In midnight raids, Israeli soldiers enter homes in Nablus District, wake families, and use young men as human shields

4 April 2017

On two separate occasions in January and February 2017, large numbers of troops entered the villages of Beit Furik and Burin in Nablus District late at night. The soldiers went into numerous homes and woke families, including young children. They were not carrying out arrest raids and, in what appeared to be an afterthought, only searched some of the homes. In Beit Furik, soldiers questioned residents about their participation in a celebration held for a village resident who had been released from prison, and used one family home as a makeshift interrogation facility. In Burin, soldiers questioned young men about throwing stones and ordered residents to lead them to the homes of other youths. In both villages, neither the questioned residents nor their families were accused of a thing, and the late-night raid appeared to be a show of force and for the purpose of gathering general information about the village.

Sundus ‘Eid with her baby girl in front of their home. Photo by Salma a-Deb’i, B’Tselem, 11 Jan. 2017

These incidents demonstrate, yet again, how the military – by intimidating people who stand accused of any wrongdoing - abuses its authority and power to invade the privacy and disrupt the routine of entire families, including young children. In Burin, the soldiers even made residents “escort” them throughout the village, using them as human shields at risk to their lives. These actions are attended by an absurd expectation that residents will cooperate, providing information about neighbors and leading soldiers to other homes, so they can harass more families.

The military law that applies in the West Bank permits officers and soldiers to enter the homes of Palestinians at any time, without having to show a warrant or justify their action. Israel’s security forces broadly abuse this authority, citing flimsy security considerations to justify frequent, arbitrary raids on homes. This unacceptable conduct reflects the military’s deep disregard for Palestinians’ dignity and right to live free of harassment.

Raids on homes in the village of Beit Furik:

On Wednesday night, 1 February 2017, military forces entered the Palestinian village of Beit Furik in Nablus District. They went into the homes of at least 11 families, in some cases forcibly breaking down the door. The soldiers demanded to know who lives in each house. In some cases, they made do with questioning the parents and checking their identity cards; in others, they also demanded that the children be woken. The soldiers gathered ten men from the village for questioning in one of the homes. Testimonies given to Salma a-Deb’i the next day (2 February) indicate that the men were questioned by soldiers and by ISA (Israeli Security Agency) agents who were with them, regarding their participation in a local celebration held to mark the release of a village resident from prison.

Fares Rim Hanani, 26, who lives in the village with his family, related in his testimony how soldiers entered his home and turned it into a makeshift headquarters for interrogation:

I live with my 72-year-old grandmother on the first floor of my family’s building. Above us live my parents, my two 17-year-old sisters, and my brother, who is 11. In the middle of the night, at about 1:00 A.M., I was woken by loud pounding on the front door of the building. I saw my mother and father hurrying downstairs. My father opened the door and we saw soldiers standing there, pointing their rifles at us. Six soldiers walked in and one of them ordered us to assemble the whole family in my grandmother’s apartment. A soldier asked my father and me for our identity cards. He opened up a tablet computer and it looked like he was using it to check the ID cards. He handed my father’s card back to him and started to check mine. He told me to come over to him and ordered me to hand over my mobile phone. Then he took me into another room and searched me. Their commander asked where I sleep and I showed them my bedroom. The soldiers started searching the room and asking where I hide weapons.
Then they took me up to my parents’ apartment on the second floor. There were a lot of soldiers there and I was surprised to see someone else from the village sitting in the living room. He was blindfolded and handcuffed. It was the imam of our mosque. Everyone knows him in the village, and he attends a lot of celebrations and mourning rituals. They took me into my brother’s bedroom and I was kept there with a soldier for an hour. During that time, I heard them interrogating the imam in Arabic. Then another soldier came in, holding my ID card. He gave it back to me and took me into the living room. There were two other people that I know from the village sitting there. One was blindfolded and handcuffed. The soldiers handcuffed me too. They took me into the guest bedroom, where two men in military uniform were sitting. One of them ordered me to sit down next to him. I sat down. For a few minutes, he didn’t talk to me and was busy with his phone. Then he started talking to me in fluent Arabic. He introduced himself as Captain Na’im and said he was in charge of the whole area. He asked how Wisam’s party was. He was talking about Wisam Malitat, a guy from our village who had been released after 13.5 years in Israeli prison. A party was thrown in his honor a few days ago. The “captain” asked me about photographs we have in the house of individuals who were killed, and I explained that they were relatives of ours. He also asked me about my job and about my finances. I think he wanted to see if I could be pressured for financial reasons. Then I was taken back down to the first floor, where I saw four other young guys from the village who had been brought in for interrogation. They questioned each of them for about 20 minutes and let them go. Before the soldiers left, “Captain Na’im” apologized for the inconvenience they’d caused us. They left the house in a total mess, and the floor and carpets covered in mud.

