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.
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The remains of Isma’il Jarar’s home. Photo by Abdulkarim Sadi, B’Tselem, 18 January 2018.
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.
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Khitam Jarar in front of the remains of her home. Photo by Abdulkarim Sadi, B’Tselem, 21 January 2018.
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.
‘Ali and Nassim Jarar’s demolished home. Photo by Abdulkarim Sadi, B’Tselem, 18 January 2018
3 and 8 February 2018, the town of Birqin: Forces strip search residents and set dogs on them
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The door of the house.
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:
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Inas Jarar
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:
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Mabruk Jarar
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.
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Mabruk Jarar in Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. Photo by Abdulkarim Sadi, B’Tselem, 14 February 2018
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.
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Soot marks at the entrance to Inas and Mabruk Jarar’s house. Photo by Abdulkarim Sadi, B’Tselem
Huriyyah Jarar described what she underwent in a testimony she gave B’Tselem on 13 February 2018:
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Huriyyah Jarar
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
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Nur a-Din ‘Awad
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:
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Samaher ‘Awad
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:
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Halimah Jarar
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..
For more than 24 hours now, the Israeli military has been operating inside the densely populated Jenin R.C. as if it were a battlefield and not a place where human beings live, work, study and dream. Until now, reports have come in of aerial strikes and a ground invasion by tanks, APCs, bulldozers and hundreds of soldiers. Ten people have reportedly been killed so far, and hundreds injured, some critically. Evacuating the wounded has been a challenge as the military destroyed roads inside the camp as well as access roads to it. Hospitals are overrun and having difficulty providing the injured who have been evacuated with the care they need. Water, power and internet services have reportedly been cut off, and medical centers have sustained damage. Homes and other private property have also sustained massive damage. Thousands of civilians - children, women, men and the elderly - have been forced to flee their homes, some without knowing where they might go. As far as the Israeli government is concerned, these actions are a necessity, part of its “fight against terrorism.” This implied assertion was unquestioningly accepted across the political spectrum in Israel, with members of almost every party rallying around the government, along with many in the international community. But the fighting in the refugee camp is not divorced from the objectives of the apartheid regime, which has been working for years to advance Jewish supremacy throughout the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and military control over the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Committing massive human rights abuses while ignoring the humanity of Palestinians reflects the regime’s worldview. Contrary to what policymakers in the military and the government say, such widespread intentional harm to civilians is unlawful and flies in the face of humanity’s basic moral norms. Some actions are out of bounds, even if it is a “war against terrorism,” and certainly when the agenda is advancing racist, violent political goals. Policymakers refuse to distinguish between what is permitted and what is not, what is legitimate and what is criminal, what is humane and what is cruel. For the Israeli public, large swathes of which have for months been fighting against government plans that threaten to violate their rights - here is an opportunity to oppose human rights violations by the same government that are taking place right now. The international community has an obligation to set boundaries for Israel and act decisively to stop its attack on Jenin Refugee Camp.
