On two nights in March and April, Israeli soldiers entered four homes in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayir, Ramallah District. The soldiers woke the members of the household, including young children, and had them gather them in particular rooms. The soldiers remained in the homes for hours, during which time they ordered the occupants to keep quiet. Nor did they allow the family to walk about their own home, including in order to make food, drink or go to the bathroom. The family could only do so after getting the soldiers’ permission and if a soldier accompanied them. Relatives or neighbors who came by a home occupied by soldiers were also told to enter and remained imprisoned in the house for hours. The soldiers searched everyone present and confiscated their ID cards and cell phones.
The soldiers would not give the families any explanation as to why they had invaded their privacy in the middle of the night. In some cases, during their long stay soldiers even lay down and slept on sofas in the homes. The soldiers remained until morning, finally leaving without any clue as to why they had come.
On the first night, soldiers arrested five Palestinians in the village, four of them minors, including one boy who was only ten years old. The detainees reported being subjected to extreme violence during the arrest and interrogation. All minors were released the same evening, after being interrogated. In addition, in at least two cases, residents said soldiers had ordered them, at gunpoint, to knock on the door of one of the homes they entered. This conduct constitutes the unlawful “neighbor procedure” which has been banned by the military as well.
Below are testimonies B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad collected from al-Mughayir residents. Their stories clearly illustrate the invasion of residents’ privacy and infringement of their rights. The wrongful conduct described in these accounts terrorized residents, including young children. It shows how easily Israeli soldiers can disrupt the lives of Palestinian civilians, who remain defenseless, even in their own homes, even in the dead of night.
21 March and 10 April 2018, the home of the Na’asan family invaded twice; members of the family and others kept confined for hours and a minor forcibly arrested
At 4:00 A.M. on 21 March 2018, soldiers entered the home of Adib (78) and ‘Aishah (70) Na’asan. Relatives and neighbors came to see what was going on, and the soldiers ordered them into the house, where they held the women in the bedroom and the men in the living room. For the next four hours, when they left the premises, the soldiers monitored every movement made by members of the household and their guests, including eating, drinking and using the bathroom.
In the morning, a 14-year-old boy from the extended family came by to pick up his cousin so they could walk to school together. He was arrested by the soldiers and held until the evening. In a testimony he gave B’Tselem, he said he was beaten throughout his detention and interrogation. The soldiers also detained a 25-year-old man who also reported severe violence and was released on bail only two weeks later.
On 10 April 2018, about three weeks later, soldiers arrived at the family home again. They again told the family and their guests to keep quiet, in the house, and obey their orders for the sduration of their stay, which lasted six hours this time.
‘Aishah Na’asan, from al-Mughayir, 70, a married and mother of 15 gave her account on 12 April 2018:
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‘Aishah Na’asan. Photo by Iyad Hadad, B'Tselem
On Wednesday, 21 March 2018, my husband, Adib, and I finished the morning prayers at 4:00 A.M., and were about to go back to sleep. Neither of us is in good health. My husband, who is 78, has had several strokes lately; I suffer from weakness in my legs and can hardly walk. I tucked in my husband and then I heard a knock at the door. Four of my sons live in our complex, with their families, and I was sure it was one of them, but when I opened the door, I saw a group of armed soldiers. I was afraid. It was the first time the military had raided my home, and at that time of night too. I asked them: “What is it?” One of them answered: “Nothing ma’am. Go inside”. I asked again, and he just said: “Quiet, quiet”.
The soldiers came inside. They had a relative of ours with them, Yasser Muhammad, 57. They brought him into the house and had him sit in the living room. They ordered my husband into the living room as well, and brought my grandson with them, ‘Abd al-Ghani Mraweh, 18, who was sleeping at our house. They took away our cell phones, and several soldiers stood next to us to keep watch. We sat there, not knowing what was going on.
After about an hour, or an hour and a half, my daughter-in-law, Hanan, 38, knocked on the door. She came with her 10-month-old baby Sadeen, to check on us after she saw the soldiers coming in. The soldiers ordered her in and kept her confined inside too.
