Israeli occupation forces conducted a mass arrest campaign on the 18/2/2009 of people in the Qalqiliya district village of Jayyous. The occupation forces went from house to house, interrogating and brutalizing residents under the pretext of searching for arms. During the night raid, 26 civilians, including 2 juveniles and 2 officers belonging to the civil police and the Palestinian National Police were reportedly detained and interrogated inside the town’s school. By noon, news reports stated that more than 65 had been detained, some for several hours. Muhammad Taher Al Qaddumi, a civilian in Jayyous, was also severely beaten, sustaining injuries to his head.
Violations
- Many of the detainees were members of the nonviolent resistance movement the ‘Youth Committee of the Stop the Wall Campaign’, which does much of the mobilizing work for the weekly demonstrations against the Wall in Jayyous.
- The Israeli army did not present arrest warrants nor did they give any reason regarding the detention of the participants, some of whom were juveniles. There are strong indications to believe that their detention was related to the ‘Stop the Wall’ campaign activities and the weekly demonstrations in Jayyous that are aimed at delaying the construction of the Wall that cuts the community into two.
- During the raid, Israeli occupation forces occupied the roofs of a number of civilian houses and converted them into military posts, deliberately placing civilians in harm’s way.
- Israeli occupation forces also used excessive force during their arrest campaign in Jayyous, firing stun grenades in homes where adults and children were sleeping. In their attempt to enter homes, Israeli Occupation Forces were heard to be screaming and using foul language towards the occupants of the house.
- Israeli forces often did not let the families change themselves out of their nightwear, and proceeded to quickly assemble them and place them in one corner of the house (usually the living room or prayer room) for long hours at a time. They then locked them inside and prevented them from leaving the room while they searched the houses. Some were even forbidden to pray or study (see case study no.7)
- The presence of dogs was reported, which caused panic among members of one household (see case study no.3).
- Israeli occupation forces often destroyed the contents of households during their searches, turning fridges, ovens and cupboards upside down and ruining one household’s kitchen. No compensation was provided.
- The 26 detainees were tied, blindfolded, and many of them were beaten and slapped by soldiers while they were under those conditions.
- The detainees were questioned for long periods of time inside the school (which was transformed into an interrogation center). Some were even transferred and questioned at Huwarra base for days (case study no.7).
- Family members were also the victims of physical abuse. Please refer to case no.3, when two brothers Anwar and Maher went to defend their father. Anwar was then subsequently taken to a room and beaten. In case study no.2, a woman was beaten with the end of a rifle after she tried to enter a room to find out about her son.
- During the 9 January 2009 march of solidarity with the events in Gaza, it was reported (in case study no.4) that a number of participants, including a journalist, were ambushed and injured in their foot. Soldiers also reportedly used live bullets instead of rubber ones during the demonstrations.
Among those that were arrested during the night were: Muhammad Aref Noufal, 17-year-old; Maher Aref Jaser Saleem, 16-year-old; officer Ahmad Amer Hasan Noufal; police officer Murad Abdulqader Khaled; Muhammad Bilal Khaled; Muhammad Bilal Lutfi; Ammar Abdulqader Khaled; Samed Muhammad Hasan Saleem; Kamal Muhammad Taher Shamasneh; Nooh Ghassan Ahmad Khuraisheh; Saher Rashad Abdulraheem Saleem; Sakher Mutlaq Shamasneh; Jaber Mithqal Fayez Shamasneh; Shadi Yousef Waked; Sari Rashad Saleem; Muhammad Mahmoud Nimr Baidah; Adli Muhammad Shamasneh; Anwar Aref Jaser Saleem; Ala’ Faheem Shamasneh; Layth Abdulqader Dibis; Israr Ghassan Khuraisheh; Nader Husam Khuraisheh; Muhammad Abdulkareem Khaled; Muhammad Amer Noufal; Mahdi Isam Noufal; and Jamal Mithqal Shamasneh.
Sworn testimony 1
Name: Mahmoud Hussein Bayda
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Construction worker
Age: 56
ID number: 929530442
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Mahmoud Hussein Bayda
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Construction worker
Age: 56
ID number: 929530442
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Mahmoud Hussein Bayda, holder of ID #929530442 after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
The army came to the house at around 2:00 at night. They banged on the door and after I opened it, they entered the house. There were five soldiers inside the house and a number of them outside. There were military vehicles driving on the streets of the village. After entering the house, they questioned me about the children, and then asked me to bring my son Mohammad, who is 19 and a half years old, and who was previously imprisoned for 16 months. After meeting him, they took him outside and then carried out a search on the house. They did not destroy or take anything. At the same time of the arrest on 18/2/2009, they took pictures of me as well as the rooms and everyone else who was there. They continued searching for around 30 minutes. My daughter, who is married to someone in the village of Jinsafout, happened to be in the house with her 1,5 year-old daughter . She started crying when soldiers her entered the room.