Rawnad Hanani, 21, married and a mother of two, described the military raid on her house:

I live with my husband, Yasser, 27, and our two children: Tayem, who is a year and a half old, and Ritaj, who was born a month ago. On 1 February 2017, at around 1:30 at night, I was nursing the baby when I heard loud knocking on the front door. I woke my husband up and he ran over to open the door so they wouldn’t break it down. A lot of soldiers came into the living room and one of them ordered us to get the children. I told them they were asleep, but the soldiers insisted. My husband brought in Tayem who had woken up and started screaming and crying. The soldiers told Yasser to hand him to me and go get his identity card. The soldier checked the card and told me to go get Yasser some clothes from the bedroom. I could barely move, because I was holding both kids. Tayem wouldn’t let me put him down. I was trembling as I took the clothes out of the closet, because I was worried about my husband and upset that Tayem was crying hysterically. I handed Yasser the clothes. The soldiers wouldn’t let him go to another room and made him change in front of everyone. They took him outside. When they left, I tried to come after them to say goodbye to Yasser, but the soldiers blocked me and closed the door to the house. I started crying because I thought he’d been arrested. Meanwhile, his mother had come over - she lives nearby. She also started crying when she saw Yasser being led away.
To my surprise, about an hour later, he came home. He said that the soldiers had taken him to Rim Fares Hanani’s house and interrogated him there. They had blindfolded and handcuffed him. Most of the questions were about a party that had been held in the village to celebrate Wisam Malitat’s release from prison. Tayem was terrified by the soldiers, and has refused to sleep in his own bed ever since. He has trouble falling asleep and wakes up in a panic. He’s still too young to be able to talk and express his fear.

Raids on homes in the village of Burin:

On Wednesday night, 4 January 2017, soldiers came to the Palestinian village of Burin in Nablus District and entered the homes of at least five families. The soldiers questioned youths about stone-throwing in the village, and in some cases demanded to be taken to the homes of other youths. Testimonies given to Salma a-Deb’i on 11 January, along with her investigation of the incident, indicate that no one was arrested or taken in for investigation following the questioning.

Sundus ‘Eid, 43, who lives in the village with her husband and their seven children, related in her testimony how soldiers entered their house in the middle of the night and interrogated her son:

At about 12:30 at night, I was woken by loud pounding on the front door. I knew it was the military, because it’s not the first time they’ve come to our house. The military raids the houses in the eastern part of the village, perhaps because we’re closer to the settlement of Giv’at Brakha, which was built on land that belongs to our village. I picked up my one-year-old daughter, Nayruz, and woke my ten-year-old son, Muhammad. He’s terrified of soldiers and I didn’t want them to wake him. My husband opened the door and in walked seven or eight masked soldiers. They were pointing their weapons at us. They ordered us to sit down and then told us to go outside. I refused. I said we had small children and that it was cold outside. The soldiers ordered my son Walid, 22, to go out. Three soldiers stayed in the living room to watch over the rest of us.
We heard the soldiers shouting at Walid outside, and heard him tell them that he couldn’t understand what they were saying. They were speaking in broken Arabic. I managed to work out that they were asking him about stone-throwing. Afterwards he told us that they had beaten him and that one soldier also hit him with his helmet. They wanted him to show them where teenage boys live. At some point, I think it was after about 15 minutes, my husband insisted on going outside to join Walid. He asked the soldiers to explain to him what they needed and said that he would give the answers. The soldiers told him to show them were young men live in the neighborhood, and he said that we don’t have any living nearby. He pointed out a neighbor’s house and said that it’s the home of an elderly musician, another house of a family that has only small children, and another family that has a 15-year-old son. The soldiers took my husband to the house of one of our neighbors, Murad Najar, and went inside and searched it. Then they got into their jeep, threw a stun grenade that shook our whole house, and drove away.
The children are still frightened, but they’re not the only ones. We adults are scared, too. Every time I hear them knock on the door, my pulse quickens and I start trembling. Even after they leave, my stomach is twisted in a knot and I can’t eat or drink. I can’t do a thing for several days afterwards, just lie in bed. My son Muhammad refuses to sleep alone. Maysaa, who is twelve, doesn’t want to go to bed and tells me she has nightmares about soldiers. Having soldiers invade your home is a very rough experience.

The village of Burin. Photo courtesy of the village council.

Hassan Najar, 19, related how the soldiers came into his house and made him go with them to point out the homes of teenagers:

I live with my family and work as a taxi driver in the village. On Wednesday, 4 January 2017, I was awakened at about 12:30 at night by the sound of shouting and loud pounding on the front door. My father and sisters woke up, too. My father opened the door and five soldiers came into the living room, where I was with the rest of the family. One of the soldiers beckoned me over and I went over to him. The soldiers grabbed me by the shirt and dragged me into my father’s bedroom. A masked soldier asked me in Arabic whether I throw stones, and I said I don’t. He asked me again, several times. Then the soldiers told me to get dressed and go with them. I thought they were going to arrest me. I’ve never been arrested before. I went to my room and got dressed in front of the soldiers, because they wouldn’t let me stay alone. My father tried to talk to them to understand what was going on. They took me outside and their officer said to me, in Hebrew: “You tell me where your friends live”. They led me over to a neighboring house and asked me who lives there. I said that a mother and her ten-year-old boy live there, while the husband and younger children are in Germany. Then they led me over to another house and pointed to it. I told them that a woman lives there with her young sons, and that her husband is abroad. The officer got angry and grabbed me. He said I was lying and it couldn’t be that there aren’t any teenage boys in the neighborhood.
They made me go over and knock on the door of the house. The soldiers stood behind me. When the woman opened the door and saw the soldiers, she backed away in fear. They pushed me into the house and followed me in. Her children were home. They questioned her 17-year-old son Diaa outside while I stayed inside with the rest of the family and the soldiers. Then they led me to two other houses, where I also heard them question young guys about throwing stones.

