I was at the supermarket at around 11:00 a.m. when I saw a group of undercover soldiers running towards me. I ran away but they chased and caught me. At the time there were clashes with soldiers involving shooting, tear gas and stun grenades.  One of the soldiers accused me of throwing stones at soldiers.

 

I was taken to the back of a jeep where I sat on the metal floor. A soldier blindfolded me and tied my hands behind my back with three plastic ties: one on each wrist and another connecting the two. The ties were a bit painful and left red marks on my wrists. 

 

The jeep drove to the nearby checkpoint where I was left on the ground for about an hour. I was told the soldiers were waiting for the commander to arrive. Then I was taken to another checkpoint where I was put in a shipping container. Soldiers surrounded me and made fun of me. I asked for some water and they brought me some.

 

In the afternoon I was taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement where I was left until around 3:00 a.m. Then I was left in a room but I was tired and hungry and I could not sleep. Whenever I fell asleep the soldiers kicked me to wake me up. At around 3:00 a.m. I was taken for interrogation.

 

The interrogator called a lawyer for me and allowed me to speak to him. The lawyer told me to tell everything that had happened to me in court. The conversation lasted for about two minutes and the interrogator was listening.

 

The interrogator was in civilian clothes and questioned me while I was still hand tied. He had a camera in the room and a pistol on his side. He told me I had to tell him everything and to confess. He did not tell me I had the right to silence. He also told me if I apologised and said I was sorry he would send me home. He told me the other boys whom they had arrested were sent home because they said they were sorry. At first, I denied the accusation but then when the interrogator showed me some photographs and told me I would have a reduced sentence if I confessed, I decided to confess. 

 

I was questioned for about 30 minutes. At the end the interrogator asked me to sign a document written in Hebrew. I signed without understanding anything. Then I was taken to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, where I was strip searched before being taken to section 13. 

 

The following day I was taken to the military court. My parents were not there because they were not informed. My detention was extended. I had five court hearings. At the last one, which was a week before I was released, I was sentenced in a plea bargain to four-and-a-half months in prison and fined NIS 2,000. I also received a further one year suspended sentence and a bond of NIS 10,000. I accepted the bargain because I knew I was going home in a week. 

 

I spent my prison sentence at Ofer prison where I played table tennis and attended classes in Arabic, Hebrew and mathematics. I also attended drawing lessons which I liked. I missed four months of school and I found it hard to keep up when I went back. I did not have any family visits but I was allowed to call home from a telephone provided by the prison authorities once every two weeks. 

 

I was released at Ofer on 2 February 2023. My parents were told to wait somewhere else so I took a ride with another parent to Al Ram and then my father picked me up and took me home. I arrived home at around midnight.