After that, they took my son to the swimming pool (an area in the south of the town), where they assembled all of the arrested youths. Even when they entered, they did not present an arrest warrant. On the same day at around 4:00 in the morning two people showed up and presented themselves as people from the intelligence services. They came and asked us questions about the health situation of Mohammad and whether he was taking any specific medications. On that same day, they returned to the house more than once and each time they searched the house. They came back a total of 4 times, once at 11:00 in the morning, at 2:30 in the afternoon and 4:00. Such incidents happened in many other houses. The fourth time, I argued with the army and they did not come back afterwards. We were aware of their presence again at 1:00 in the morning. They imposed a curfew and prevented us from wandering around and said it was forbidden to pray and to study. The curfew finally ended the next day at 7:00 in the evening.
Four days after Mohammad’s arrest on 18/2/2009, we found out that he was detained at Huwarra.
Sworn testimony no 2
Name: Saher Rashid Ibrahim Salim
Residency: Qalqilya
Age: 20 years old
Occupation: university student
Name: Saher Rashid Ibrahim Salim
Residency: Qalqilya
Age: 20 years old
Occupation: university student
I, the undersigned Saher Rashid Ibrahim Salim, holder of ID # 850348988, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
On Wednesday, on 18/2/2009 at around 2.30 in the morning while I was sleeping, I woke up to the sound of vehicles on the street and a voice at the door. I exited my room and my father opened the entrance to the house and there was a group of Israeli soldiers in military uniform and among them, two of them were masked. 15 soldiers entered the house and asked my dad for the IDs of the youths present in the house. They took the ID of my brother and after checking it, informed my father that they wanted some time with Saher and took my ID and asked me to get dressed. Shortly after that, two soldiers then took me. I put on my shoes and they assembled every member of the family and put them in the living room and asked me to leave my belongings in the house. They started checking the house and with them was a dog to check every belonging; the search operation took half an hour. They informed my dad that they wanted to arrest me. My father replied to them that if they wanted to arrest me, they should arrest him as well. One soldier said to him ‘your son is causing problems and we will return him after a day’.
They led me out the house and in front of the house, they tied my hands and blindfolded me and made me stand 50 metres from the house. There was a boy with me and I asked his name and that’s when one of the soldiers hit me on my back and after that, we travelled along the road to the house of a guy named Emad Abdul Qader. They were hitting us all the way to Emad’s house. There was a group of soldiers who hit us in the head and the abdomen and they fired a bullet in the foot; this continued for 20 minutes. After that they led us into the house of Emad Abdul Qader and searched the house. This lasted for 30 minutes. Afterwards, more military jeeps came and they drove us in the car. During the ride, soldiers were beating me with their rifle butts on my head and shoulder while my hands were cuffed and my eyes were blindfolded. After 5 minutes the car stopped and they asked me to get down and I didn’t know where I was. After a while, I could discern that I was inside a school courtyard. Since my arrival to the school courtyard at around 3.30 until 5, they brought and assembled 15 youths inside the school. After that, they knocked down the door to the school and assembled us in one room and began to impose a curfew on the village. After the curfew, the youths were on the village stairs because the room was not wide enough to hold everyone.
At around 8.30 they took me to the intelligence agency and left me there for around 30 minutes. Following that, they returned me to the room and removed the blindfold from my eyes. The guards continued to take the youths to the intelligence agency one after the other and they turned on the fans and prevented us from using the bathroom. This continued until 2pm when they decided to release us.
Sworn testimony no.3
Name: Abdul-Qader Abdul-Raheem Hamad Salim
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Farmer
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Abdul-Qader Abdul-Raheem Hamad Salim
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Farmer
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Abdul-Qader Abdul-Raheem Hamad Salim, holder of ID # 982400673, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
At around 1.30am on Wednesday 18/2/2009 when I was asleep, I was awaken by the sound of two sound grenades in the street in front of the house. I found my son and wife awake. I opened the window. A group of Israeli soldiers had culminated in the streets and there were so many of them. I could not count them. But according to my estimation, there could have been more than 100 soldiers and 10 armoured military vehicles. They raided the house where I lived and knocked on the door and did not wait until I opened it to them. They broke it directly and started attacking the houses of neighbours in the same building where the flat of the landlord was. They broke down the door of the entrance and searched the flat and we heard afterwards the sound of stun grenades inside the flat and we knew that they took [the neighbours] out and that they threw a grenade in the neighbour’s kitchen. They then started checking the neighbouring flat.