Suggested items

אמבולנסים ליד מתחם המגורים של המשפחה בליל האירוע. התמונה באדיבות המשפחה

A Routine Founded on Violence

Soldiers hold 21 members of Palestinian family, 7 of them minors, in storeroom, and attack and beat some of them; six spend night in hospital, one remains in custody

On Sunday, 12 December 2021, at around 1:00 A.M., soldiers knocked on the door of the apartment in which Mahmoud (57) and Nidaa (55) Salhab live with their four children in the neighborhood of Khirbet Qalqas in Hebron. When Mahmoud opened the door, about 20 soldiers came in and demanded to know the whereabouts of his son Anas (24), a student at Hebron University. They then locked Anas in his room on the ground floor of the building and led Mahmoud and three of his children to an adjacent storeroom. Soldiers surrounding the building led other family members who live in the compound to the storeroom, until they were holding 21 of them, including seven minors, in the room along with 10 soldiers guarding them. From the storeroom, the family could hear Anas shouting as the soldiers beat him in the adjacent room. When his brother Ibrahim (16) tried to protest what was happening, the soldiers attacked and beat him, too. In the ensuing argument, soldiers dragged Anas’ cousin, Osama Salhab (24), along the storeroom floor, causing his head to bang into an empty aquarium, which shattered and injured him. The soldiers called a military ambulance that took him to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. At around 2:30 A.M., the soldiers left, taking Anas with them, handcuffed and blindfolded. They drove him around for several hours until they arrived at the Etzion Detention Center at around 8:30 A.M. At the center, he was held inside a military jeep until noon. Throughout the entire time, Anas was not given food, water or access to a toilet. He was then taken into a conversation with an ISA officer, who warned him not to participate in Hamas activities marking the movement’s anniversary. The talk lasted less than an hour, after which he was released and sent home with other students who had been called in for a similar warning. After the soldiers left, five family members were taken to the 'Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron. Three of them were diagnosed with bruises, and two were in shock. At around 5:00 A.M., they were discharged. Osama Salhab was discharged the following day, and then arrested and charged with assaulting soldiers that night. In the dead of night, dozens of soldiers entered a compound in Hebron that is home to about 30 people. They woke the occupants, held most of them in a storeroom and attacked some of them. The result: six members of the family were taken to hospital and two detained – one of them to date. This is incident is not exceptional; it is part of the intolerable routine that the Israeli apartheid regime imposes on Palestinians in the West Bank. B'Tselem field researchers Manal al-Ja'bari and Musa Abu Hashhash collected the following testimonies from members of the Salhab family, who described their nightmarish experience: In a testimony he gave on the day of the incident, one of the brothers living in the compound, Ahmad Salhab (52), a father of four, recounted: On 12 December 2021, at around 1:00 A.M., I was woken by noises and shouting coming from my brother Mahmoud's house. I quickly went outside and my son Osama followed me. We found soldiers there and they led us to a storeroom on the ground floor of Mahmoud's house. My brother Muhammad and his son Nur a-Din (23) were already there with more than 10 soldiers, including an officer. Some of the soldiers were attacking Muhammad's son Ibrahim. Meanwhile, the soldiers brought in my niece Mariam (20), who is Mahmoud’s daughter, and my nephew Salah a-Din (19), who is Muhammad's son. They also brought in my son Amjad (27). We got into an argument with the soldiers, who pushed us and ordered us to sit still on the floor while they continued attacking Ibrahim. The argument turned into a scuffle and then some soldiers jumped my son Osama, punched him, beat him with their rifle butts and kicked him. Muhammad and I tried to wrestle Osama from their hands. They pushed us. Some of them attacked Muhammad, and other soldiers continued beating Osama. They dragged him to the corner of the storeroom, where an aquarium crashed down on his head. I saw Osama lying on the floor, motionless. I saw he was severely injured and even thought he might be dead. The soldiers dragged him outside, and I followed them. Meanwhile, two Palestinian ambulances arrived, and the paramedics put Osama in one of them and gave him first aid. Before the ambulance left, the officer ordered them to transfer Osama to a military ambulance. I heard one of the soldiers say he was going to be taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Osama’s head was bleeding and his face was covered in blood. After he was taken away, the soldiers led Anas to a jeep that was parked nearby and drove off with him. My back and left arm were hurting from the soldiers' beating, but I didn't need treatment. My brother Muhammad, my nephew Ibrahim and my son Amjad were taken in the two ambulances to the 'Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron. A relative also drove my nieces Mariam and Asmaa (17), Muhammad's daughters, to the hospital because they were in shock. Everyone got back from the hospital at around 6:00 A.M. Muhammad, Amjad and Ibrahim had bruises on various parts of their bodies. In the morning, I went to the police station at Kiryat Arba after my relative, who visited Osama at Soroka Medical Center, said he had been transferred there. When I got there, an interrogator took a statement from me about what happened and only then let me see my son. Osama was sitting on a chair and couldn't move. His head was bandaged and his face was wounded. The police officers told me they were transferring him to the detention center at Etzion. In a testimony he gave on the day of the incident, Ibrahim Salhab (16), Mahmoud and Nidaa's son and Anas's brother, said: I was woken by loud banging on our door. I got up quickly and went towards the door. I saw my father open it. Several soldiers came in and asked my father about my older brother Anas. When they saw me, they led me to a storeroom on the ground floor of our house. A few minutes later, they brought my uncle Muhammad