Security forces threaten owner of cameras that captured killing of two teens in Bitunya

8 July 2014

Shortly after 4:00 P.M. on Tuesday, 17 June 2014, soldiers showed up at a carpentry workshop not far from Bitunya Crossing. The workshop is owned by Fakhr Abu Zayed, 47, whose security cameras captured the killing of Nadim Nuwara, 17, and Muhammad Salameh, 16, by live fire on 15 May 2014. When the soldiers arrived, Abu Zayed’s employee ‘Ali a-Rimawi was in the shop alone. A-Rimawi told B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad that a man in civilian clothes who was with the soldiers – apparently a member of the ISA (Israel Security Agency) – introduced himself as ‘Captain Sabri’ and asked for the whereabouts of Abu Zayed. According to a-Rimawi, when he replied that his employer was at a business meeting away from the workshop, “he told me to call Fakhr and tell him to get back to the workshop within five minutes, or he’d burn the place down. I called Fakhr on speakerphone, as Captain Sabri told me to do. Fakhr answered. I told him that the ISA was there with me and that he must get back within five minutes or they’d burn the place down. Captain Sabri took the phone from my hand and told Fakhr the same thing himself”.

Fakhr Abu Zayed hurried back to the workshop, arriving within minutes. In his testimony to B’Tselem, he said that the soldiers frisked him, took his mobile phones and ID card, and then took him into his own shop, where he met Captain Sabri: “He told me that he had a lot of things to discuss with me and that I had to go with them to Ofer [military base]. I asked him whether I was under arrest and he said I wasn’t. He said they wanted to talk to me and then I’d be released”.

Abu Zayed was taken in a military vehicle to the nearby Ofer Camp. After a short wait, he was taken into a room. Captain Sabri and about seven officers were already there. This is his account of what happened next:

“When I saw all the officers seated in the room, I got really scared. They were looking daggers at me, like they wanted to kill me. I could barely keep standing. They were seated around a T-shaped table, each with a notebook, a pen and a computer. One officer turned to me and said they would talk to me in Hebrew because I know the language. They passed around my ID card and wrote down my details. No one introduced himself.

One officer said to me: ‘Do you own the house with the cameras on it, the ones said to have recorded the killing of Nadim Nuwara? You’re responsible for that video, which is a fake and was altered.’ He accused me of lying to the media, to civilian bodies and to human rights organizations that operate in the Occupied Territories. He said I’d be charged under the martial law that applies in the West Bank. He claimed that I installed the cameras outside the workshop in order to track the military’s movements and said I was responsible for damaging the Israeli army’s reputation. I didn’t answer. Then the officer stopped talking to me and all the officers started whispering amongst themselves.

A few minutes later, he turned back to me and said that my cameras were illegal and that I had to take them down within 24 hours. I said nothing. They went back to whispering among themselves. After a few minutes, Captain Sabri took me out of the room. He said: 'Who do you think you are? This is the State of Israel, we're strong and we don't answer to anyone. I'll step on your head in front of everyone in the middle of Bitunya and I'll set dogs on your family'. His threat was clear. I fear for my life and for my family. I knew they were trying to get me to say that the footage of the killings, captured by chance on the cameras, wasn't genuine.

The officers stayed in the room for another hour or so. I waited outside the room with soldiers guarding me. When the officers came out of the room, Captain Sabri gave me back my ID card and told me to get out of there. I walked home, about a kilometer and a half distant. Then I went to the Palestinian police and filed a complaint".

Israeli security forces had already harassed Abu Zayed in connection with the killings of Nuwara and Salameh. On 30 May 2014, nearly two weeks after the killings, soldiers showed up at Abu Zayed’s home at approximately 2:00 A.M. They woke his family up and demanded to see the computers in the house and the recording device connected to the security cameras. A Civil Administration officer who was with the soldiers told Abu Zayed that he had tried to coordinate this search with the Palestinian DCO but its representatives had refused to cooperate. The troops left the house after approximately 40 minutes. They took the recording device with them, confiscating it on the grounds that it needed to undergo expert analysis as part of the investigation.

The actions of the Israeli security establishment in this case were unlawful. The footage inadvertently captured on Abu Zayed's security cameras proved that the two minors killed were not endangering lives and raised grave suspicion that they were shot intentionally. The explicit threats to Abu Zayed could undermine the criminal procedure. The law enforcement establishment would do better to focus efforts on investigating the fatal shootings, rather than resorting to scare tactics against a person who provided evidence of human rights violations. Moreover, the demand made of Abu Zayed that he remove the security cameras is also unlawful. Its aim is apparently to prevent documentation of future human rights violations at that spot, which sees frequent clashes between security forces and Palestinian youths.

