were looking for weapons. The soldiers returned to the house with Zuhdi. They then ordered Jihad and her daughters – Warud, 17, Kholud, 14 and ‘Uhud, 11 – to go into the living room. They took her husband and four sons to the balcony. The soldiers then searched all the rooms, tearing apart cushions, opening drawers and cupboards, and confiscating footage from the security cameras installed at the front of the house. Kholud Salem, 14, told B’Tselem researcher Iyad Hadad about the search in a testimony given on 3 November 2016:

A female soldier led the dog into the rooms, with two male soldiers following. The dog started sniffing our things and the furniture. My sisters, my mother, and I stayed in the living room, guarded by the soldiers. We were very scared. My little sister, ‘Uhud, who’s eleven, was especially scared, and couldn’t stop crying. My mother tried to calm her down.

Du’aa and Dib Salem’s kitchen after their home was searched. Photo by Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 3 Nov. 2016

When the search ended, the female soldier took Jihad aside, frisked her, and sent her back to her daughters. Jihad’s husband and the four sons who live with them were taken outside by the soldiers. Between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M., the remaining soldiers left the house. However, according to Jihad Salem, the officer returned a few minutes later and demanded that she send her daughters outside, threatening to arrest them, too. Jihad refused and the soldiers arrested her but not her daughters, taking her away in her nightclothes without allowing her to change or say goodbye to her daughters. On her way out, Jihad managed to tell her daughters to call a neighbor to come stay with them. She was taken to the detention vehicle where her husband and six sons were waiting, blindfolded and handcuffed. Her husband was having trouble breathing because of a piece of cloth covering his mouth. The vehicle drove off, with seven soldiers and a dog also inside. At that point clashes erupted in the camp, with youths throwing stones at soldiers and the latter responding with tear-gas grenades, stun grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets and live rounds. Two camp residents were hit by rubber-coated bullets in the clashes, which lasted about an hour.

The soldiers took the family members to Ofer Prison. They were transferred about an hour later to Ramla Prison. After being kept outside in the yard for about an hour, they were required to sign consent forms in Hebrew agreeing to be interrogated without a lawyer present, but they refused to do so. The couple and their six sons were interrogated over the course of the day. Jihad was interrogated for some three hours, without being allowed to consult with a lawyer. The interrogator asked her about her sons’ work and about their lives, but did not disclose the allegations against her or her family. At around 5:00 P.M., the interrogator demanded that she sign her statement, which was taken down in Hebrew, but she refused. Jihad was taken to Ofer Prison and released at 8:00 P.M. Her husband and five of her sons were held and interrogated for a week in Ramla Prison and in the Russian Compound police station in West Jerusalem, and then released. Her son Mahran is still in custody at Ofer Prison. In the testimony she gave to B’Tselem researcher Iyad Hadad on 14 November 2016, Jihad described what happened when she returned home:

I came back to find the girls scared and shattered as if they’d lost a family member. Of course they would be! The whole family was arrested, including their mother and father. I had never heard of anything like this – to arrest an entire family, including the parents, just because my son Mahran is suspected of possessing weapons or having a connection to weapons. Even if it’s true, which I don’t believe, why punish an entire family? What have I done? Or my husband, or his sisters and brothers? What have the residents of the neighborhood done to have the entire army scare them out of their wits in the middle of the night, when people are sleeping? These are cruel, despicable actions.

One of Du’aa and Dib Salem’s daughters, after their home was searched. Photo by Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 3 Nov. 2016

The unbearable ease with which the daily routine of Palestinians, precarious to begin with, is disrupted is blatantly clear in this case. An entire family, including young, sleeping children, are intimidated when soldiers raid their home, conduct a belligerent search and leave the house in shambles. Eight family members are arrested, with the mother released that evening and the rest, except one who is still in custody, released a week later – including a 15-year-old minor.

The military law that applies in the West Bank allows soldiers and officers to enter any Palestinian home at any time without being required to present an order or provide justification for their actions. The security forces make extensive use of this power, relying on flimsy security concerns. Nightly raids of homes, during which residents are bullied and frightened, their dignity violated and their property destroyed, occur every night in the West Bank, and have long since become an integral part of daily life under the occupation.