and his sons in, and later they also brought my uncle Ahmad and his sons in, as well as other members of the family. The officer ordered me to sit on the floor. I didn't do immediately as he said and asked the officer what I was supposed to sit on. Then he and about 10 other soldiers attacked me. They punched me, beat me with their rifle butts, kicked me and then knocked me down. I kept shouting and asking them to stop hitting me. I asked what I'd done to them. They just told me to shut up and kept beating me. My uncle Muhmmad tried to free me from their hands, and they pushed him and made him sit on the floor. After they stopped beating my uncle and me, the officer and the soldiers moved on to my cousin Osama and attacked him. They knocked him down and dragged him to a corner of the storeroom, and then an aquarium that was standing on a small table fell on him. Osama started bleeding. His head and face were covered in blood and he stopped moving. Everyone in the storeroom started shouting, and a scuffle broke out between my uncles and the soldiers. The soldiers dragged Osama out, and my uncle Ahmad went out after them. All the other soldiers followed him outside. Ahmad came back and told us they'd taken Osama to Soroka Medical Center in an Israeli ambulance. I was exhausted and my whole body was hurting from the beating. I saw my uncle Muhammad sitting on the floor. He couldn't get up. Then I found out the soldiers had arrested my brother Anas. Two Palestinian ambulances took me, my cousin Amjad and my uncle Muhammad to the 'Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron. In the ER I also met my two cousins, Mariam and Asmaa, who were in shock. I was examined and x-rayed, and they found bruises all over my body. I went home and straight to bed. My brother Osama was treated at Soroka Medical Center and then transferred to the Kiryat Arba police station. From there he was transferred to the detention center at Etzion. I don't know where my brother Anas was taken. In a testimony she gave on 27 December 2021, Nisrin Salhab (12), Muhammad and Intisar's daughter, recalled: That night, I was watching a Turkish show on TV. My mother and my sister Asmaa were asleep. Suddenly, I saw flashlights shining through our windows. I went over to a window and saw a lot of soldiers around the house. I quickly woke my mother and Asmaa. My mother came out of the room and was surprised to find five soldiers holding my brothers Nur a-Din (23) and Salah a-Din (19). The soldiers led us to my uncle Mahmoud's storeroom. Some of my uncles and their children were there. Everyone was sitting on the floor, and the soldiers were pointing their weapons at them. They ordered us to sit on the floor, too, and we all sat down. I sat next to my cousin Mariam, who was crying. I saw the soldiers drag my cousin Anas to another room. I heard his voice and the voices of the soldiers, and it sounded like they were beating him. I was terrified because the soldiers were being barbaric. My cousin Ibrahim got into an argument with the soldiers and they immediately started beating him. A commotion broke out and I saw my cousin Osama yelling at the soldiers in Hebrew. I didn't understand what he was saying. One of the soldiers banged his head into Osama’s forehead and then they got into a fight. At least 10 soldiers stepped in and attacked Osama. They beat him with their rifle butts and dragged him along the floor. His head hit an old aquarium, and it crashed down onto him. Osama's head and face were covered in blood. I was screaming and crying, and shaking with fear. My father and uncles tried to defend Osama, and then the soldiers attacked them and beat them, too. Mariam, Asmaa and I screamed and cried. The soldiers took us and the rest of the women and children out of the storeroom and led us to my uncle Muhammad's house on the second floor. We could hear the shouting from there and realized the soldiers were still beating my father and my uncles. Five soldiers guarded the doorway to the apartment and wouldn’t let us leave. Asmaa was crying so hard, she could barely breathe. Mariam also kept crying, and I was crying and trembling with fear. We stayed like that until the soldiers left. From the balcony, we watched them lead Anas away in handcuffs and take Osama away in an Israeli ambulance. After the soldiers left, we went down to the storeroom and saw my father lying on the floor, shouting in pain. There was blood on the floor and on the wall. Asmaa and I sat down on the floor next to my father and cried. Two Palestinian ambulances arrived and the crew took my father and my cousins, Ibrahim and Amjad, to hospital. A relative also drove Asmaa and Mariam there in his car. Asmaa was having trouble breathing, and Mariam was screaming and couldn't stop crying. In a testimony he gave on 20 January 2022, Anas Salhab (24), Muhammad and Nidaa’s son, related: The soldiers put me in the room next to the storeroom and kept demanding I give them my phone. I told them I didn’t have one. They pushed me and hit me with their hands and rifle butts. I heard my family shouting in the storeroom, but I didn’t know what was going on there. After about an hour, they led me to a jeep outside. On the way, I saw my cousin Osama lying in the yard in front of the house and heard my uncles shouting that he needed medical treatment. I saw ambulances parked on the street. The soldiers put me in the jeep and blindfolded me. The jeep drove to the settlement of Beit Hagai. On the way, I asked for a painkiller for my headache but they didn’t give me anything, not even food or drink. Then the jeep drove somewhere else, returned to Beit Hagai and finally drove to Etzion. We got there around 8:30 or 9:00 A.M. They left me in the jeep until midday without any water or food, and I couldn’t go the bathroom. Then I was interrogated by the regional ISA coordinator, Taysir. He didn’t accuse me of anything but only warned me that I shouldn’t take part in Hamas activities. I told him the soldiers had invaded our home and attacked my family and me. He said it was a troop of inexperienced soldiers who don’t know how to behave with people. I was released less than an hour later. I waited outside Etzion until they let other students I’d seen inside go, and we traveled to Hebron together. There, each of us went home. I had bruises on my shoulder and back and I was in pain for several days.