In 2000, Gaza had about 10,000 fishermen. Today, the Gaza Fishermen’s Association has only some 4,000 fishermen registered, who are the breadwinners for approximately 50,000 persons. This figure, however, is misleading as half the registered fishermen are actually out of work, since their boats are out of commission and cannot be repaired due to the shortage in necessary raw materials. Ninety-five percent of Gaza’s fishermen live under the poverty line, defined as a monthly income of less than 2,293 ILS (roughly 600 USD) for a family of five. These families rely on humanitarian aid, and belong to the 80% of Gaza’s overall population who rely on humanitarian aid. The decline of Gaza’s fishing sector is a direct result of Israel’s policy, which includes severe restrictions on marine access, fishing exports, and the entry of raw materials into Gaza, as well as harassment of fishermen: a. Limited fishing zone: In March 2016, Israel expanded the range in which it permits Gazans to fish from six to nine nautical miles off the Gaza coast. In June, it reduced the range back to six nautical miles (some 11 km). These restrictions are in place despite Israel’s obligation under the Oslo Accords to permit fishing up to 20 nautical miles off the Gaza coastline. Israel has never lived up to this obligation, and the widest range it has ever permitted since the Accords were signed was 12 nautical miles. Over the years, the range was repeatedly reduced; at times, it was as little as three nautical miles. During periods of fighting between Israel and Gaza, fishing is prohibited altogether. Notices of changes in the permitted fishing zone are provided to the Fishermen’s Association by the Israeli DCO. The Israeli navy also marks the boundaries with buoys. The shrinking fishing zone has led to overfishing in a small area, resulting in a decreased fish population and depletion of fish breeding grounds. b. Shortage of raw materials, equipment, and spare parts for repairing fishing boats: Israel prohibits entry into Gaza of materials that are essential for maintenance and repair of fishing boats, including fiberglass, steel cables, engines and spare parts. Israel claims that these items fall under its definition of “dual-use materials”, i.e. materials “that are primarily designed for civilian use, but are suitable also for military use”. Over the course of 2016, delegates from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and the Palestinian DCO met several times with the Gaza DCO Commander, most recently on 10 June 2016. In these meetings, the Palestinian delegates provided the Israeli side with a list of items needed for the fishing sector. Not a single item on the list has been cleared for entry to date. According to the Department of Fisheries in Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture, some 200 rowboats and five small motor boats are currently out of commission as the materials and equipment needed to repair them are unavailable. Motorized hasake rowboat in Gaza's fishing port. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem, 11 Jan. 2017 c. Shootings and arrests: Over the course of 2016, B’Tselem received dozens of reports from fishermen that their boats had been struck by Israeli naval fire. Some of the fishermen were injured and others arrested. According to the testimonies, soldiers forced them, at gunpoint, to take their clothes off and swim over to the navy vessels, regardless of the weather. The fishermen’s testimonies, as well as GPS records on their devices, indicate that some were arrested although they hadn’t sailed beyond the military-permitted fishing zone. Fishermen brought on board navy vessels were taken to Ashdod port in Israel, where they were interrogated while blindfolded and handcuffed. Their boats were confiscated. Following the interrogation, which often focused on attempting to gather intelligence on Hamas operatives, most fishermen were sent home without their boats. The Gaza Fishermen’s Association has reported that since April 2016, Hamas has arrested and interrogated Gaza fishermen who were returned by the military to Erez Crossing, holding them for several days. According to the Department of Fisheries in Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture, the Israeli military arrested 113 fishermen over the course of 2016. Of these, 107 were released after interrogation and six are still in custody. Ten other fishermen were injured by Israeli navy fire. The Department of Fisheries has also reported that in 2016, the military confiscated 28 motorized hasake rowboats and six non-motorized ones. Only ten have thus far been returned to their owners, all in April. Also in April, five hasakes confiscated a year earlier were returned to their owners.