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תושבים ושוטרים בשכונת בטן אל-הווא. צילום: חוסאם עאבד, בצלם, 29.11.16

East Jerusalem

High Court of Justice paves way for cleansing of Palestinians from Silwan

Yesterday, Israeli High Court justices Barak-Erez, Baron and Elron rejected an appeal filed by 104 residents of Silwan to overturn a September 2002 decision by the Custodian of Absentee Property to "release" the land on which they have lived for decades. The land was "released" by three people - all closely affiliated with Ateret Cohanim, a settler association that works to Judaize East Jerusalem. In the judgment, written by Justice Barak-Erez, the Court's role is narrowed down to examining several questions relating to administrative law. In choosing this avenue, the Court sent the residents back to fight, against all odds, the civil proceedings that Ateret Cohanim has undertaken in order to evict them from their homes. Justice Barak-Erez ruled that the appellants were unable to counter the "presumption of regularity" that applies to the Custodian, and that there is no room for discretion on the Custodian's part in exercising power on this matter. Acknowledging the implications, Justice Barak-Erez added that the decision "may give rise to real difficulty for those effectively in possession of the released assets", yet her decision stands. The judgment was written without addressing the context whatsoever: as though the land were not "released" by an association whose goal is to drive Palestinians out of their homes; as though the body of law does not allow Jews alone to file ownership for land abandoned in 1948; as though the Court were not sanctioning the broadest move to dispossess Palestinians since 1967. The judgment proves, yet again, that the Israeli High Court gives its seal of approval to almost any infringement of Palestinians' rights by the Israeli authorities. Background In recent years, in addition to the housing shortage, poor or lacking infrastructure, services and government funding that affect all East Jerusalem residents, various government ministries and the Jerusalem Municipality have mobilized to help the settler organization Ateret Cohanim dispossess Palestinian families living in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, and hand over their homes to Jewish settlers. This is the most extensive expulsion process in recent years in East Jerusalem. To date, eviction claims have been filed against dozens of Palestinian families that have been living in Batan al-Hawa for decades. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, this number reflects 45% of all families under threat of dispossession on the basis ethnicity in the city. The neighborhood is divided into about 50 parcels. Nine of them have been transferred to Ateret Cohanim, and settlers have moved into five of them. In addition to the hardships that come with the settlers – lawsuits, invasion of privacy, economic duress, daily harassment of residents and the resulting clashes between local youths and the settlers, often involving stone throwing – there is now an added presence of the Israel Police, the Border Police and private security guards paid for by the Ministry of Housing. They too use violence against Palestinian residents, threaten them, arrest minors and disrupt life. The stronger the hold settlers have in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, the greater the number of Palestinians directly impacted by the settler security apparatus, even without being expelled from their homes. Ever since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have employed discriminatory policies against the city’s Palestinian residents, and have worked in different ways toward decreasing their number while increasing the number of Jewish residents, with a view to achieving demographic and geographic conditions that would obstruct any future attempts to question Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem. As part of these efforts, Israeli authorities have confiscated hundreds of hectares of land from the Palestinian population and built 12 neighborhoods designed exclusively for the Jewish population in the occupied area that was annexed to Israel. In terms of international law, the status of these neighborhoods is no different than that of the settlements elsewhere in the West Bank.The settlement in Batan al-Hawa promoted by Ateret Cohanim is an integral part of efforts by the Israeli authorities and by settler organizations to Judaize to the Holy Basin - including the Old City's Muslim Quarter and the Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding it. At present, some 2,800 settlers are living in about 140 residences in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods in the Old City and its environs - an area that is home to some 100,000 Palestinians.

22 November 2018

אסירים פלסטינים בכלא מגידו, ניר אליאס, רויטרס, 15.5.05

Detainees & Prisoners

Israel continues to mistreat relatives of thousands of Palestinians held illegally in its territory