3 February 2022

המהפכה שהותירו החיילים במטבח של אימאן וחיכמת שתיווי בכפר קדום. התמונה באדיבות המשפחה

A Routine Founded on Violence

Occupation routine: Soldiers invade three homes in Kafr Qadum, beat inhabitants and arrest one

On Tuesday, 1 June 2021, at around 1:30 A.M., dozens of soldiers and ISA agents invaded the Shteiwi family’s home in Kafr Qadum. They woke Bashar Shteiwi (29), who was sleeping on the balcony that night, and then the rest of the family – his mother Rashiqah (68) and his four brothers and sisters who were sleeping indoors. The soldiers separated Bashar from his family and violently interrogated him, beating him repeatedly, just moments after he had woken up. They searched the entire house and after about an hour and a half, led Bashar to the home of his cousin ‘Abdallah, who lives nearby with his mother. There, the soldiers conducted another search, throwing the family’s personal belongings on the floor. During the search, they interrogated Bashar again in the living room. About half an hour later, they led Bashar about 400 meters away to the home of his brother Hikmat (47), a father of five. Several soldiers had entered Himkat’s home earlier, and when Bashar arrived, the search and interrogation were already in progress: the family’s belongings were strewn on the floor and the living room furniture was overturned. Hikmat’s wife, Iman, and their three youngest children were being held in the parents’ bedroom. Their two other children – Tareq (17) and Malek (16) – were held, handcuffed, in separate room. Bashar was put in the room with Malek, while Tareq was beaten and interrogated. At around 4:30 A.M., the soldiers left the village, taking Bashar with them. In the morning, he was taken to the police station in the settlement of Ariel for interrogation. He was then held in custody for two weeks before being released. On 30 June 2021, soldiers returned to Kafr Qadum and arrested Bashar again, along with his brother Muhammad. Bashar was released on 9 August 2021 after being convicted, in a plea bargain, of throwing objects at people. He was sentenced to prison for a period of time already served in custody, and to an NIS 1,000 (~USD 310) fine. His brother is still in custody. Military incursions into Palestinians’ homes in the dead of night, in which soldiers wake entire families, including small children and infants, have long since become part of the routine that the occupation regime imposes in the West Bank. The troops enter bedrooms, rummage through the inhabitants’ private belongings, at times beating some of them, and leave the entire household stunned and terrified. This harmful invasion into what is supposed to be a personal, safe space is yet another example of Israel’s policy, which views Palestinians as subjects devoid of rights. Testimonies concerning the incident were given to B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi. In his testimony, Bashar Shteiwi (29) described what happened that night: On 1 June 2021, I was sleeping on our balcony on the second floor. At around 1:30 A.M., I woke up to find soldiers standing next to me. They kicked me and hit me. I heard a soldier say, “Here’s Bashar. Here’s Bashar.” One of the soldiers lifted me violently off the floor and pushed me indoors. He immediately started asking me if I had a weapon. I told him I didn’t, but he kept asking me where I was keeping it. I told him he could search the house and that if he found a weapon, I would take responsibility for it. A few minutes later, the soldiers took me down to an apartment on the first floor and tied my hands. It’s an empty apartment that’s meant for my brother Muhammad. The soldier or officer who interrogated me saw a walking stick there that used to belong to my late father. He took it and beat me with it, swearing at me and asking where I was hiding the weapon. Meanwhile, the other soldiers inspected the walls with special devices and searched the entire house, on both floors. After about an hour and a half, one of the soldiers told me that he was taking me to my cousin ‘Abdallah Shteiwi’s house. It’s right next door. When we got there, the soldiers sat me down in the living room and searched the whole house. After half an hour, they led me, still handcuffed, to my brother Hikmat’s house, which is 400 meters away from ours. While we were walking, the soldiers kept pushing me. When we got there, I saw there were soldiers inside. When we went inside, I saw that they were searching the living room. The kitchen utensils were strewn all over the floor and tables. I saw my nephew Tareq lying on the living room floor, handcuffed and blindfolded. The soldiers took me to my brother’s bedroom, where I saw my nephew Malek. My brother, his wife and their young children were in their daughter Shahd’s room. I tried to cheer Malek up and talk to him, but the soldiers shouted at me and ordered me to be quiet. Then another soldier came in and told me that Tareq had said I have a weapon. I told him I don’t and that I don’t need one, and then the soldiers started punching me in my upper body. After about half an hour, the ISA officer told me I was under arrest. He said I would go to prison for a year or a year and a half. The soldiers took me outside, handcuffed, and led me on foot to the settlement of Kedumim, which is about a kilometer away. At Kedumim, they blindfolded me and put me in a jeep that drove me to a military camp in Shavei Shomron. I stayed there until 11:00 A.M., and then I was transferred to the Ariel police station. A police interrogator questioned me