Nabhan Najar, taxi driver, aged 41
On Tuesday, 11 December, at around 10:00 P.M., I went from my village of Yatma to Nablus through the 'Awarta checkpoint. I had to have my taxi repaired. That night, I went to sleep at the house of the deceased, 'Osama Badra in Nablus.
At around 2:30 A.M., about 30 Israeli soldiers came to the building where the Badra family lives. There are three floors and five apartments in the building. I heard the soldiers knocking on the front door. The father, al-Hajj Hassan Badra, aged 65, opened the door and asked the soldiers to calm down and not make noise so they wouldn't scare the women and children. The soldiers ordered al-Hajj Hassan to get all his young sons out of their apartments and down to the entrance to the building. It was cold and rainy that night. When the five young sons went outside, the soldiers tied their hands behind their backs and ordered al-Hajj Hassan to get back inside the building. Al-Hajj Hassan said: "calm down, calm down", but one of the soldiers grabbed him by the neck and pushed him against the wall. Then, the soldiers went inside and came across me as I was walking out. I went out because I heard the soldiers saying that if they found any man inside they would shoot him. I saw the soldiers going into the ground floor and demanding that the women and children gather round in the living room, sit on the floor and not talk.
Then, the soldiers brought the five young men into the living room with their hands still tied. They asked what my name was, but didn't ask for my ID. They ordered me, in Hebrew, which I understand, to go up to the other floors in the building. Seven soldiers came with me and seven others stayed downstairs and watched the people there. Captain Amir, who spoke Arabic well, stayed with the soldiers downstairs. The soldiers put a gun to my head, behind the right ear, held me by the back of the neck and made me walk in front of them. They used me as a human shield and made me go into four apartments. The soldiers shot into two storage spaces above the bathrooms. They searched the apartments thoroughly. They made me open the closets and turn on the lights in all the apartments, even though I didn't know these apartments because I'm just a guest for a day.
The search took about an hour. We then went up to the roof. It was cold and rainy. There was no lighting on the roof, but the soldiers searched it and checked the water tanks, the wooden boards and the laundry. They made me lift things up to search under them and told me to open the black water tanks on the roof. They didn't find anything. I was scared all through the search. I began to recite the Koran, because I thought I was going to die. I was particularly scared that one of the soldiers would shoot me, or that someone would throw stones at them from the buildings nearby. When the search ended, the soldiers took me down the stairs. They ordered me to close my eyes, stick to the wall, not look back and put my hands over my ears so I wouldn't hear anything.
The roof above the stairway is made of tin boards. When we got inside it, the soldiers shot up at the tin ceiling. Then, they went down some stairs, with me walking in front of them. This time the gun wasn't put to my head. After we went down a few stairs, they got a phone call, and the voice on the other side said: "There's a man on the roof." We went back up to the roof and they searched it thoroughly. They told me to climb on the tin boards which are about two meters high to see if there was anyone up there. I tried to climb, but I couldn't because I'm heavy and because it was cold and damp. One of the soldiers climbed up on the roof of the stairway and looked up, but found no one.
We started down the stairs again and the soldiers got another call. The voice on the other side, told them that there's a man on the north west part of the roof. The soldiers came back to the roof a third time. One of them took me aside, told me to put my hands over my ears and shot at the tin boards. We then went down the stairs again, but the soldiers got another call and whoever was on the other side sounded irritated. The soldier grabbed me forcefully and said: " I want you to take anything that's on the roof out."
Three soldiers were standing behind me. They looked intent and nervous. I started searching a third time, from the east side of the roof toward the west. Suddenly, I saw Osama lying on the roof. I think he must have been hit when he was standing on the tin boards the soldiers shot at. I didn't see Osama there before, even though I was there twice. The soldier asked me what his name was and I said it was Osama Hassan Badra. They told me to get his ID card with guns pointing at me. When I saw Osama, I got scared and I panicked. I didn't think he was up there. If I had known, I would have told the soldiers and asked them not to shoot at him. But, unfortunately, I didn't and so I couldn't save him. When I came up to Osama to get his ID out of the back pocket of his pants, I called him three times. The soldier ordered me to lift Osama's hands up, but he didn't move at all. There was a lot of blood coming out of his left shoulder. I figured he had been hurt in the chest, on the right side, but I wasn't sure. I asked the soldiers to treat Osama, and one of them said there was a doctor with them. One of the soldiers looked into Osama's eyes and the soldiers told me to stand back. They ordered me to go stand at the edge of the staircase, but I went downstairs while the soldiers were checking Osama.
Once I got downstairs, Captain Amir asked me what my name was, and I said it was Nabhan Najar. When I went into the ground floor apartment, I didn't find the rest of the family and I thought the soldiers must have locked them up in another room. I saw a couch blocking one of the doors, and I figured the soldiers must have locked them inside. There were soldiers in the living room, and I heard Captain Amir telling them: "Get that guy into the kitchen and shut the door behind him."
I was locked in the kitchen. After about 15 minutes, when I thought the soldiers must have left, I started screaming until the family members came out and opened the doors for me. The men still had their hands tied. They asked me what happened and I told them Osama had been hurt, although I was convinced he was dead. I was convinced of this even though I heard the soldiers say he still had a pulse before I went downstairs. After the soldiers got me into the kitchen, they took Osama downstairs and got him into one of the jeeps parked outside the building. They then tore his cloths off and threw them in the street. Some neighbors told the family that they had seen Osama, but I was the only one sure he had died.
At about 6:30 in the morning, we got a phone call from Rafidia hospital. They said Osama was there and that he had been brought there from the Hawara checkpoint. He was dead when he was brought in.
Nabhan Tawfiq 'Ali Najar, age 41, is married and the father of eight. He works as a taxi driver and is a resident of Yatma, Nablus District. The testimony was taken by 'Ali Daraghrmeh at the witness' home, 12 December, 2002.