According to figures from the Israel Prison Service (IPS), on 30 June 2018 Israel was holding some 5,300 Palestinian residents of the West Bank as security detainees or prisoners in incarceration facilities. With the exception of Ofer Prison, all the facilities used to hold Palestinians are located inside Israel. Residents of the West Bank who wish to visit their loved ones have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles in order to secure permission from the relevant authorities – the Civil Administration, the IPS and the Israel Security Agency (ISA). After permission is received, the visits themselves entail a long day of traveling due to countless inspections and protracted delays. Click here to read about the restrictions Israel imposes on prison visits by relatives from the Gaza Strip. First, the residents must apply for a permit to enter Israel through the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been responsible for coordinating between the visitors, the Civil Administration and the IPS since 1969. The Civil Administration issues permits to enter Israel for a prison visitation, provided that the visitors are first-degree relatives – fathers, mothers, grandparents, spouses, children or siblings. The permits are usually valid for a year. Other relatives are only permitted to visit prisoners in exceptional cases, when the Israeli authorities acknowledge “humanitarian grounds” for the visit. However, the Civil Administration limits first-degree relatives, too. If the ISA classifies an applicant as denied entry to Israel “on security grounds”, he or she can only receive a “prison visitation permit for denied persons” – a special permit usually valid for 45 days and for a single visit – or none at all. In addition, all men between the ages of 16 and 35 are automatically denied an annual visit permit. Some are given a special single-visit permit. In practice, even relatives who receive an annual permit are not allowed to visit on a regular basis: The IPS allows the families of Palestinian prisoners (security and criminal alike) in Israel only one visit a month. Although regulations state that criminal prisoners are entitled to meet relatives under less stringent conditions than security prisoners, Palestinian visitors from the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) are only permitted to come with transportation organized by the Red Cross on prescheduled dates, and all visits are held under the strict conditions that apply to security prisoners. The journey takes an entire day. All visitors, regardless of their age or health, must come to arranged meeting points early in the morning. They are then taken in buses hired by the Red Cross to the final checkpoint before entering Israel, where they undergo a security inspection that entails lengthy delay, as Palestinian workers employed in Israel or in settlements in the “seam zone” also cross at those hours. The visitors then board new buses with Israeli license plates, also hired by the Red Cross. From the moment the buses leave the checkpoint, the security forces forbid opening the doors until arrival at the incarceration facility, even though the journey may take several hours. At the facility, the visitors undergo another security inspection, including a body search. After undergoing all this ordeal, the relatives get to see their loved ones behind a transparent partition and talk to them through a telephone receiver for 45 minutes. Prisoners are allowed to request a private meeting without a partition, but the prison authorities very rarely approve such requests. With one exception, all the prisons in which Israel holds Palestinians are located within its sovereign territory and not in the Occupied Territories. Holding residents of the Occupied Territories within Israel violates international humanitarian law, which prohibits the transfer of civilians – including detainees and prisoners – from the occupied area to the territory of occupying power. This ongoing breach of the law gravely violates the rights of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories to visit their relatives in prison with adequate frequency and under reasonable conditions. In many cases they are denied the right to visit them altogether. The hardship entailed in visiting relatives imprisoned in Israel are just one example of the exhausting routine of occupation that Palestinians face daily. In testimonies they gave to B'Tselem’s field researchers, relatives of prisoners described the ordeal involved in visiting their loved ones: Taleb Hamad, 80, is a grocery-store owner from Tell and a widower with 10 children. In a testimony he gave B'Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i on 21 June 2018, he stated: My son Ahmad was arrested on 18 March 2002 and sentenced to 28 years in jail. He was released in 2011 as part of the Shalit deal but three years later, in 2014, he was arrested again. They didn’t retry him and he’s serving the remainder of his original sentence. They decided that I’m denied entry to Israel for security reasons, so I can’t get an annual permit to visit him in prison. I can only get special permits for a single visit. Every time I want to visit him, I have to apply for a permit. I don’t know what danger an 80-year-old man can present to Israel. My wife ‘Aziza had kidney failure and passed away nine months ago, at the age of 72. A few months before she passed away, I went to the checkpoint with her, but they wouldn’t let her through. They said it was for security reasons. She couldn’t see Ahmad for the last eight months of her life. She submitted several applications to visit him and attached medical documents, but they wouldn’t let her visit him at the end of her life. I leave home before the morning prayers and say my prayers in Nablus so I don’t miss the Red Cross bus, which leaves from the central bus station in the city. Then we travel to the Irtah (Sha’ar Ephraim) checkpoint. It takes ages to cross the checkpoint, because we get there at the same time as the laborers who work in Israel. It can take two hours from the time we arrive at