about possessing weapons, but I told him I didn’t have any and that the soldiers had searched my house and found nothing. The interrogation ended in the afternoon, and from there I was taken into custody. I was released two weeks later, on 15 June 2021. Imtithal Shteiwi (58), the widow of Bashar’s uncle, recounted the soldiers’ incursion into her home: On Tuesday, at around 3:00 A.M., I was woken by the sound of the phone ringing. They were calling from my brother-in-law’s house to tell us that soldiers had come in and that some of them were in our shared yard. I put my headscarf on right away. I sat down in the living room with my son ‘Abdallah, and we waited for the soldiers to come in. About half an hour later, seven or eight soldiers knocked on the door. ‘Abdallah opened it and they came inside, leading my husband’s nephew, Bashar, into the living room. They demanded that ‘Abdallah hand them his ID card and then ordered us to sit in the living room. Several soldiers went into my bedroom and searched it. Meanwhile, I heard them shouting at Bashar and threatening him. They asked him about weapons and incitement materials. After half an hour, they left with Bashar. There were clothes and belongings strewn all over the bedroom floor. I immediately started tidying up and putting everything back in place. In her testimony, Bashar’s sister-in-law, Iman Shteiwi (44), described the raid on her home: That night, the whole family was sleeping at home: my husband Hikmat and I, and our five children – Tareq (17), Malek (16), Shahd (13), Mahmoud (11) and Muhammad (9). At around 2:00 A.M., I woke up in a fright. I heard shouting and hammers pounding on our front door. Hikmat told me it was soldiers. I got up right away and quickly got dressed. I ran to the children, who were awake and terrified. My husband went to open the door. He told the soldiers that he was coming and they should stop pounding on it, but they kept yelling and banging until he opened it. We all stood at the entrance and the little ones were terrified and crying. I hugged them and tried to calm them down, even though I was frightened myself. The soldiers ordered my husband and me to take the three little ones to my daughter Shahd’s bedroom, and kept Tareq and Malek with them. While we were in the room, I heard the soldiers shouting at my sons. I heard Tareq tell them: “We don’t have any incitement materials or weapons.” In his testimony, Basher’s nephew, Tareq Shteiwi (17), recalled: I stayed in the living room with the soldiers. They tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth. Then they knocked me to the floor and stepped all over my body, including my head. They hit me and asked me if there were any weapons in the house. I told them there weren’t and that we don’t need any. One of the soldiers also asked if I take part in the weekly march in the village, and I said I don’t. They kept on stepping on me and beating me for a few minutes. Then one of the soldiers lifted me up and led me to the living room. There, a soldier threw me down on the floor, sat on my stomach and punched me in the chest, shoulders and head. He demanded that I admit we have weapons and participate in the weekly march Then the soldier who attacked me told me that they were bringing in my uncle Bashar. The soldiers shouted at him, and I heard him answering their questions and telling them that he didn’t have any kind of weapon. In her testimony, Rashiqah Shteiwi (68), Bashar and Muhammad’s mother, described her sons’ arrest later that month: On Tuesday, 29 June 2021, at around 11:00 P.M., I fell and broke my right hand. My sons ‘Aqel and Samed took me to hospital in Qalqiliyah. I was treated and we got back home at around 2:00 A.M. When we got back, ‘Aqel went to sleep at his house with his wife and kids. Samed, who lives with me, went straight to bed. At around 3:00 A.M., my daughters and I were still awake. Suddenly, we heard loud, aggressive banging on the front door. We knew it was soldiers. Hanan got up quickly and opened the door so the soldiers wouldn’t break it down. Seven or eight soldiers swarmed in and immediately woke my sons Samer and Bashar. I heard one of the soldiers demand that they hand him their phones, and heard Bashar tell the soldier that his phone had been confiscated when he was arrested at the beginning of the month and hadn’t been given back to him. The soldiers searched the entire house. The girls and I stayed in my bedroom and the soldiers took the boys to other rooms. I couldn’t see them, but I heard the soldiers yelling at them. After five or ten minutes, I heard the soldiers talking to Muhammad, who had been sleeping on the first floor that night. I heard one soldier demand that Muhammad give him his phone, and heard Muhammad reply that he doesn’t have one. The soldier brought Muhammad into the room we were in and said to him, “I’m sure you love your mother and wouldn’t want the soldiers to start rummaging through her house and destroying the furniture.” Just then, more soldiers arrived and brought Muhammad’s phone with them. One of them demanded that Muhammad unlock his phone so he could search it, but Muhammad said it was private and that the soldier should respect his privacy. The soldiers took Muhammad out of the room, and then I heard Muhammad and Bashar shouting. It sounded like the soldiers were beating them. After about an hour, the soldiers left, taking Muhammad and Bashar with them. After they left, we saw that they had torn up the upholstery of pieces of furniture and broken five wooden doors in the house.