After that more people came. First, my son Hamdallah, Hanan’s husband, came with their three other children, because they got worried about her when she didn’t come home. Then some neighbors, relatives, and some children who were going to walk to school with my grandchildren came. The soldiers made everyone who knocked on the door come into the house and wouldn’t let them leave. They body searched all the men and children and confiscated everyone’s cell phones.
The soldiers had the men to go into one room, and the women into another. Eventually, there were 25 people in my house – six men, five women and fourteen children. Everyone was scared. The only thing I cared about was my husband, the Haj, and I kept saying to the soldiers: “Haj is sick. For shame, what do you want? Why are you holding us?”. They didn’t answer me, just kept saying: “Quiet, quiet”. They let him take medicine and go to the bathroom, but only as long as a soldier escorted him.
At 7:30, my brother-in-law’s son, Iyad, came. He’s 14. He came over so that he and my grandson Fadel could walk to school together and was surprised by the military’s ambush in our house. The soldiers searched his bag and found a slingshot. They passed it around among them and looked at it as if they’d hit the jackpot. Then they made him sit on the side. When they left, at around eight o’clock, they took him with them. We tried to convince the soldiers to let him go, but they wouldn’t let us get close to them.
When they left, some clashes started between them and children, who threw stones at them. The soldiers responded with stun grenades and teargas. We didn’t dare leave the house until we were certain the soldiers were gone. I didn’t see Iyad again until that evening, when he was released. He’d been badly beaten. His eye was swollen, and he had bruises all over his body. He looked exhausted.
The whole thing happened again the day before yesterday, Tuesday, 10 April 2018. Soldiers knocked on our door at about 2:00 A.M., and when I opened, I saw the same soldiers again, about eight of them. I recognized them by their commander, he was short and chubby, with blond hair and green eyes. He looked to be in his thirties and had a three-line rank badge. As soon as I saw him, I said it had only been a few days since they had been at our house, but he didn’t answer. He went in the house with his soldiers, without asking for permission. My husband, our grandson ‘Abd al-Ghani and our 5-year-old granddaughter Suhad were at home. The soldiers woke them up, told them to get into my room and posted a soldier at the entrance. My grandchildren were scared and I calmed them down. The rest of the soldiers stayed in the living room. They lay down on our sofas and used our bed linen to sleep – like it was their house.
Like they did the first time, the soldiers brought in and kept inside every person who came to the house. My son Hamdallah, his wife and their children came, and then my 18-year-old granddaughter Sundus, and finally my daughter Zeinab too. There were twelve of us locked up by the soldiers in the house. Every time anyone went to the bathroom they sent a soldier with them. My husband’s blood pressure went up and my daughter-in-law gave him his medication. The soldiers didn’t care. Every once in a while we begged them to leave us be, out of consideration for his medical condition and the fact that there were women and children in the house. But they had neither compassion nor mercy. They didn’t care.
At around 7:30 in the morning, we heard voices outside. The village youths must have found out there were soldiers in our home and they started throwing stones at the house. The soldiers called for backup and when more soldiers came, they used stun grenades and teargas to disperse the youths and let the soldiers who were in our house get out. They left the village at around 9:00 in the morning without arresting anyone.
21 March 2018, Abu ‘Alia family home: Members of the family and others kept confined in the house for four hours, young man used as human shield
On 21 March 2018, at 4:00 A.M., shortly before prayer time, soldiers detained two village residents they came across on the street and forced them to come along. The soldiers took the two men to the Abu ‘Alia home and ordered one of them to knock on the door. When he refused, they threatened him with their weapons. When he would not back down, they ordered the other resident to knock on the door. He complied. The soldiers went into the home and ordered the mother to wake her children up.
The soldiers had all six members of the household and the two residents they had brought with them gather in one of the rooms, ordered them not to leave and posted a watch to guard them. Some of the soldiers went to sleep on the sofas in the house. The mother had to nurse her baby in the soldiers’ presence. They left the home after about four hours.