They knocked on the door and when I opened it to them; they asked me to put my hands up and to turn on the light of the house. There were a number of soldiers who entered the building. Around 14 soldiers entered, while a big force waited outside, had entered the apartment and had asked if my name was Abdul Qader. They then proceeded to ask me about my son Kais and I informed them that he was in Hebron. Following on from this, they then questioned me about my son Laith. I informed them that he was asleep in his room. They entered it and woke him up, and took him to the living room. After wards they entered a second room where my three children were sleeping and asked me to wake them up. They then pressed me to the wall and 5 soldiers had their weapons pointed at my body while they continued their search operation. One of the soldiers blindfolded the eyes of my son Laith, hand-cuffed his hands and inspected his ID. During the search operation with his hands tied and his eyes blindfolded, he sat near the entrance of the building and the exit of the flat. When they finished doing the search I tried to wear a jacket. They prevented me from doing that and afterwards, they took Laith and another young boy. When I was detained during a search operation, my wife tried to enter the room but one of the soldiers beat her with the end of the rifle and prevented her from entering. This force that attacked the building had police dogs but they did not enter the flat.
Sworn testimony no.4
Name: Araf Jasser Araf Salim
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Age: 60
Occupation: Vegetable Seller
ID number: 993686435
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Araf Jasser Araf Salim
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Age: 60
Occupation: Vegetable Seller
ID number: 993686435
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Abdul-Qader Abdul-Raheem Hamad Salim, holder of ID # 993686435, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
While I was sleeping on the night of 18/2/2009, my wife and I woke up at around half past one and I opened the window until they [Israeli soldiers] shot a stun grenade in the corner of the house on the outside. They then they banged on the door and started to scream and use foul language, demanding us to open the door. We asked them to wait until we got dressed and they continued banging the door of the house. I had my two sons, Maher and Anwar, and the wife of my son Sami with me. My wife let them in. They pushed me to the back of the building, whilst screaming and beating me causing an injury to my head, my left hand, as well as my back and my neck. My children attacked in order to protect me and started fighting with the soldiers which led to them take my son Anwar to the room where they proceeded to beat him. There were around 15 soldiers; my wife started to defend Anwar, but they continued this way for 1.30 hours until around 3am. After that, the main officer told me to shut up. He then interrogated us about the events. Then they took us all and put us in a room. There were seven soldiers near the door to the room and they started to search the house, starting with the living room. Whilst searching, they destroyed all the contents and turned the cupboard upside down because there was a picture of Saddam Hussein.
Afterwards, they took us to the guest room and started to search the room and break the contents. When they went into the kitchen and bathroom, they turned over the fridge and washing machine and continued like this until 3.45 in the morning whilst asking questions about my son Samy, who was in Ramallah. They then led us out and took my sons Anwar and Maher and tied their hands with plastic handcuffs and blindfolded them and then took them to the centre of the village. Afterwards we phoned the home of Sami’s neighbours, and we found out that they broke down the door to Sami’s house and entered it at 4 in the morning. They threw a stun grenade in the kitchen and destroyed it.
My son Maher and Anwar were taken to the school and there, there was an officer who interrogated the youths, releasing Maher at 4 in the morning and taking Anwar to Huwarra base [provisional detention centre] for more interrogation, based on what the ICRC had told us. Yesterday in court, his detention was extended for another 8 days. Previously Anwar was arrested twice, oncee for 23 days and another time for 35.
Sworn testimony no.5
Name: Alam Shmasani
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Police officer
ID number: 906459425
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Alam Shmasani
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Police officer
ID number: 906459425
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Alam Shmasani, holder of ID # 906459425, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
On Friday 09/1/2009, we marched in solidarity with the events in Gaza and against the Wall, from the municipal square in direction of the Wall, on the south side of the municipality. We arrived at the gate of the Wall. We did not note the presence of any soldier but this was unusual. Previously, we used to find them 100m before the gate. My brother was marching among the people. He works in a people’s clinic and he was with the journalist Khalil Riyash working in the governorate. The men did not notice any soldier behind the gate which was open. Suddenly, soldiers ambushed Saher Salim, followed by Mohammad and then the journalist Khalil Riyash. We didn’t hear the noise of gunfire, which means they used gun silencers during the incident. We noticed an injury to Mohammad’s foot, so we brought him to an ambulance which you easily find in the area since demonstrations began in October 2008. But this demonstration, on 9 January 2009 was the first time that they used live bullets. Previously they were firing gas and rubber, indicating that these new soldiers were trained. On more than one occasion, I witnessed a soldier who fired bullets into a wall or another one who injured people and fired a bullet from his rifle without warning because he was chatting to people and was not being careful. These soldiers were not trained but the ones who came on that day, surely were.