* In 2015, 73 fishermen were arrested and 22 hasake rowboats confiscated. At present, 14 boats are out of commission due to damage caused by the Israeli navy, either by shooting or during confiscation of the vessel. Department of Fisheries data also indicates that the direct losses suffered by Gaza fishermen in 2016 as a result of Israeli navy fire or confiscation of boats and equipment amounts to some half a million US dollars. d. Restrictions on exporting catch to Israel and selling it in the West Bank: Prior to the blockade imposed on Gaza in 2007, fishing was a thriving sector. Fishermen sold their catch in the West Bank and exported it to Israel, making a decent living. As part of the blockade, Israel has banned the sale of fish from Gaza in the West Bank or its export to Israel, devastating the fishermen’s livelihoods. In 2014, Israel began allowing restricted sales in the West Bank once again, but under fastidious limitations that raise the cost of the process, and therefore the price of the goods. Current sales of fish caught in Gaza to the West Bank are much lower than they were prior to the blockade. Israel’s practices with respect to Gaza’s fishing sector illustrate why it is impossible to accept its contention that it ended its responsibility for the fate of Gaza’s residents and for what takes place there upon completing implementation of its disengagement plan in 2005. Though Israel removed its regular military presence and settlements from Gaza, it continues to control many aspects of daily life there from a distance. The terrible harm it inflicts on fishermen has no justification, and is yet another facet of the cruel blockade policy that Israel has been implementing in Gaza for a decade. Fishermen who gave their testimonies to B’Tselem field researcher Muhammad Sabah described the harsh circumstances forced on them: Mahmoud Sa’id Jum’ah Baker, 18, from a-Shati Refugee Camp, related on 5 Sept. 2016: I work at fishing with my father and brothers, on a motorized hasake rowboat. We go out to sea almost every day – off the shore of Gaza City and northward. We usually leave home at 5:00 A.M. and work until noon, depending on the situation and on how many fish there are. We sell the fish to merchants. Sometimes we catch twenty kilos of fish, sometimes ten or five, and sometimes not even a single fish. It depends on their availability, on the weather, and on what the Israeli navy does. On Friday, 12 August 2016, we went out to sea at 5:00 A.M. I went out with my father, my four brothers, and a hired worker we have. We sailed to the area of a-Sudaniyeh, about 2.5 nautical miles northwest of the permitted fishing zone. By 8:00 A.M. we had caught about three kilos of farida (blue-pointed porgy). While we were working, an Israeli navy patrol boat approached us, followed by a rubber dinghy. We tried to get away. The patrol boat and the rubber dinghy chased us, firing live bullets and rubber[-coated metal] bullets into the air. After we’d gotten about 200 meters away, the soldiers ordered us to stop, and we did. They told us to take our clothes off and jump in the water. We took our clothes off and swam over to the rubber boat, one by one. It took us to the patrol boat. The soldiers blindfolded us, tied our hands, and sat us down next to each other. After sailing for about an hour, the boat stopped. They took our blindfolds off and ordered us off the boat. It was Ashdod port. They gave us flip-flops and took us to a room, where they sat us down and blindfolded us again. Then a doctor came and took my temperature. He asked me if I was sick and I said I wasn’t. Then they used metal handcuffs to tie our hands and put us in a small bus that took us to Erez Crossing. At the crossing, they replaced the metal handcuffs with zip ties and brought us in, one by one, to an interrogation room. I went in last. When I got in the room, there was an interrogator there. He started asking me why I was angry. I said I was angry because they’d taken our boat, which is our livelihood. He started saying that they’d taken the boat because we’d crossed the border, and I told him it wasn’t true. He asked where we’d been, and I said in the permitted area. Then he asked if I was afraid of getting hit by a bullet. I said no. The interrogator asked me to point our house out on a map on a computer. When I asked what he wanted with our house, he said he wanted to know if I was really a fisherman or not. I told him he’d taken my boat, which I use for work. He asked for my cell phone number, and I told him I don’t have one. The interrogator kept asking me about my uncle’s house and my neighbors’ houses. Then he asked where I wanted to work. I said I don’t know, because I have no job other than fishing. He asked if I wanted to work in Israel. I said no. Then he started telling me they’d get me a car or a motorbike. I said I didn’t want to and that I wanted to leave. The interrogator asked: Don’t you want to tell me about a house that belongs to