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Torture and Abuse

New report: Living Hell: Sexual violence, starvation and systematic abuse – at least 84 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli torture camps

Today (Tuesday), B’Tselem released new figures and testimonies revealing the extent of violence employed against Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which function as a network of torture camps: systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical treatment, resulting in many deaths. Some released prisoners recounted undergoing or witnessing sexual violence.B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak: “The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, as part of a coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society intended to destroy their existence as a collective. The genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are the most blatant manifestations of this policy. Despite mounting evidence and numerous reports on Israel's torture camps, the international community continues to grant this regime full immunity – effectively legitimizing the continued torture, oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and abandoning the victims.”The new report lists 84 Palestinians (including one minor) who died in Israeli torture camps since October 2023, detailing each prisoner’s name, place of residence (50 from the Gaza Strip, 31 from the West Bank and 3 citizens of Israel) and the facility in which they died. As of January 2025, Israel is still holding 80 of the bodies and refusing to return them to their families. There are indications that the number of Palestinians who died in Israeli torture camps is higher. However, the report notes only those for whom B’Tselem was able to verify the information.The report shows that the policy of abuse is declared, deliberate, and is coming from the very top. National Minister of Security Itamar Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the Israel Prison Service, brags in TV puff pieces and on social media about the inhuman treatment of Palestinians in these facilities. He is not alone. The entire Israeli system has rallied to shield the people designing and implementing this policy from any accountability.The report is based on the extensive analysis provided in our August 2024 report “Welcome to Hell”, on updated figures, and on the testimonies of 21 Palestinians released from Israeli prison facilities in recent months. It also draws on the work of Israeli and international human rights organizations that monitor these facilities.In September 2025, about 10,900 Palestinians were being held in Israel’s torture camps, in appalling conditions and under a regime of extreme physical and psychological abuse. As of January 2026, after the Israel-Hamas deal that included the release of some prisoners was completed, about 9,200 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons.B’Tselem stresses that the incarceration project in which more than 800,000 Palestinians have been held in Israeli prisons over the years, many without trial, is a key tool Israel uses to fragment and oppress Palestinian society.

20 January 2026

תמונת אילוסטרציה: חיילים מכניסים עצירים פלסטינים למחנה הצבאי מצדות יהודה בדרום הר חברון, 5.8.22. למצולמים אין קשר לאירוע המדווח. צילום: איתי פייטלסון, 5.8.22

A Routine Founded on Violence

Israeli soldiers detain Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, at a checkpoint, mistreat them, and steal their money