the checkpoint and until we leave. We have to stand the whole time because there are no benches or chairs at the checkpoint. I’m 80 years old and it’s hard for me. After we finish at the checkpoint, we get on other buses on the Israeli side – also organized by the Red Cross. The journey from there to Ramon Prison in the Negev takes about three hours. My son was in other prisons in the past, but for the last three years he’s been there. When we get to the prison, the real suffering begins. First we hand over our identity cards, permits and the name of the prisoner. Then we give them the cigarettes and clothes we brought for our sons. We stand most of the time because there aren’t enough benches for everyone, and it takes about two hours. I don’t see why it has to take so long – I feel that they’re deliberately trying to exhaust us. Then comes the body search. They touch me with their hands, including between my legs, and ask me to lift up my clothes. It’s really humiliating. Then they check me with a magnetic instrument. Despite all the checks at the checkpoint, and even though it’s forbidden to open the door of the bus until we arrive, we still have to undergo another inspection at the prison. What we go through during the visit is torture and an affront to human dignity. I’m an elderly man. It’s humiliation. My wife died while Ahmad was still in prison. I’m scared that I’ll die, too, before he gets out. When I visit, I see him through a glass pane. I can’t hear him very well because my hearing is weaker these days. You can’t hear properly through the receivers there and the room is very noisy. When the allotted time for the visit comes to an end, they immediately hang up and you can’t hear anything. Nothing is more precious than a son. I won’t stop visiting him as long as I live, despite all the difficulties. ‘Adnan Subuh, 53, a resident of Tulkarm, owns a business that sells discs and is married with four children. In a testimony he gave B'Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi on 19 June 2018, he related: My brother, Sami Subuh, was arrested on 1 August 2003, at the height of the second intifada. He was sentenced to 28 years in jail. Since 2016 he’s been at Megiddo Prison. Two years after Sami was imprisoned, they agreed to give my father, who is 85 now, a “special permit”. The special permits are limited to just one visit. My father would make the whole journey by himself, even though he was already an old man, to see Sami for just 45 minutes. In 2007, my four sisters also managed to get “special permits” to visit Sami. The first time I managed to get a “special permit” was in 2011, eight years after he was arrested. I last visited him on 12 June 2018. It was a regular visit. I got up at 5:00 A.M. to get ready. The families of prisoners come to the central bus station in Tulkarm and then everyone travels together in Red Cross buses. The buses leave for the Irtah (Sha’ar Ephraim) checkpoint at 6:30 A.M., and that’s when the process of suffering and humiliation begins. Usually, four or five buses go together. When we get to the checkpoint, there’s a long line by the revolving entrance gate. The first stage is an inspection with a metal detector. Then some of the people are selected for another inspection with a scanner, and others also undergo a manual inspection. The last time I visited my brother, when my turn came, the guy from the private security company that operates the checkpoint checked my permit and I.D. card and told me to stand aside and wait. That happens to most of the visitors who have a “special permit with security denial”. He started phoning all sorts of people. I sat there for an hour and a half, and no one asked me anything. In the meantime, everyone was waiting for me on the other side. Eventually, they let me through. Two buses with Israeli license plates, also from the Red Cross, were waiting on the other side. Once the bus doors close, they must not be opened until we reach the prison. The buses left at about 9:00 A.M. and the trip took about an hour. When we got to Megiddo Prison, they let us out into a fenced yard with soldiers and cameras. The yard is partly covered, but there wasn’t enough room in the shade and there weren’t enough benches for us all, so most of the visitors stood in the sun. There were about 250 of us. They divided us into three groups. Each group went in separately. When my turn came, I went through a metal detector and handed over my things. Then they separated the men and women and checked our whole bodies with metal detectors. After the inspection they took us into a waiting room made of tin, which was very hot. We waited there for over an hour. Everyone who came in started to sweat and complain. But like I said, that’s just the way it goes on a regular visit. We went through all that just to enter the visiting hall. On either side of the entrance there were police dogs barking behind iron grids. The prisoners sat behind glass partitions. Each one of us looked for the prisoner we’d come to see, and then sat in front of them and began to talk through a receiver while they sat behind the thick glass pane. The visit lasted 45 minutes. On our way out, they gave us back our permits and I.D. cards. Then we went back to the buses, which were waiting in the prison car park. The whole visit usually takes about eight hours. I get home tired and exhausted. Over the years I’ve seen some tough on these visits. I’ve seen mothers who went through the whole process only to be told when on arrival that they couldn’t see their kids because they’d been taken to court or to hospital. A few times, the Red Cross told us the day before a visit that we couldn’t see Sami. Zahara Ashtiyeh, 77, a resident of Tell, is a widower with 10 children. In testimony she gave B'Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i on 19 June 2018, she said: My son Jawad was arrested on 23 October 2003 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He’s 43 now. I try to visit him as often as I can. They’ve moved him from one prison to another several times. For the past four years he’s been at Gilboa