Ghassan Muhammad, 25, unmarried, was held in the home of Husam Abu ‘Alia, and then arrested. He gave the following account on 15 April 2018:
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Ghassan Muhammad. Photo courtesy of the witness
On Wednesday, 21 March 2018, at around 4:00 A.M., as I was walking to the mosque for dawn prayer (Fajar), I ran into Ahmad Muhammad, 38, who was also on his way to the mosque to pray. When we got close to the mosque, we were caught by surprise by soldiers who were wearing masks and bulletproof vests and pointing their guns at us. They took us with them without asking any questions. Each of us was held by two soldiers. Every time we tried to ask them something, they kept repeating just one word: “Quiet, quiet”. After about 100 meters, we reached the home of Hussam Abu ‘Alia. The soldiers told me to knock on the door. I refused, even after one of the soldiers pointed his gun at me. I was afraid because no one knocks at the doors of village residents at this time of night and I was afraid the people in the house would misunderstand the knock. Ahmad agreed to knock on the door. Hussam asked from inside: “Who’s there?”. Ahmad answered ““It’s Ahmad and we have soldiers with us”. The soldiers were angry we’d revealed their presence. They brought us into Hussam’s house and put the whole family, and us, in the children’s room. They transferred us to the guest room later on.
The children were asleep, and the soldiers made the mother wake them up. They’re little, and they were sleepy and couldn’t understand what was going on. After the soldiers took us into the children’s room, they tied my hands in front of me with plastic cable ties and pulled them so tight my wrists hurt. I asked that they loosen the ties several times, but it was no use. At first, they posted guards on us, while the rest of the soldiers walked around the house, and some went to sleep. They used the house like their dad owned it, without any compunctions. If one of us asked for a glass of water, the soldiers wouldn’t let them leave and brought the water themselves.
The baby was hungry and crying, and his mother was embarrassed and uncomfortable about nursing him in the room because of the soldiers, and because Ahmad and I were there. We asked the soldiers to turn away so she could nurse him. At first they refused, but after we insisted, they agreed. Ahmad and I turned away too. She went to the corner of the room and nursed her baby until he fell asleep and stopped crying. Those were the worst moments of my life. It was so awkward. I never imagined soldiers would force me to barge into someone else’s private life like that, shut me in inside a room with a mother, her husband and her small children. When the mother asked to go out of the room and bring food for her children, they refused and said: “Later.” We didn’t understand why they took us into that house, or what they were doing there themselves. Was it so they could rest? Or to ambush students on their way to school in the morning?
At around 8:00 in the morning, the soldiers suddenly left the house. One of them threw a stun grenade to scare us, so we wouldn’t come out after them. Hussam later got a knife and cut the cable ties they had put on me. They were so tight, my hands were swollen and had marks on them.
After his release from the Abu ‘Alia home, Ghassan Muhammad ran into his father, Yasser Muhammad, on the street. His father had been locked in the home of Adib and ‘Aaishah Na’asan. As the two told each other what they had been through, a group of soldiers showed up and arrested the son once again. In a testimony he gave B’Tselem, Ghassan Muhammad said the soldiers accused him of throwing stones, which he denied, and beat him. He was kept in detention for more than two weeks and released on a NIS 2,500 bail until his trial which is scheduled for July.
10 April 2018, the Muhammad family home: Members of the family, including young children, and others kept confined in one room for seven hours
On 10 April 2018, at around 2:00 A.M., soldiers went into the home of the Muhammad family. There are nine members in the family, including seven children aged ten months to 16. The soldiers put the whole family in the parents’ bedroom, insisting on carrying in two of the sleeping children themselves and refusing to let the parents take them. After confining the family to this room for about seven hours, during which they would not give the mother privacy to nurse her baby, or make food for her children, they left the house just as they had come.