someone from Hamas? Then I was taken to a room where we waited for about an hour. At around 2:00 P.M., they told us to go to the departure hall that leads to Gaza. We walked all the way to the other side of the checkpoint, where Hamas police are stationed. They interrogated us about what happened at sea and at Erez. Then they took us to the Internal Security Services Headquarters at Jabalya, where they kept us until 8:00 P.M. From there, they transferred us to the Internal Security Services Headquarters in Gaza, at al-Ansar, where they arrested us. They gave us dark glasses instead of a blindfold, so we wouldn’t see anything. Then they asked me my name and led me to a small cell, 2 meters by 80 cm. Later, they brought me food and drink. The next day, Saturday, 13 August 2016, an officer took me into a room and asked me about what happened. Then they took me back to the cell. I stayed there until the next morning, Sunday, 14 August. Then they took me into an interrogation room where there were two officers. They asked me again about what had happened at sea and at Erez Crossing until I got to the Hamas checkpoint. Then they took me back to the cell, and I stayed there the next day, too. On Tuesday, 16 August, they transferred me to another cell, where my father was, and brought us a meal. At 3:00 P.M., they released us. The officers asked us not to go close to the border at sea, and not to put ourselves at risk so we don’t get arrested. Then they gave me a summons to a meeting on 31 August 2016, at 9:00 A.M. I came on the set date. They sent me to a room on the fourth floor. An officer came and asked me again about what had happened at sea. He was looking at some paper in front of him, comparing what I was saying to the notes from the previous interrogation. When he finished the interrogation, he asked me: “Did you come from the sea? I said I had. He said: “You won’t give up and still go to sea!” I told him it’s my work and that there’s no other work in Gaza. Launch boats in Gaza's fishing port. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem, 11 Jan. 2017 Mustafa Muhammad Khalil a-Najar, 29, a married father of two from Rafah, said in a testimony from 19 July 2016: I’ve worked in fishing with my father and brothers since I was 14 years old. We have six hasake rowboats of various kinds and one felucca sailing boat. On Monday, 18 April 2016, at 5:00 P.M., I set off from Rafah port with two hired workers. To save on fuel, a big launch boat tugged us out to sea. When we were about 8 nautical miles off shore, we disengaged from the launch. I turned toward the area off Khan Yunis, to keep away from the Egyptian border and stay out of dangerous areas. When I got to about 9 nautical miles off shore, we put the nets out and went to sleep on the boat, sometime between 10:00 P.M. and midnight. We waited for the wind to die down before pulling up the nets, which were spread to a distance of about 2 km. At 12:30 A.M., an Israeli military boat came from the northeast and started shooting from a large distance, straight at us. We got scared and turned on the motor and started fleeing to the southeast. The boat kept chasing us and shooting for about an hour. Our boat took a few bullets. When they started shooting directly at me and at the other people on the boat, I stopped. The Israeli boat stopped about 200 meters away from us. They sent a rubber boat over, and the soldiers ordered us to take our clothes off. We stayed in our underwear. They tied our hands behind our backs and brought us on to the rubber boat. They blindfolded us and took us to the ship, and had us sit in the bow. It was cold, and we asked for some clothes or something to cover ourselves. The soldiers refused. When we kept asking, they kicked us. Then they tied my boat to their boat and tugged it. We sailed to Ashdod port and got there at about 8:00 A.M. While we were sailing, I asked an officer on the ship about my boat, and he said it had been confiscated. I asked him when I would get it back, and he said within two weeks. When I asked him why they’d done it, he said I’d broken the law. When we got to Ashdod port, they gave us our clothes and took us into a room where there were already about seven fishermen from Rafah and Gaza. Their hands were tied with metal handcuffs and they were lying on the floor. We joined them. They left us like that, without food or drink. At noon, an officer came and told us we would be taken to Erez Crossing and interrogated there. We all asked about our boats. He said they were confiscated at Ashdod port and that one had been hit in the bow, and the navy was trying to keep it from sinking. I knew it was my boat. Then they put us a bus that drove us to Erez checkpoint, where Shabak (Israel Security Agency) interrogators questioned each of us separately. The interrogator asked me for my details and took down my