Prison. I never miss a visit, no matter what, even though I’m 77 and have diabetes. He’s part of my soul. I leave home at about 5:00 A.M. to get on the Red Cross bus that takes us to the Irtah (Sha’ar Ephraim) checkpoint. Then they take us to the prison on buses with Israeli license plates hired by the Red Cross. It takes us about two hours to get through the checkpoint. There are lots of inspections there. Sometimes they hold back one of the visitors and that delays us all – we don’t leave until they’ve checked everyone. Two years ago, they sent me back from the checkpoint after I’d been through all the inspections, except for the last stage when we have to show them our permit and I.D. card. At that point they told me I was denied entry for security reasons. I asked why but they didn’t give me any explanation. They just told me to go home. I get permits for prisoner visits that are valid for one year. That time, I had to wait four months for the previous permit to expire so I could apply for a new permit and wait to see whether there was still “security denial”. That’s what I did, and luckily I got a new permit and managed to visit my son again. That wasn’t the first time it happened. Three years ago they also told me there was “security denial”. That time I couldn’t visit my son for two whole years. It was really hard for both of us. His brothers managed to visit him during that period, but they only get “special permits”, which means they can only visit him once and then they have to apply for another permit to see him again. We insist on visiting him despite all the difficulties. When we get to the prison, we go through a long and humiliating procedure before they let us in. They check us with instruments and by hand. The woman soldier inspects my whole body manually, including my intimate parts. She touches my chest, hair, sleeves and pockets, and runs a metal detector over all my body, including between my legs. A lot of women, especially the young ones, are inspected naked in a special room. Because I’m old, I don’t have to go through that. Once I saw one of the prisoners’ wives refuse to be inspected naked. They wouldn’t let her through and she waited outside. The visit lasts 45 minutes. We talk through a telephone – there’s a thick pane of glass separating you from the prisoner. The visiting room is very noisy and you can’t hear well over the phone, so everyone shouts and there’s a real commotion. After my son applied to the prison management again and again for a private visit, they allowed us to visit him without the partition. It happened just once, 10 years ago. My daughter came with me. We were very excited to be able to shake his hand, give him a hug and smell him. My daughter hugged him and didn’t let go for several minutes. I’m old now, almost 80, and I hope they’ll let me have another private visit. My husband passed away eight years ago. For the last two years of his life, he was ill and couldn’t move or speak. He had to write on paper to communicate. He used to write all the time that he wanted to see his son, but they rejected all his requests. He died without his wish coming true. Na’ama Handi, 60, a resident of Tell, is a homemaker and married with eight children. In a testimony she gave B'Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i on 21 June 2018, she stated: My husband, Musa Handi (70), and I have eight children. Our son Raed (39) was arrested in 2004. He’s been moved from one prison to another, and for the past five years has been at Ketziot. During Raed’s first two years in prison we couldn’t visit him because of “security denial”. That was a really tough time. No one in the family was allowed to see him. Then I started to get a blue permit – a special permit that’s only good for one visit. I visited him for five years using these permits – one visit every six months, then I had to renew the permit. After five years – seven years since he was arrested – I started getting a regular annual permit that allows me to visit him once a month. I haven’t visited Raed since the end of 2017. It’s very hard at my age, and he’s due to be released in a few months. I suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure. He also told me that he’d prefer me not to visit him too often. He knows that the visits are hard for me and he worries about me. When I used to visit him, I’d leave home at about 4:00 A.M. and get back late at night. The day of the visit is very tough, especially for someone like me who was diabetes and needs to go the bathroom regularly. It takes us two hours to cross the Irtah (Sha’ar Ephraim) checkpoint. There are no benches there, so we have to stand all the time. Then, on the buses that take us to the prison, we aren’t allowed to stop at any point, even if people need to use the bathroom. When we get to prison, they search us and we have to wait for ages. There’s a yard with benches, but there isn’t much shade and there aren’t enough benches for everyone. The visitors’ toilets at the prison are disgusting and there aren’t enough of them – just two cubicles, one for women and one for men. As soon as we arrive, a long line forms for the bathrooms. After waiting, they search our bodies using a metal detector and by hand. They pat us down all over our bodies. After that we have to wait again for a long time, until they finish checking everyone. Sometimes there are unexpected delays and collective punishment. Once, a couple of years ago, one of the prisoners hit a guard, so they made us all wait outside the prison for two hours after we arrived. Another time, they kept us waiting at the checkpoint for two hours because they said one of the visitors had tried to bring in a SIM card for a mobile phone. They punished us all – four full buses – and made us wait two hours. Then a Red Cross representative spoke to them and they let us through. After the visit I get home totally exhausted. I thank God that my son is due to be released in a few months and I won’t have to go through this difficult and exhausting experience. God help all those people who have relatives in prison and have to visit them.