On Friday, 18 August 2023, at around 11:30 P.M., cousins Mahmoud (18) and Yihya (16) a-Nawaj’ah arrived at the Meitar checkpoint. They were traveling in a car belonging to a Palestinian citizen of Israel. The two were on their way back from Israel to their home in the community of al-Jawaya, which lies southeast of the town of Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. When they reached the checkpoint, Israeli soldiers had the driver and two passengers get out of the car and conducted body searches on them. The soldiers took their bags, cellphones, and a bracelet and ring Yihya was wearing. They also took 8,000 NIS (~2,100 USD) in cash, money the cousins had earned working and were carrying in their pockets. Next, the soldiers tied the hands of the three individuals behind their backs using plastic bags, covered their eyes with plastic bags, and placed them in a military jeep. When they asked where they were being taken, the soldiers told them they were going to the Beit Yatir checkpoint (a checkpoint near the Mezadot Yehuda military base). Once they arrived at the military base, the three were taken out of the jeep and seated on the ground. Throughout the night and until the following afternoon, the three remained on the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded. Even in the intense heat of the day, the soldiers denied them water, food and access to the bathroom. When they requested to sit in a more shaded area, the soldiers refused. They were also forbidden from contacting their families or a lawyer to inform them of their whereabouts. Later, the three were taken to a room in the military base where the plastic bags around their hands were replaced with zip ties – this time, in front of them – and the bags covering their eyes were replaced with cloth blindfolds. They were interrogated in Arabic and asked for their names, ages, how they entered Israel and what they were doing there. From there, they were taken to another military facility, where fingerprints were taken from all three while they remained handcuffed and blindfolded. The soldiers then separated the driver from Mahmoud and Yihya and later released him. Mahmoud and Yihya were put in a car and sat there for about half an hour. Then, after a short drive to the Beit ‘Einun roundabout on Route 60, which sits north of Hebron, the soldiers took them out of the car and told them that they were being released. Only after the two pleaded did the soldiers remove the handcuffs and blindfolds. They returned their cellphones and Yihya’s jewelry that had been taken during the arrest. When the cousins asked the soldiers about the money that was taken from them, the soldiers claimed it had been transferred to the police and then left. Mahmoud called his father, who came to pick them up and took them home after more than twenty hours without food or drink. The next day, Mahmoud and Yihya went to the Kiryat Arba police station to demand their money back, but the police officers referred them to the Border Police camp in the settlement of Telem. Upon arriving there, they were told to come back the next day. On 31 August 2023, the two contacted HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual to file a complaint on their behalf with the police demanding their money be returned. B’Tselem field researcher Basel al-‘Adrah collected testimonies from the two cousins. Mahmoud a-Nawaj’ah (18), a resident of a-Jawaya testified: Ever since I finished school, I’ve helped support my family. In June 2023, I started working in the town of ‘Araba, inside the Green Line. I didn’t have a work permit, so I crossed in illegally. After about a month, my 16-year-old cousin Yihya a-Nawaj’ah joined me. On 18 August 2023, we decided to go home and paid a Palestinian citizen of Israel to drive us. At around 11:30 P.M., we reached the Meitar checkpoint. The guard there stopped the car and asked to see IDs. The driver showed them his ID, and I told them I didn’t have mine with me. Yihya said he didn’t have one because he’s sixteen and hasn’t gotten one yet. The guard instructed us to get out of the car and asked the driver to park it in the lot next to the checkpoint. A few soldiers made us move away from the car, and another soldier searched the vehicle with an electronic device. Meanwhile, the soldiers told me to call my parents and ask them to send my ID number or a photo. I tried calling, but no one answered. Yihya, the driver and I got taken into a room at the checkpoint, where our photos were taken, and then our faces were identified. Afterward, we were taken to a small cell, got physically searched, and everything that was on us was taken: our cellphones, our bags with all our clothes, the 5,000 NIS (~1,300 USD) I made in all the months I’d worked, and 3,000 NIS (~780 USD) Yihya had made that was on him. Then our hands were tied behind our backs with plastic bags, and we were blindfolded with plastic bags too. All three of us were put in a black military jeep. I asked where they were taking us, and one of the soldiers said: “Mezadot Yehuda.” After about a ten-minute drive, at around 12:30 A.M., we were taken out of the vehicle and sat on the ground inside a military base. I could feel cars zooming by very close to us. It was really scary, and I was very worried about what would happen, especially since no one in our family knew we’d been detained. I asked the soldiers if I could try calling someone from my family again, but they refused. When we asked for water and food, they refused that too, didn’t give us anything, and ordered us to shut up and not talk to each other, either. We asked how much longer we’d stay on the floor like that, and one of the soldiers said we had a lot more time. We were there all night. The next morning, about an hour and a half after we heard the call to dawn prayer, it got very hot. We couldn’t take the heat of the sun anymore and asked the soldiers to move us somewhere with more shade, but they refused. Around noon, it had become completely unbearable, and we asked them again and again if we could move, but