25 August 2021

סנד מוקבל לאחר שחרורו. צילום: מנאל אל-ג'עברי, בצלם, 22.6.21

A Routine Founded on Violence

Occupation routine: 12-year-old violently interrogated, held in dark cell, beaten by guards and abandoned at checkpoint after 16 days in prison

On 30 May 2021, at around 3:00 A.M., about 10 soldiers entered the home of the Muqbal family in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. The forces woke the family up and violently searched the house. Then, they handed the parents a summons for a police interview for their 12-year-old son, Sanad, who was staying the night with his cousins at al-‘Arrub Refugee Camp, and demanded he come in for questioning within several hours. Then they left the house. At around 8:30 A.M., Muhammad Muqbal, his son Sanad and his brother-in-law 'Abd al-Hafez Abu Sham'ah went to the Etzion police station, where the father and son were interrogated separately. Sanad was interrogated alone, with no adult acting on his behalf by his side, and without even being allowed to consult a lawyer. At one point, he saw his father lying unconscious in the station's yard. When he tried to approach him, an officer hit him. From there, Sanad was taken to a detention facility, where he was held overnight in a small, dark cell, with a mattress soaked in water that was dripping from the ceiling, without food or drink, and without being able to shower or change clothes. In the morning, after a sleepless night, he was taken in a military jeep and dropped off at Megiddo Prison several hours later. There, he ate for the first time since his arrest. While he was held at Megiddo, Sanad was beaten by prison guards, who broke his nose. Over the following days, six court hearings were held in Sanad’s case, in which he participated via Zoom. The court eventually upheld a plea bargain sentencing Sanad to 31 days in prison and a fine of NIS 2,000 (~610 USD). However, he was granted administrative release after 16 days. Upon his release, Sanad was taken to Jalameh Checkpoint and abandoned there, alone, without any officials bothering to notify his parents. He had no choice but to turn to young strangers at the checkpoint, who helped him contact his father and get to Ramallah, where his father was waiting for him and took him home. Sanad's case stands out only because of his young age. Yet, it is not exceptional with regards to Palestinian teens throughout the West Bank – who are subjected to a violent routine imposed by the occupation. Every year, Israel arrests and detains hundreds of Palestinian minors, while routinely and systemically violating their rights: during the arrest, under interrogation, and later in military juvenile court. Although Israel boasts of laws and procedures ostensibly put in place to protect the rights of minors, these are merely a fig leaf legitimizing grave harm to minors. Sanad's mother, Manal Muqbal (45), a mother of 12, described what happened that night in a testimony she gave B'Tselem's field researcher in Hebron, Manal al-Ja'bari: The soldiers locked me in the bedroom with my little son Karam. They wanted to go down to the ground floor, where my five daughters, Rawand (26), Arnas (20), Fidaa (17), Sulaf (16) and Siba (10), were sleeping. My husband tried to stop them from going there. He told the officer they were there alone and would be frightened, and the officer eventually agreed. The soldiers spread out all over the building, some on the second floor and others on the third floor. I thanked God that Sanad wasn't home because the soldiers were so agitated. I was sure that if he’d been there, they would have attacked him. About 15 minutes later, my husband came upstairs with the soldiers. He told me the girls were terrified and that he’d got into an argument with the soldiers, including cursing. The soldiers went into Sanad's room, turned it upside down and threw everything on the floor. At around 4:30 A.M., the soldiers left, after handing us a summons for Sanad to be interrogated at the Etzion police station. My husband immediately drove to al-‘Arrub Refugee Camp to get Sanad. He came home, showered, ate breakfast and then said goodbye to his sisters and me. At around 8:00 A.M., he went with his father and my brother, 'Abd al-Hafez Abu Sham'ah, to the police station in Etzion. In a testimony he gave B'Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari, Muhammad Muqbal (50), a grocer and Sanad’s father, recounted what happened after arriving at the Etzion police station: When we got to the station, three plainclothes guys took Sanad away. His uncle and I waited outside. After 10 minutes, one of them called me inside. I went ins and 'Abd al-Hafez left. I was taken into a room with a plainclothes interrogator. The interrogation lasted about an hour. He asked me questions about Sanad, about who'd incited him to throw stones and whether he had mental health issues. The interrogator showed me a video of Sanad throwing a couple of stones at a settler's car and the settler shooting in Sanad’s direction. That scared me. The interrogator stopped the video at a point where the bullet looked like it was passing too close to Sanad's head. It looked like the bullet was almost touching his hair. Then he told me, "Sanad could have become a martyr, like 'Obaydah Jawabreh." That's