After Mohammad’s injury, we travelled to Azzun Specialist Center and then to Qalqilya to remove the bullet from his foot. We stayed there for a day and a half and then he had to rest at home for two weeks. He could only move with the help of a cane. Mohammad was previously arrested in 2003 and released in 2005 in one of the ‘releases of prisoners’. He was sentenced to 3 years. Mohammad is now a student at university and he is in a good state of health.
Sworn testimony no.6
Name: Amer Hussein Salah Nofal
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Worker
Age: 44
ID number: 989905575
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Amer Hussein Salah Nofal
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Worker
Age: 44
ID number: 989905575
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Amer Hussein Salah Nofal, holder of ID # 989905575, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
On Wednesday 18/2/2009 at around 2:00 in the morning, I was informed that the army were here. I opened the door of the house to them and they informed me that they wanted to search the house. They asked me if there were any youths in the house and they asked me to reveal them and tell them to get dressed. My sons Ahmad and Mohammad were in the house. They did not allow Mohammad to change his clothes and then they put all of us in a room and started to search. There were around 30 soldiers. My wife asked about the reason for the arrest of her sons and they hit her and threw her against the wall.
After that they led the children out and led me out with them. They placed me behind the military Jeep and ordered me to raise my hands and it was the same time that they cuffed the hands of my sons and blindfolded them. One of the soldiers informed me that they will take them to the military base for a few days and then they went and returned at about 5:30 in the morning. They took us to a room for about half an hour and started to search the house. They locked the door to the room we were in and finally opened it [30 minutes later] and informed us that they finished and left the house. We found out later that they broke two wardrobes and three glass windows. At around 7:00 in the morning they returned again and pushed through the door and informed us that they came to inspect the house. There were around 12 soldiers closely inspecting and this took around 45 minutes. We were still present in the room; they exited and informed us that we could not leave the house and open the window. At around 9:00 in the morning, the soldiers returned again and asked us to stay in one room because they were going to search the house. While they were searching, I had a telephone interview with al-Jazeera TV. They entered the room and waited until I finished the call. After realizing what I did, they beat me. At around 1:30 in the afternoon, 15 soldiers returned again; they assembled us in one room for around an hour and started taking pictures of the house.
Taken on 26/2/2009
Sworn testimony no.7
Name: Hassam Mathaqal Faiz Shmeisaneh
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Film Producer
Age: 21
ID number: 853382554
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
Name: Hassam Mathaqal Faiz Shmeisaneh
Residency: Jayyous, Qalqilya
Occupation: Film Producer
Age: 21
ID number: 853382554
Date of affidavit: 26 February 2009
I, the undersigned Hassam Mathaqal Faiz Shmeisaneh, holder of ID #853382554 after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
At one o’clock in the evening on 18/2/2009 the army came through the village gate and surrounded the neighbourhood. Jeeps were parked in front of the house. Then they started banging the door and shouting with raised voices. We woke up from our sleep and spoke to the army at the door. My mom opened the door and they quickly entered the house. They entered the bedroom. We started arguing strongly with them and they asked us to leave. I demanded that I be able to dress. They led my brother Jaber and me out. They took the IDs and sat us down in the prayer room. They then returned the IDs and told my brother Jaber “come with us”. They led him out, tied his hands behind his back, placed plastic hand-cuffs on him, blindfolded him and then took him. After that, I asked them what they wanted from him and the soldier said: “we will take him for 5 minutes and we’ll bring him back”. After that, an officer came and demanded to enter the house. He then closed the door and started screaming and raising his voice.
When they arrested Jaber, they did not search the house, but they came back at about 5:00 and then searched the entire house. They looked through all the drawers in the cupboards. They confiscated the hard disk of the computer and while they were in the house, they started painting the house from the outside. They then went to my older – he is 29 - brother Fadi’s apartment, which is located on the floor above. They searched his house but there was no one inside except his wife and one and half year old daughter. They took around 20 books and certificates and broke the child’s cot and after that, at around 10:00 in the morning, they returned to the house but stayed outside, taking pictures of the house from all sides.
The first time they took Jaber, around 10 soldiers and one military jeep had raided the house. Among them was one masked man. When they entered they did not present any arrest warrant and we did not ask them for it. We did not identify who it was who took him and we stayed in the house until 7:00 in the evening. Jaber was part of the 9/1/2009 march in protest of the wall when he was on his left foot. During the arrest they refused to let him take his cane or medicine that he needed. Two days before his arrest, he had travelled to see his doctor in Tulkarem. Some people from the villages told my brothers in Ramallah that soldiers had assaulted young men and detainees. Now Jaber is detained in Huwwara [provisional detention centre]. Both the Prisoners’ Club and the Red Cross visited him.