they said no each time. At some point, I managed to take the plastic bag off my eyes, but within seconds, soldiers came over to put it back on and yelled at me that I wasn’t allowed to take it off. We sat on the ground handcuffed and blindfolded for 15 hours straight. Then, the soldiers brought us into a room in the base. They took the plastic off our eyes and covered them again with cloth. They also tied our hands tightly with zip ties – this time in front. They sat us down on chairs. Suddenly, someone I hadn’t seen began talking to us. He said his name was Khaled, and he asked each of us questions in mediocre Arabic. He asked for my name, my age, where I worked and how I entered Israel. He asked Yihya and the driver the same questions. After that, the soldiers put us back in the jeep, drove for about forty minutes, took us out again, and brought us into a room again, where they took our fingerprints while we were still handcuffed and blindfolded. After that, they put me and Yihya in a civilian car. I don’t know where the soldiers took the driver. We waited in the car for about half an hour before it started moving. A while later, we got dropped off and told we could go. They hadn’t taken off our blindfolds or untied our hands. They only did it after we begged them, and then we realized we were at the Beit ‘Einun roundabout. One of the soldiers gave us back our cellphones. We asked about our money, and the soldier said it was with the police, and then the soldiers left. I managed to take a photo of their license plate. That was at about 5:30 or 6:00 P.M. I called my father, and he came to pick us up. We were exhausted. Later, I called the driver, and he told me he had been released and that his friends came to pick him up, but that the soldiers confiscated his car. The next day, Yihya and I went to the police station in Kiryat Arba to get our money back, but they said our case was being dealt with in the Telem base. We went there, and they told us to come back the next day. The following morning, the Kiryat Arba police called me, and the interpreter asked me to tell him what happened, and how much money it was. I told him and said I was planning on going to Telem the next day to pick up my money. He told me they’d be in touch, but that never happened. Yihya a-Nawaj’ah (16), from Yatta, said: I was looking for work over the summer in order to have some pocket money for my last year of high school. My cousin, Mahmoud a-Nawaj’ah, got me a job where he works near ‘Araba in Israel, and I started working there on 15 July 2023. The first day of school was 20 August 2023, and I wanted some time to prepare, so we both left work on 18 August 2023. We left at around 9:30 P.M. with a Palestinian citizen of Israel who drove us for a fee, and at around 11:30 P.M., when we arrived at the Meitar checkpoint, the guard there detained us when he saw Mahmoud and I didn’t have IDs on us. The guy who was driving us showed the guard his ID, and the guard told Mahmoud and me to get out and the driver to park in the lot next to the checkpoint. The two of us got out of the car, and two soldiers led us through the lot. Then three more soldiers came, and one of them searched the car with an electronic device. The soldiers demanded to see IDs again, but we said we didn’t have them. They took the three of us to a room at the checkpoint, took our pictures in there, and then did a body search inside a small booth. They took our cellphones, and from me, they also took a bracelet and ring I was wearing, and the 3,000 NIS (~780 USD) I had made at work. They took Mahmoud’s 5,000 NIS (~1,300 USD), too. Then, the soldiers tied our hands behind our backs and blindfolded us with plastic bags. After that, the soldiers put us in a jeep and after a 10-minute ride, we were taken out and sat on the ground inside a military base. It was scary because I couldn’t see anything, and I didn’t know what the soldiers were planning. I felt cars zooming right next to me. I asked the soldiers to go to the bathroom a few times, but they didn’t let me. They also didn’t give us water or food, and they forbade us from talking to each other. Mahmoud and I asked to call our family or a lawyer, but one of the soldiers kept saying the same word every time: “forbidden.” About an hour and a half after we heard the call to dawn prayer, when the sun was already up, we asked them to move us to the shade, but they refused. Around noon, we couldn’t stand the scorching heat anymore – we had been there for 15 hours straight – but they continued to refuse our request to move to a shadier spot. At some point, they moved all three of us to a room in the base and replaced the plastic blindfold with a cloth one and the plastic bags tying our hands with zip ties; they put them in front this time. One of the soldiers tied my hands really tight, and it hurt. Then, someone who said his name was Khaled asked the three of us some questions in mediocre Arabic. He asked how old we were, where we worked, and how we entered Israel. After that, they took the three of us out of the room and put us back in the jeep. After a forty-minute ride, we were brought into another room where they took our fingerprints – even though our hands were still tied and we still had blindfolds on. They then put just Mahmoud and me in a car, and we waited for about half an hour inside it. After a short ride, the soldiers dropped us off and told us we could go, but they didn’t take off the handcuffs and blindfolds. We asked them to take them off, but one of them said they weren’t allowed. We didn’t understand why he wanted to leave us like that in the middle of the road, so we persisted until, finally, one of them untied our hands and took off our blindfolds. I felt relieved. They also gave us back our phones, and they gave me my bracelet and ring. They didn’t return the money they took from us, and when we asked for it, the soldier told us that the police had it. After that, they drove off, and Mahmoud called his father, who came to pick us up. We were so hungry and tired, and we just wanted to sleep.