9 August 2018

ח'יתאם ג'ראר על רקע חורבות ביתה. צילום: עבד אל-כרים סעדי, בצלם, 21.1.18

Demolition for Alleged Military Necessity

Reprehensible actions by Israeli troops against Palestinians following killing of Rabbi Raziel Shevach: Demolishing a home with inhabitants still inside, strip searching 3 women, setting dogs on 3 residents

On 9 January 2018, Palestinians fatally shot Israeli Rabbi Raziel Shevach in a drive-by shooting near his home in the settlement outpost of Havat Gilad in the West Bank. The shooters fled the scene. In the month that followed, Israeli security forces mounted a search for the suspects, including Ahmad Nasser Jarar from Jenin. As part of the search, the forces entered at least five homes of the extended Jarar family in Jenin, in the town of Birqin and in the village of al-Kafir in Jenin District. An investigation carried out by B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi in the Jenin area revealed that on 17 January 2018, Israeli security forces entered the neighborhood of Wadi Burqin in Jenin in search of suspects. The forces encountered armed Palestinians and in the gun battle that ensued, a Palestinian man was killed. Police say he was one of the shooters. The forces also demolished four homes, in one case beginning the demolition while the family was still inside, without giving them prior warning. In early February, apparently as part of the search for Ahmad Nasser Jarar, Israeli security forces came on two separate occasions to other homes of the extended Jarar family, in the town of Birqin and in the village of al-Kafir. The forces set dogs on three people and subjected three women to degrading strip searches. In all cases, the forces entered the homes in the middle of the night or in the early hours of the morning, while the families were asleep. In some of the cases, the soldiers ordered the inhabitants to step outside into the cold night air; in others, they ordered residents from several houses to gather in one house. On 6 February 2018, Israeli forces killed Ahmad Nasser Jarar (26) and demolished the room in which he had taken cover in the village of al-Yamun. In testimonies given to B’Tselem, members of the Palestinian families whose homes were invaded by soldiers and dogs in the middle of the night described destruction, degradation, trauma and injury. These accounts indicate wanton, unchecked violence by the Israeli forces, and utter disregard for the dignity, bodily integrity and lives of the Palestinians whose homes they entered, including young children. The troops involved in these incidents – including the commanders who gave the orders – are well aware of their complete impunity, as well as of the fact that the residents facing them are defenseless, even inside their own homes – and exploited this to the full. The findings of B’Tselem’s investigation follow. All testimonies given to B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi. 18 January 2018, Jenin: Israeli forces kill Ahmad Isma’il Jarar and demolish four homes On the night of 17 January 2018, at around 10:00 P.M., Special Police Unit forces entered the neighborhood of Wadi Burqin in west Jenin together with soldiers and ISA (Israel Security Agency) agents. The forces surrounded several homes of the extended Jarar family and exchanged fire with armed Palestinians who were near one of the houses. One person was killed in the gun battle: Ahmad Isma’il Jarar (30) – the cousin of Ahmad Nasser Jarar – who was, according to the police, one of the shooters. The police also stated that two Special Police Unit officers were injured in the exchange – one moderately and one sustained minor wounds. In clashes that later developed there, the forces injured two residents with live fire, one of whom was seriously injured.. During the exchange of fire, which lasted several hours, the forces called on residents to come out of their homes, but some residents did not understand the order was addressed to them. At around 1:00 A.M., Isma’il Jarar (65), the father of Ahmad Isma’il Jarar who had been killed earlier that evening, opened his front door after he heard soldiers shouting outside. He saw soldiers standing there, pointing their guns at him. The soldiers ordered the family to come outside. Ismai’l, his wife Inshirah (50), four of his children and two of his granddaughters (ages 8 and 9) came out of the house and the soldiers ordered them to sit in the yard. The soldiers took Isma’il’s son Muhammad (33) for questioning, which lasted about an hour, and then returned him. The soldiers then loaded the entire family onto military vehicles and drove them some 150 meters to the home of a relative, Rida Jarar. In Rida Jarar’s house were other relatives who live nearby and had been sent there by soldiers: Khitam Jarar (47), the widowed mother of suspect Ahmad Nasser Jarar, and her three other children. The soldiers handcuffed all the men, except Isma’il Jarar, and assembled them on the first floor. They assembled the women on the second floor, and some soldiers went up onto the roof. At approximately 3:00 A.M., the forces began demolishing the homes of Isma’il Jarar and Khitam Jarar, and also the home of ‘Ali and Nassim Jarar with the inhabitants still inside. ‘Ali and Nassim Jarar and their four children, aged 7 to 20, were at home. When they heard shooting and other noises outside, the family gathered in the bedroom of the youngest daughter, which is the farthest from the entrance to the house, and were in the room when the demolition began. In a testimony she gave on 24 January 2018, Nassim Jarar related: Shortly after 3:00 A.M. we heard cars and a bulldozer approaching our house. The bulldozer started demolishing the western side of the house. My husband, children and I started screaming because we were scared the house would collapse on top of us. We felt the ground shake and heard parts of the house come crashing down. We went into the kitchen and stood there, confused and scared. Our kids were so frightened they were in tears. The sounds of the demolition grew louder. We decided to chance it and leave through the eastern side of the house to go to my brother-in-law Walid Jarar, whose house is about 20-25 meters away. We knew we’d die and be buried in the wreckage if we stayed inside, but we were also afraid the soldiers would shoot us the moment we stepped outside. I asked my husband and children to pray before we left and recite the verse “There is no god but Allah”. I left in my pajamas, without even putting on my head scarf. There were soldiers in Walid’s yard and they shone the laser sights on their guns at us, lighting up our faces. My husband asked them, “Why are you demolishing my house?”