Lina Muhammad, 34, a married mother of seven recalled in the testimony she gave on 12 April 2018:
On 10 April 2018, on the night between Monday and Tuesday, at around 2:00 A.M., we were woken up by soldiers knocking on the door. My husband, Kazem, got up and opened the door, and they came in without asking permission. They closed all the windows and curtains, confiscated our cell phones and told us to stay in the bedroom. Some of the kids woke up from the noise and came on their own, but the two little ones, Saji, 4 and Nur, 5, kept sleeping, and the soldiers wouldn’t let us bring them ourselves. They picked them up and brought them to sleep in our bed. Nur woke up in their arms and was so scared he wet himself, but Saji kept sleeping.
I tried to calm down the rest of the children and help them fall asleep in our bed. The older children couldn’t fall asleep because the soldiers were very frightening. They pointed their guns at us, and most of them were wearing masks, so we couldn’t see them clearly or tell them apart, except the officer, who had a three-stripe rank on his epaulette. They only spoke a few words of Arabic and practically all they said to us was “quiet, be quiet and shush”.
They stood and listened to every movement outside. We didn’t know what they wanted, but we assumed they were ambushing students going to school in the morning. While they were in our house, they wouldn’t let us walk about freely. We had to ask for permission to go to the bathroom, or anywhere else, and they only agreed to us going with one of them accompanying us.
After a few hours, some relatives came by and the soldiers kept them in the house too. At 6:30 A.M., Safiyeh Muhammad, 42, came to ask my husband to bring her mother medicine from Ramallah. At about 7:00, my husband’s niece, Walaa Muhammad, 30, arrived. She’s a teacher at the school and she came by our house on her way to work to take our kids to school. Some more people came, and the number of people in our bedroom went up to 15. The room is 4 meters by 4 meters. It was crowded and stifling, but the soldiers wouldn’t let us open a window. Every time someone tried to complain or ask something, the ordered them to be quiet. We had no idea what was going on.
The whole time, I was busy with my young children. To nurse, I had to cover myself in a blanket, which the kids held up. The soldiers didn’t even look away as I was nursing. Every once in a while, one of the children would start crying, and the soldiers would reprimand them, telling them to be quiet. In the morning, the children were hungry, and the soldiers wouldn’t let us go to the kitchen to make them something to eat. Nur, my five-year-old, also threw up. I don’t know if it’s because he was woken up in the middle of the night, or he was too cold, or very scared.
At 8:30 in the morning, the soldiers left. We breathed a sigh of relief, as if a rock had been lifted from our chests. It was such a difficult experience. The kids didn’t go to school or day care that day. They just went back to their beds and went to sleep the moment the soldiers left. When they got up, they were scared for the rest of the day. None of them dared go out to play, or to the shop store to buy groceries or candy. They were scared the military was still in the neighborhood. They’ve been talking about nothing but the soldiers for the past two days.
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.
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.
On Sunday, 29 November 2020, at around 8:00 A.M., two military jeeps entered al-'Arrub R.C. Earlier that day, two settlers who were traveling on the road near the refugee camp were slightly injured by stones. As the jeeps entered, children and youths threw stones at the soldiers. The soldiers fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades. One jeep followed the crowd and hit 16-year-old Muhammad Muqbal. He fell but then got up and kept running until the soldiers caught him. A soldier hit him in the jaw, and he fell again. Another soldier kicked him all over his body as he lay on the ground. The soldiers then handcuffed him and put him in the jeep. One of the soldiers kept beating him on the car ride. Muqbal and some other youths who were detained in al-'Arrub R.C. that day were taken to the Etzion police station, where they waited for hours and were interrogated intermittently. Muqbal’s basic rights were violated during his interrogation, which ended with him signing a document written in Hebrew, a language he does not understand. After the interrogation, the soldiers took the youths into a kitchen. One of the soldiers told them they could sleep on the floor. They were given no food or drink during this whole time. At 3:00 A.M., soldiers came and took Muqbal to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, where he was handcuffed to the bed. Soldiers posted at the door to his