5 October 2023

מימין לשמאל: אחמד, מוסטפא, מועתז, אייהם ומוחמד, צילום: עאמר עארורי, בצלם, 22.1.23

East Jerusalem

Wadi Qadum, East Jerusalem: Israel Police detain five Palestinian minors without notifying parents for over 6 hours, and interrogate them without an adult on their behalf present

On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 5:30 P.M., about 10 Israel Police officers arrived in the neighborhood of Wadi Qadum in East Jerusalem and grabbed five Palestinian residents between the ages of 12 and 15. They crowded all five into a police car and held them there for about an hour. At around 6:30, the teens were taken to the police station on Salah a-Din Street. There, they were made to sit on chairs facing a wall in a very cold, air-conditioned room and forbidden to talk to each other. At around 7:00 P.M., a lawyer arrived and explained their rights to them, and only then did the police allow them to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, the parents of four of the boys arrived at the station, but the officers refused to let them in, and they had no choice but to wait for their sons outside for hours. Each of the teeens was interrogated alone, without an adult present on his behalf, for about an hour or an hour and a half. After some of them refused to sign a statement in Hebrew and insisted they hadn’t thrown stones, the interrogators reportedly humiliated them, swore at them, and in some instances resorted to physical violence. For example, one officer pulled 12-year-old Mustafa a-Salaymeh’s chair out from under him, making him fall. An interrogator hit Ayham a-Salaymeh, also 12 years old, on the neck, while Mu'taz a-Salaymeh, 14, was hit on the neck and face by an interrogator who also pulled his hair. When the interrogations were over, the teens were kept at the station and given no explanation of what lay ahead. At around 11:00 P.M., the officers gave them slices of bread. Around midnight, after Nawaf a-Salaymeh, the father of Ayham and Ahmad, posted NIS 5,000 (~USD 1,400) in bail for each of the five boys, they were all sent home for five days’ house arrest. About 10 minutes after Nawaf and his sons got home, a police officer called and demanded that Ahmad return to the station on the pretext that his interrogation had not been recorded. Ahmad went back to the station with his father and was again interrogated alone, exhausted and scared, for about an hour and a half. This time, he signed the statement. When he asked what he was signing, the interrogator replied it was none of his business. Five teens were abducted from a street without being told what they were suspected of or where they were being taken. They were interrogated at a police station, under threats and pressure, while their parents were not notified or allowed in the room, and were held for more than six hours. For the first two hours, they were forbidden to go to the bathroom and given nothing to drink. All the while, the parents of four boys were not allowed into the station and forced to wait outside until their sons were released. Arresting children in this way is part of Israel's overall oppressive policy in East Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank. This case is no exception, but part of Israel's systemic treatment of Palestinian minors, including refusal to uphold the special protections granted minors by international law, which are also granted minors under Israeli law. Instead, the Israeli law enforcement system treats Palestinian minors as part of a hostile population, all of whom – teenagers and adults alike – are presumed guilty unless proven otherwise, and employs extreme measures against them it would not dare use against other populations in Israel. The boys described what happened to them that evening in testimonies they gave to B'Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 22 January 2023: Muhammad a-Salaymeh (15): On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 5:30 in the afternoon, I was on my way home from visiting a friend in the neighborhood of Ras al-‘Amud with some other friends – Ahmad and Ayham, who are brothers, and Mustafa and Mu'taz. We were going down the stairs that lead from Ras al-‘Amud to our neighborhood, Wadi Qadum, when suddenly we saw about 10 people from the occupation forces and they arrested us. I didn't understand what was going on, and it was very confusing. One of the officers put his arm around my neck, which hurt a lot, and pulled me by force into the car. We all sat there one on top of the other, and it was very crowded. First, they took us to Ras al-‘Amud and we waited there in the car, near the police station. I asked the officer for water, but he ignored me. We sat in the car for about an hour, and then they took us to the police station on Salah a-Din. There, they put us in a room, made us sit on chairs facing a wall and told us not to talk to each other. A police officer threatened us that whoever spoke would be beaten, so I kept silent. After about half an hour, a lawyer came and explained our rights to us. After he left, we were taken to the bathroom one by one. After I got back from the bathroom, I saw that Mu’taz and Mustafa were being taken away for interrogation. Then they also took me to an interrogation room. The interrogator asked me to write my name on an electronic screen, the kind you sign when you use a credit card. He also asked me to write the name of the lawyer who came earlier, and then he said: "You’re accused of throwing stones at a police car." I told him it wasn't me, and he said my friends had admitted to throwing the stones. I told him again that it wasn't true, and that we were just going home together, and that they couldn’t have admitted to something we didn't do. He swore at me and threatened that if I didn't sign the paper on the table, he’d hit me. I was afraid of him and signed the paper. I don't know what I signed, because it was in Hebrew. I sat in the interrogation room for about an hour, and then I was taken back to the room we were in before and sat on a chair. Some of my friends were there and some were still being interrogated. It was only around 11:00 P.M. that they gave us a piece of bread to eat. I