. One of the soldiers answered: “Quiet, be quiet”. I asked the soldiers if we could go into Walid’s house and they said we could. Walid was at home, and there were soldiers on the roof. We stayed there until morning. It was a long, depressing night, in which I lost the entire contents of my home, my memories and our family’s personal items. Our home was reduced to a pile of rubble and now the family has dispersed between the homes of various relatives, until we find an apartment to live in. My husband and children and I left our home in our pajamas, and all our money and belongings are now buried in the debris. My daughter Khadijah, who is seven, keeps asking me about her stuffy, Little Bear, which is also stuck in the wreckage. My son Mustafa, who is eleven, keeps asking about his bike and his books. I don’t know what to tell them. The military demolished the three houses – one of which contained two apartments – with bulldozers and fired a missile at one of them. This left sixteen people, including three minors, homeless. 3 and 8 February 2018, the town of Birqin: Forces strip search residents and set dogs on them On the morning of 3 February 2018, at approximately 6:00 A.M., dozens of soldiers came to the town of Birqin, Jenin District. The troops surrounded the house of Mabruk (40) and Inas (37) Jarar. The couple woke up from a loud bang – apparently when the forces blew up the front door to their building – and the sound of stun grenades. They quickly brought Mabruk’s two children from his first wife, one aged three and other nine, who live with them, into their bed. Several minutes later, the force blew up the door to the second floor, where they live. A dog then came into their bedroom, sank his teeth into Jarar’s left shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Inas tried unsuccessfully to pry him from the dog’s grip. The children hid behind the bed, screaming and crying. Inas Jarar described what happened next in a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 4 February 2018: I ran to the door to cry for help, and then I saw soldiers standing on the stairs leading to our apartment. They shouted at me in Arabic to get everyone out of the house. One of them told me to get Ahmad Jarar, who is a wanted man, out of the house, but I don’t even know him. I told them there was no one else at home but my husband and the two young children. I begged them to save my husband from the dog, but they just stood there and did nothing. I told the soldier that no one was leaving the house and that he could shoot me if he wanted to. Those were terrifying moments for me. I went quickly back to the bedroom. The dog still had its teeth sunk in my husband’s shoulder and the children were hiding behind the bed. I tried to pull my husband away again, and managed to drag him to the entrance, where the soldiers were standing. The dog didn’t let go. I shouted to the soldiers again to call off the dog, but one of them just said: “Get us Ahmad Jarar and then we’ll help you and release your husband from the dog.” Several soldiers and the dog dragged my husband down 19 stairs to the first floor. At that point, the children wet themselves. They were so scared, they couldn’t stand up. The soldiers ordered me to go down to the yard and get the children. I put their shoes on so they wouldn’t get glass shards in their feet. The soldiers made us sit on the ground, which was wet from rain. While we were waiting outside, I heard an explosion inside our apartment. I assume the soldiers threw stun grenades into the apartment before they went in to search it. There were a lot of soldiers there, some of them masked. We sat on the ground for about half an hour. Then the soldiers brought my husband out of the apartment on the first floor. The dog wasn’t gripping him anymore, but his hands were tied behind his back, even though he was injured. His face was covered in blood and his clothes were torn. Mabruk Jarar recounted what he underwent after the soldiers and the dog dragged him downstairs, in a testimony he gave B’Tselem on 14 February 2018: At the foot of the stairs, a soldier released me from the grip of the dog’s jaw, after he cut my shirt with scissors. He got the dog away from me. Then another soldier came up and punched me in the nose twice. It hurt terribly and I started bleeding a lot. I estimate the dog had its teeth in me for about fifteen minutes. One of the soldiers asked me, “Where is Ahmad Jarar?” and I said I had no idea. The soldiers put me in a room on the first floor. All that time, I was bleeding from my left arm and from my nose. Then a high-ranking officer came in. I think he was surprised when he saw what the dog had done to me. He took a photo of my arm on his mobile phone and ordered the soldiers, who had handcuffed my hands behind my back, to untie me. He talked to the soldiers in Hebrew, which I understand a little. After about five minutes, the soldiers tied my hands behind my back again and led me out of the house. Outside, I saw my little boys, Suheib and Mahmoud, sitting on the ground even though it was wet because of rain that night. The soldiers told my wife to get my mobile phone, and then they put me in a military jeep and took me to Salem camp, blindfolded. When we got there, I was told that they were going to send me to hospital and the soldiers removed my blindfold. While I waited there, some of the soldiers took photos of me on their phones and also took selfies, laughing. Only some two and a half hours later, did the soldiers transfer Mabruk Jarar to hospital. He was taken to a hospital in the city of Afula, Israel. There, he was shackled to the bed by his legs and two soldiers stood guard at the door. The next day, at around midday, two people in civilian clothes came to the room and questioned him about his ties with Nasser Jarar, who was killed in 2002 – the father of Ahmad Nasser Jarar, the suspected shooter of Rabbi Shevach. After about half an hour, the two left the hospital. About a week later, on 11 February, Jarar was untied and informed that he was being released without any charges. On 13 February, Jarar was transferred to Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus for further treatment. On 8 February 2018, while Mabruk Jarar was in hospital in Afula, some twenty soldiers came to his house at approximately 