room initially refused to let his father in to see him. Muqbal had jaw surgery two days later, and the next evening, 4 December 2020, he was taken to Megiddo Prison. On 6 December 2020, the military prosecution indicted Muqbal on two counts: Throwing a Molotov cocktail in March 2020 and stone-throwing on the day he was arrested. The prosecution asked to have Muqbal remanded to custody until the end of proceedings, but the military judge rejected the motion. The prosecution’s appeal was dismissed, and Muqbal was released on 25 December 2020, after a NIS 3,000 (~ USD 900) bail was posted. On 8 March 2021, Muqbal was convicted in a plea bargain. The first count of the indictment was dropped, and he was sentenced to 26 days in prison - equal to the number of days he had already served. The bail was converted to a fine. Muqbal’s case is not an aberration. It reflects the violence the occupation brings to the everyday lives of young males throughout the West Bank. Israel arrests hundreds of Palestinian minors each year, systemically and systematically violating their rights throughout the entire process - from the arrest itself, through the interrogation and in the legal proceedings at the Juvenile Military Court. While Israel boasts laws and procedures purportedly in place to safeguard the rights of minors, these are no more than a smokescreen designed to legitimize the severe harm caused to minors. Muhammad Muqbal described his arrest and 26-day incarceration to B’Tselem field researcher Musa Abu Hashhash on 28 December 2020: I ran fast, and one of the military jeeps hit me in the shoulder. I fell down and then got up and carried on running. I went into a house that had its door open. Three soldiers ran after me. One of them caught me and hit me more than once on the left side of the jaw. It hurt badly, and I fell on the floor. Another soldier attacked me and started kicking me in different parts of my body. The wound in my face was bleeding. I got up, and then they led me to the road, tied my hands behind my back and had me sit down in front of a closed shop. A few minutes later, they put me in a jeep and blindfolded me. I sat on the floor of the jeep. There were four soldiers in it, and one of them hit me, kicked me and spat at me more than once. The jeep drove for about 500 meters and stopped at the entrance to the refugee camp, by the gate. The soldiers took me out there, near the electric gate, and from under the blindfold, I saw four detainees that the soldiers had arrested before me, standing at the entrance. A man in military uniforms approached me and said he was “Captain Karam.” I’d heard about him. I know he’s the ISA officer in charge of our refugee camp. He hit me in the face with the butt of his rifle. He moved my blindfold and took a picture of me and the rest of the detainees. After about five minutes, we were all taken in a large military vehicle to the settlement of Carmei Tzur. We were kept there in the courtyard for about two hours. My jaw hurt, and it was bleeding. Then they put us in another military vehicle and drove us to the police station in Etzion. We got there in the early afternoon, and the soldiers took us into the courtyard. In the later afternoon, they started interrogating us, one by one. I was third in line. Before the interrogation, a lawyer spoke to me on the phone and told me I could exercise the right to remain silent and not to be afraid. An interrogator by the name of Yusef interrogated me. He accused me of throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli bus a few months ago and throwing stones at military vehicles. I denied both accusations, and after ten minutes, the interrogator took me out to the yard. They left me there until the evening. Then they took me back into the interrogation room, and a different interrogator questioned me. He yelled and said I was lying. He started asking: “So the soldiers and camp residents who saw you do it are liars, and only you’re right?” I continued denying it, and the interrogator wrote down what I said and ordered me to sign my statement. He told me I was signing what I had said. I signed and gave my fingerprints, and my photo was taken. At around 9:00 P.M., after they’d finished questioning the other four detainees, the soldiers took us to a place that looked like a kitchen, in front of the yard, and one of them told us we could sleep on the floor. That’s when a military doctor came and gave us a coronavirus test and asked if we had any illnesses. We sat on the floor in the kitchen for about six hours. They didn’t give us food or drink, and we weren’t able to sleep either. My jaw hurt a lot. We were handcuffed and blindfolded the whole time, and time went by slowly. At around 3:00 A.M., the soldiers took me out of the kitchen. The others had been taken before. I was taken in a small vehicle with a four-soldier escort. I was sitting