was really hungry. About an hour later, we were let go and put under house arrest for five days. One of the parents posted my bail, which was NIS 5,000. Mu'taz a-Salaymeh (14): When they arrested us, I didn't exactly understand what was happening and where the police officers had come from. They grabbed us all by the neck. I almost choked when the officer wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled me into a police car along with the others. They put us in the car one on top of the other. Two officers sat up front. When I told them in Arabic that my legs were hurting because of the way we were sitting, one of them said: “If you don’t shut up, I’ll chop your leg off.” From that moment on, I kept quiet. We drove to the police station in Ras al-‘Amud and waited there in the car for about an hour. We asked the officers for water, but they ignored us. My mouth was parched, I was so thirsty. Then we got to a police station on Salah a-Din Street. They put us in a very cold room with an air conditioner that was running on cooling. They made us each sit on a chair facing the wall and told us not to talk. When we asked the officer to turn the air conditioner off because we were shivering with cold, he refused. Over the next hour, we asked several times to use the bathroom, but they ignored us. Only after the lawyer who came to talk to us left, an officer took each of us separately to the bathroom. While he was taking me, he swore at me on the way and said obscene things about my mother and sister. They took Mustafa and me away separately for interrogation. In the interrogation, they showed me a video of people throwing stones. I told the interrogator I didn’t know who they were and that I hadn’t done anything. He shouted at me and said I was a liar. The whole time, I was afraid he would hit me. He kept swearing and once, after I shouted back at him: "Why are you cursing my mother?", he pulled my hair and punched me in the face and neck. I refused to sign the document. The interrogator said it was my statement, but it was in Hebrew so I refused to sign it. He laughed at me and said: "So don't sign, cross-eyes!” It was humiliating. After about an hour and a half of interrogation, I was taken back to the room. At around 11:00 P.M., they gave us some bread to eat. About an hour later, they let us go and put us under house arrest for five days, after posting NIS 5,000 bail each. Ayham a-Salaymeh (12): When we got to the police station at Salah a-Din, I asked to use the bathroom but the police officer refused to take me. Only when the lawyer arrived and I told him I had to go to the bathroom, did the officers take me there. Then they brought me back to the room. The lawyer was still there, and told me he’d being explaining to everyone that the interrogators had no right to hit us or swear at us. Then he left and the officers started taking each of us away separately for interrogation. In my interrogation, I was really scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. The interrogator showed me a video and asked if I was on it. I said I wasn’t, and he shouted at me and asked if those were my friends and brother. I said I didn't know who those people were, and then he hit me on the neck and said that if I admitted to throwing stones, they’d let me go home. I told him again I hadn’t done anything. He gave me a document in Hebrew to sign, without explaining what it said. I signed it, because I was afraid he’d hit me again. The whole time, the interrogator was yelling at me and banging his hand on the table. Ahmed a-Salaymeh (13): They put us in a room that was very cold, because the air conditioner was on cooling instead of heating. They made us sit on iron chairs facing the wall and wait. After a lawyer talked to us, they took me to the bathroom. On the way, the officer who was taking me there swore at me and cursed my mother and sister. Then they interrogated me and showed me a video of people throwing stones in Wadi Qadum. The interrogator said that if I admitted to throwing stones, I’d go home. But I told him I honestly hadn’t thrown stones. He cursed my mother, insulted me, showed me the video again and asked who it was throwing stones. I told him I didn't know, and then he picked a glass of water up from the table and threw it at me. It didn’t hit me. I refused to sign the statement and then the interrogator said I could go. When I was almost out the door, he kicked me in my backside. They let us all go late at night. My father took Ayham and me home, and after about 10 minutes the police called him and demanded he bring me back to the station. When we got there, I was interrogated alone again. The interrogator told me they hadn’t recorded the previous interrogation and that was why they’d brought me in again. He asked me the same questions about throwing stones, and again I denied it. I was really tired, and this time I signed the document in Hebrew. When I asked the interrogator what it said, he said it was none of my business. Nawaf a-Salaymeh (47), a father of six including Ayham and Ahmad: On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 6:00 P.M., a kid from the neighborhood told me he’d seen the occupation forces arresting my two sons and three other boys. I immediately called the Wadi Hilweh information center and they put me in touch with a lawyer. The lawyer made some inquiries and told me my children were being held at the police station on Salah a-Din. After about an hour, at around 7:00, I arrived at the station with some of the other boys’ parents, but the police officers wouldn’t let us in to see our children. We stood outside in the cold for about four hours. At around 11:00, an officer came out of the station and demanded I post NIS 5,000 in bail for every boy. At around midnight, they were released. They came out exhausted, freezing and hungry. A few minutes after I got back home with Ayham and Ahmad, the police called and demanded I bring Ahmad back to the station because they hadn’t recorded his interrogation. I took him to the station and they interrogated him alone. When he came out, about an hour later, he told me they’d asked again if he’d taken part in the stone-throwing.

9 March 2023