3:00 A.M. His wife, Inas, was at home with his mother, Huriyyah (75), and his sister Dalal (50), who is mute and suffers from Down syndrome. The two women had come to keep Inas company since Mabruk’s arrest. In a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 8 February 2018, Inas Jarar related: The female soldier ordered me to take off all my clothes. I did as she said. I thought she wanted to search me with a metal detector. To my surprise, she insisted that I remove my underwear, too. I did as she said and she searched the clothes I had taken off. I stood there stark naked, and she ordered me to turn around. I felt broken and humiliated. I wished I could die, so I wouldn’t have to experience another second of this. Then she ordered me to kneel. I stayed like that for two or three minutes. They were the longest minutes in my life. Then she told me I could put my clothes back on. I think that soldier has no moral or human feeling. After the soldier finished the search, the soldiers stayed in the house for another whole hour. During that time, they questioned me about my husband. They asked me if I wanted to visit him and also inquired about his finances. What they did to me was a crime. They humiliated me and hurt my dignity and the dignity of my family. Huriyyah Jarar described what she underwent in a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 13 February 2018: The female soldier led my son’s wife Inas into her bedroom. I stayed with my daughter Dalal in the room facing the kitchen. It’s hard for me to move. I sat on the bed and my daughter sat on her mattress near me. The soldier closed the door after Inas went into her bedroom, and I couldn’t see what was going on there. About five minutes later, Inas and the soldier came out of the bedroom and came into our room. The soldier said she wanted to search us. I started crying and said: “What do you want from me? I can hardly move and I’m an old woman. Shame on you.” I sat on the bed and Inas and the soldier helped me undress. I felt helpless and so sad about what the soldier did to me. She examined my clothes while I was naked and then she and Inas helped me take my pants down until I was completely exposed. The soldier looked at my private parts. I cried the whole time. How could a young soldier force an old woman like me to take off all my clothes in front of her and expose myself like that? I never imagined anything like this was possible. Then the soldier ordered Inas to help her take Dalal’s clothes off. Inas did as she was told and the soldier inspected Dalal naked as well. I couldn’t stop crying. How did we end up being undressed by a soldier, inside our own house, and exposing our most private parts? 3 February 2018, the village of al-Kfir: Soldiers set dog on family On 3 February 2018, at about 4:00 A.M., soldiers came to the home of Nur a-Din ‘Awad (48), his wife Samaher (42) and their four children. The family lives on the first floor of a two-story house in the village of al-Kafir, Jenin District. The soldiers broke down the front door and Samaher awoke from the noise to find a dog in her bedroom. She screamed, and Nur a-Din awoke. He leapt from the bed to chase the dog out of the room. The dog bit Nur a-Din in his right arm, while soldiers standing in the entrance to the bedroom stood by, doing nothing. The soldiers then removed the dog from the room. Samaher asked the soldiers to step out of the room. She dressed quickly and went to the living room. The soldiers ordered the family to stay inside the house and left. A few minutes later, the family heard knocking at the back door. Samaher ‘Awad described what happened next in a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 4 February 2018: I was holding Karam, my two-year-old son, who was crying against my breast. I opened the back door the soldiers had knocked on and a dog jumped at me, landing on my chest. I dropped Karam. Later I noticed that my husband had picked him up. The dog bit me in the chest and I struggled to get him off me. I managed, but then he bit my left thigh. I tried as hard as I could to get him off. The soldiers stood there watching and did nothing. The whole time, my husband was begging them to call off the dog. One of the soldiers said something in Hebrew to the dog and then it grabbed my left arm for a few minutes, until another soldier came and took him. My arm was bleeding and it hurt a lot. The soldiers and dog left the house. They stood facing the entrance. My husband asked them to treat my arm, but they ignored him. I was bleeding and in pain, but the soldiers didn’t care. I bandaged my arm with a piece of cloth to stop the bleeding About an hour later, at about 5:00 A.M., soldiers came to the house of Halimah Jarar (62), a widowed mother of six, who lives about 150 meters from the ‘Awads’ house. Halimah lives at home with two of her children – her daughter Sabaa (42) and her son Al-Qa’qa’ (48), who is married and has four children. The soldiers called out to Halimah and her family to come out of the house and ordered them to go to the house of their next-door neighbors, Nur a-Din and Samaher, where they assembled all the women on the first floor and the men on the second floor. Then the soldiers questioned Halimah’s two sons – Al-Qa’qa’ and Dib, who lives with his family in another house in the neighborhood. In a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 4 February 2018, Halimah Jarar recounted: When I entered Nur a-Din ‘Awad’s house, I saw Samaher with her left arm bandaged and bleeding. You could see she was in a lot of pain. Her little boy, Karam, was scared and he was crying and holding on to her. I couldn’t bear the sight. I went outside and asked the soldiers who were opposite the house to give her first aid. A soldier agreed, got a first aid kit and went into the room with me. He cleaned the deep wounds and the bite marks from the dog, and bandaged Samaher’s arm. She called her brother, who called for an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, the soldiers wouldn’t let it through. Samaher kept bleeding. The soldiers held us until 9:00 A.M. They brought all the neighbors from the area into Samaher’s house, including my son Dib (50), who lives about 500 meters from me. In total, we were about fifteen people in the house, all neighbors and relatives. When the operation was over, the soldiers arrested brothers Dib and Al-Qa’qa’ Jarar. They were released several days later: Dib on 6 February and Al-Qa’qa’ on 7 February..

22 February 2018