in the front seat, between two soldiers. We drove to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. I knew where I was by the sign at the entrance. I got there at about 4:00 A.M. I got tested for coronavirus again, and then I was given painkillers. Two soldiers escorted me. One of them was the one who attacked me during the arrest. I was taken into a room, and one of the soldiers tied my left hand to the bed. The pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep. In the evening, I was taken for X-rays and then brought back to the room. There was a patient from Jerusalem in the room, and he told me he’d heard the doctors saying in Hebrew that I was going to need surgery. After sunset, in the evening hours, my father came and tried to get in the room. He called out to me and asked me how I was feeling. The two soldiers kicked him out. He tried to get to the door every once in a while to ask me how I was doing and told me not to worry. The next day, Tuesday, I was taken into another room, and the soldiers were replaced. The new soldiers let my father come into the room for a few minutes and talk to me. My father told me he had signed consent for my surgery and told me it would be on Wednesday. On Wednesday, I was taken into the operating room, and the surgery started at around noon. It took four hours, and after, they took me back to the room. I found out the doctors had put in a fastener to put my jaw together on the left side. It stops me from chewing or moving my jaw. On Thursday, at around 8:00 P.M., I was taken in a vehicle used to transport detainees to Megiddo Prison with my hands and feet cuffed. In the prison, they took me into a room where I stayed by myself for four days. After that, I was taken into a room with five underaged detainees. I stayed at Megiddo for 18 days. I got soup to eat and painkillers. There were three court hearings that I attended through video. A lawyer represented me. Then, I was transferred to Ofer Prison, where there was a final hearing on 24 December 2020, which I also attended through video. It lasted more than half an hour, and the judge asked me what I would do when I went back home. I told him I’d go back to school. I couldn’t understand the interpreter that well because the connection wasn’t good, and I didn’t understand what the judge decided. They took me back to a room at Ofer, and I stayed the night there. In the morning, it was Friday, they told me I was getting released that day. I later found out I’d been released on a 3,000 NIS bail. That day, 25 December 2020, before noon, a military jeep took me to the al-Jib checkpoint, and my father was waiting for me there in a friend’s car and took me home. I still can’t eat properly, and I’m getting liquids only. A doctor at the hospital in Hebron told me it would take two more weeks before they remove the metal fastener. Muhammad’s father, Munir Muqbal, 47 and father of six, said in a testimony he gave to B’Tselem field researcher Musa Abu Hashhash on 6 December 2020, while his son was held in custody: The day after the arrest, in the early afternoon, I got a call from Hadassah hospital and got asked to go there to sign the approval for Muhammad’s surgery. They sent me an invitation, and I sent it to the Coordination and Liaison Administration. At 5:00 P.M., I got an entry permit. I went straight to Hadassah Hospital and went up to the seventh floor. I saw Muhammad in one of the rooms and tried to go in, but two soldiers who were in the room barred me from entering. I stood in the doorway and asked Muhammad how he was feeling, and he said he was okay. I tried to go in the room several times, but the two soldiers wouldn’t let me. I managed to take a picture of Muhammad, who was tied to the bed. I stayed in the hallway all night and tried to get some sleep on one of the chairs there, but I wasn’t able to. On Tuesday, he was taken to a different room, and the two soldiers who had been there were replaced by others. One of the new soldiers let me in and talk to him for a few minutes. I managed to take a photo of him too. His left hand was tied to the bed, and a patient who was in the room with him told me his surgery was scheduled for Wednesday. On Wednesday, at around noon, he was taken to the operating room. The surgery lasted four hours, and after that, he was brought back to the room, and I managed to talk to him for about 15 minutes. The doctors told me they had put in a jaw fastener, so he would have a hard time eating for quite some time. I expected Muhammad to stay in the hospital for further treatment, but to my surprise, the very next day, Thursday, in the evening, the soldiers took him to Megiddo Prison. I went home and got updates about what was happening to him from a lawyer with Defense for Children International. His mother and I are very worried because they took him back to jail right after the operation.
