Mu’tasem Da’na, 46, a father of eight from the neighborhood of Wadi a-Nasara in central Hebron, attacked by soldiers on 28 July 2024
I work as a journalist and live with my wife and our eight children near the Ziad Jaber elementary school in Hebron.
On 28 July 2024, around 9:30 A.M., I left home and went to the radio station where I work. I was walking along the road that leads to the Jaber checkpoint, on the Worshippers’ Route. When I got to the checkpoint, I was surprised to see the passage was blocked with a barbed wire fence the soldiers had put up between the concrete blocks. I jumped over the concrete blocks to get through. Suddenly, three soldiers who were sitting by the Jaber building nearby started walking towards me, yelling and pointing their guns at me.
[the soldiers] laughed at me and mocked me, and I could hear sounds from their phones in the background. It was clear they were documenting me
When they reached me, two of them pounced on me and barbarically pushed me with my face against the wall, while the third continued pointing his gun at me. They kicked my legs, searched me violently and swore at me. I told them I was a journalist and that I just wanted to get to my workplace, but they kept on kicking and beating me, while shouting and ordering me to be quiet and keep still.
The soldiers pulled my ID card and press card out of my pocket and ordered me to unlock my phone. I unlocked the phone, and they looked through it and found content to do with the war in Gaza, Palestinian prisoners and illegal acts by the occupying forces. They asked me: “Are you Hamas?” I said no and explained that the content was related to my work as a journalist, and that some of it was about illegal acts by Hamas, too. The soldiers kept on looking through my phone, and every time they saw something that had to do with the war in Gaza, they swore at me, slapped me and kicked me.
One of the soldiers brought some string, pulled my hands back aggressively and tied them tightly together, which really hurt my wrists. Then the soldiers blindfolded me and led me about 250 meters on foot to the military camp near the southern gate of the Kiryat Arba settlement. The soldiers walked fast, and I couldn’t keep up with my eyes covered. They pushed me forcefully again and again and ordered me to walk fast. When we got to the camp, they put me in the yard and ordered me to get on my knees and keep my head down. They laughed at me and mocked me, and I could hear sounds from their phones in the background. It was clear they were documenting me.
They kept me in that position, in the hot sun, for almost an hour, kicking, slapping and cursing me the whole time. I heard them watching the videos they found on my phone. At some point, they pulled me to my feet and led me into the military tower. They took me up an iron staircase to a small room and forced me again to kneel with my head down. My wrists hurt a lot, and my hands were starting to go numb. Every time I asked the soldiers to loosen the string or replace it with zip ties, they hit me and cursed me.
[the soldiers] asked us about the events of October 7 and the killing of the children in Majdal Shams, and I told them I didn’t know anything about it because I live in Hebron. They kicked me and said, “It’s called Israel.”
After about an hour, the soldiers brought two guys I didn’t know into the room. I managed to talk to them a bit and gathered the soldiers had arrested them the night before, after beating them at the Tareq Bin Ziad intersection. One of the guys said that when the soldiers attacked him, they demanded he unlock his brother’s phone, but he didn’t want to give it to them, so they violently snatched it off him. Just then, the soldiers came back into the room. I heard them go over to the two guys and start beating them brutally, demanding the password to the phone. Every time the guy told them he didn’t know it, they thrashed him. At the same time, they continued to punch and slap me. They sang songs about revenge against Hamas in Hebrew, praising Israel and calling for killing of women and children. They made us repeat the words and curse the Palestinians. I understand Hebrew very well.
They asked us about the events of October 7 and the killing of the children in Majdal Shams, and I told them I didn’t know anything about it because I live in Hebron. They kicked me and said, “It’s called Israel.” At that point, more soldiers came into the room. They started playing songs of praise to Israel on a speaker and dancing wildly around us. When one of the other two detainees asked for some water, they poured water on us and wouldn’t let us drink it. I heard girls laughing and talking to the soldiers. I think it was a video call. The soldiers sang and danced around us for about 15 minutes, while taking turns hitting us and pouring water on us.
Then the soldiers demanded the password to the phone again, and the guy told them he wasn’t lying and that if he knew the password, he would have told them. I heard him scream as the soldiers pounced on him again and beat him badly. Meanwhile, an officer came into the room and started questioning me about my climbing over the concrete blocks at the military checkpoint. I told him I had no choice but to go over them because I was on my way to work, and explained that the day before, on Saturday, the soldiers let me go over without detaining or hitting me. The interrogator said I was lying and that it was forbidden. I asked him to check the cameras to see that it did happen.
I heard girls laughing and talking to the soldiers. I think it was a video call. The soldiers sang and danced around us for about 15 minutes, while taking turns hitting us and pouring water on us
My wrists were bleeding by then, and before the officer left, I asked him to take the string off them. He ordered the soldiers to replace the string with zip ties. One of the soldiers did so, but pulled the zip ties even tighter than the string.
Around 2:00 P.M., the soldiers led me to the al-Hariqah checkpoint, took off the zip ties and the blindfold and ordered me not to walk along that street again. They threatened to arrest me on the spot if they saw me again, and then they left while swearing at me. I don’t know what happened to the other two guys, because they were still in the military camp when I was taken out.
I still have marks on my wrists from the string and the zip ties, and they’re very swollen. My arms and legs also hurt badly because they forced me to kneel for the whole detention.
* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari on 5 August 2024