cell phone number. He told me I’d exceeded the 9-nautical-mile range and that was why they shot at us and confiscated my boat. I told him I hadn’t sailed past the buoy that the military had put out and that I’d stayed within the nine-mile range. I asked him about my boat and he said it hadn’t sunk yet, and that it was with the rest of the boats that had been confiscated. My interrogation lasted about half an hour and ended at around 4:00 P.M. At about 6:30 P.M., they let us go and we went back to Gaza. Later that day, I contacted the Ministry of Agriculture, the Fishermen’s Association, and the Coast Guard. They told me my boat was at Ashdod port. After about ten days, I was told by the Fisheries Department that my boat had sunk and that the Israeli ship hadn’t managed to salvage it. I make most of my income from fishing. My boat was seven meters long and there was a lot of expensive equipment on it. We bought it about four years ago, and it’s now worth 20,000 shekels [over USD 5,000]. The motor was worth 30,000 shekels [almost USD 8,000 ]. I sold my wife’s jewellery for about 3,000 Jordanian dinars [just over USD 4,000] in order to buy it. I also took out a loan for the same amount from relatives and acquaintances. I still owe money to the suppliers. Because I didn’t have the boat, I missed the grouper and porgy season. Losing the boat caused problems with other members of the family, too, because they had also used it for their livelihoods. The employees who were with me that day lost their jobs. I’m heartbroken about the boat and the motor – they were new and I can’t afford to buy others to replace them. Ever since that happened, I’ve been sitting at home with nothing to do. Ahmad Abu Hamadah. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem, 27 Jan. 2017 Ahmad Jamal Lutfi Abu Hamadah, 29, a married father of four from a-Shati Refugee Camp, said in his testimony on 16 November 2016: I work as a fisherman on one of my dad’s four hasake rowboats. I started working in fishing when I was 17 years old. Our boats are made of fiberglass and they require constant maintenance and replacement of fiberglass parts due to saltwater damage, crashes with other boats at the port, or just wear, and also because of Israeli navy fire. About a year and a half ago, the boat I work on crashed into the port dock. There were high winds and the rope tying it to the dock had broken. The bow got holes in it. The side of another of our boats also crashed, apparently by a fisherman who hit it when it was docked at the port, but we don’t know who it was. We pretty much stopped working on both these boats because of their state. They constantly had to be drained, and we had to make sure they didn’t fill with water so we wouldn’t sink. We tried to get fiberglass to fix them but it was very hard to find, because Israel has been banning this material from coming in for a few years now. Before the ban, a kilo of fiberglass that came from Israel cost 16 shekels [around 4 USD]. Then there was fiberglass that came from Egypt through the tunnels, but in 2013 they got shut down. Since then, there’s been a shortage and the only fiberglass available is what they make here in Gaza. It’s much more expensive. I decided to get fiberglass anyway, and I bought 8 kilos for 80 shekels [around 21 USD] per kilo. I bought another 2 kilos of paint for 50 shekels [around 13 USD] and three meters of a special wrapping cloth for 180 shekels [a little over 45 USD]. I also paid 300 shekels [almost 80 USD] for timber and labor. So, altogether, repairing a small part in the bow of the boat cost me about 1,500 shekels [almost 400 USD]. I didn’t have the money, so I had to borrow it so I could work and make a living. The repair to the other boat is more significant. It would cost 2,500 shekels [around 660 USD], and we can’t fix it at the moment. We will have to do it soon though, because I work with my father and my three brothers, and that’s our entire family’s livelihood. Now, with the boat out of commission, our income is very low, especially during winter when there isn’t much fishing. The ban on fiberglass causes a lot of losses to fishermen, because we can’t fix boats and continue working, which makes everyone’s already difficult financial situation even worse. Ahmad Abu Hamadah by his boat, now out of commission. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem, 26 Jan. 2017 * Figures updated in June 2018 to reflect new information received by B'Tselem.
B'Tselem issued a position paper detailing the guidelines of the necessary Israeli investigation of its conduct during the operation in Gaza. B'Tselem's initial survey of the military operation calls into question Israeli statements that the military acted according to International Humanitarian Law and that responsibility for the harm to the civilian population rests exclusively with Hamas.