the guy who was killed in al-‘Arrub Refugee Camp in the recent incidents. I felt dizzy and had trouble breathing. Then I signed my statement and they brought Sanad into the room. He was frightened and looked pale. They took me to another room, where another interrogator questioned me. While I was being interrogated, I heard other interrogators shouting in nearby rooms. I don't know if they were shouting at Sanad or at other detainees. The other interrogator didn't write down my statement. About an hour later, he took me out to the yard. I was very worried about what was going on with Sanad and how he was suffering, and felt dizzy. I had trouble breathing and fell down. But I was still conscious and understood what was happening around me. I saw Sanad running towards me, but a Border Police officer tried to block his way. Sanad pushed the officer, and he tripped and fell on another officer, and then they both fell over. Sanad managed to reach me, but then the officer who fell came over to us and hit Sanad in the back with his rifle. I was paralyzed and couldn't defend Sanad. Then I blacked out and had no idea what was going on. I woke up about 15 minutes later and saw a lot of people around me: police officers, soldiers and paramedics, who had attached electrodes to my body that were connected to some device. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law 'Abd al-Hafez arrived. They must have called him. They also brought Sanad over to say goodbye to me and told me he was under arrest and that I could go home. 'Abd al-Hafez and I left. I felt sick and tired and my heart ached for Sanad, who was left alone at the police station. In a testimony he gave Manal al-Ja’bari, Sanad Muqbal (12), described what happened after his father and uncle left the station: After they left, a soldier came and blindfolded me, and left me in the yard. It was very hot. They left me there for about half an hour, with my hands and legs tied. Then the same soldier took me to a clinic where there were two doctors in uniform. They asked me about my health and filled out a form. Then I was put in a military jeep and taken to a place I didn’t recognize. They put me in a dark room, with no lighting and a water-soaked, dirty, smelly mattress. I saw water dripping from the ceiling onto the mattress. They left me there with my hands and legs tied. There were no windows in the room, except for a small opening in the door that was covered with newspaper. After they put me in there, they brought me a dry, disgusting sausage, two slices of dry bread and a pepper . It was inedible, so I didn't eat and stayed hungry until midnight. Then they brought me two falafels and some dry pita bread, but I couldn't eat that, either. I sat until morning on the mattress, with the water dripping on it. I didn't sleep for a second. In the morning, I was put in a military jeep. My hands and legs were tied. There were three soldiers in the jeep: one driving, another in the passenger seat, and a third next to me in the back. We drove for many hours. During the ride, the soldier sitting next to me hit me in the neck and cursed me, my mother and my sisters. We got to a place with a sign by the entrance that said "Megiddo Prison." The soldiers took me out of the jeep, blindfolded me and led me to the yard. A police officer put me in a room and took a photo of me with a small camera that was connected to a computer. He ordered me to take all my clothes off, searched me and then told me to get dressed. Then he took me to a room with seven detainees, all under the age of 17. The prisoners there gave me food. It was the first time I'd eaten since I was arrested the previous morning. I slept soundly until the next day and then I was transferred to another unit, where I was held for 16 days. While I was detained there, I attended six court hearings on Zoom. In the last hearing, the judge informed me I’d been sentenced to 31 days in prison and a fine of 2,000 shekels (~610 USD). That was on 8 June 2021. On 14 June 2021, I asked to speak to my father on the phone. I told them I hadn't spoken with him for 16 days. A guard took me to the phone. It was the first time I’d talked to my family since the arrest. My dad picked up and he sounded very sad and cried. In the middle of the call, the guard hung up and I argued with him. He said some insulting things to me and I answered him the same way. Then he dragged me to some room and pushed me inside forcefully, so I fell face down to the floor. Three armed guards arrived, and the guard who’d pushed me took a weapon from one of them and hit me hard in the back with the barrel. When I tried to raise my head, he hit me hard on the head. My face hit the floor and my nose started bleeding. Two soldiers picked me up and took me back to the cell. The next day, Tuesday, 15 June 2021, they told me I was being released. At around 4:00 P.M., I was dropped off at Jalameh Checkpoint. Some young guys there let me use their phone. I called my father, who asked them to drive me to the central bus station in Ramallah. They took me there in a taxi, and my father was waiting for me there. He hugged me and cried a lot. Then he drove me home. We got there at 10:30 P.M. My mother was waiting for us, worried. She hugged me and started crying.

15 July 2021