Israeli soldiers came to our house at 3:00 a.m. I was not home that night. They asked for me and when they didn’t find me they threatened my mother that if I didn’t turn myself in within 24 hours they were going to come back and demolish our home and arrest my older brother.

 

The soldiers remained in our house for about four hours asking my mother questions. They did not give her any documents and did not tell her why they were looking for me. My mother was scared and told them she would accompany me to the police station and pleaded with them not to harm my brother.

 

When I came home at around 6:00 a.m. my mother told me what had happened. My parents, my brother and me went to the entrance to our village to hand me over to the commander. When we called they told us to wait there. They made me take off my shirt and my trousers while aiming their guns at me. In the beginning they didn’t believe that I was Ayed and asked to see my identification card. The commander and five soldiers came to where I was waiting.

 

I was then handcuffed to the front with metal handcuffs which were not painful. They also shackled me and took me to the back of a jeep where I sat on a seat. The jeep drove for about 20 minutes to the police station in Kiryat Arba settelment where I was immediately taken for interrogation.

 

The interrogator removed the handcuffs and the shackles and accused me of stealing used bullet cartridges from the nearby firing range near the settlement of Migdal Oz. He did not inform me of my rights and told me I had to confess. He told me he had photographs of me at the range and showed me the photographs. When I denied the accusation he became angry and swore at my mother saying she was a "whore". He banged the table and threw the documents on the floor in front of me and insisted that I confess. I was very upset when he swore at my mother and told him to leave my mother alone.

 

The interrogation lasted for about three hours. I denied that the person in the photograph was me. I wasn’t given any food but I had some water. The interrogator then told me other boys from the village had given confessions that I was at the firing range and said there was no point in continuing to deny the accusation.

 

The interrogator then told me my friend had confessed that I was involved in setting a car on fire and throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers. He rolled some tobacco and offered me a cigarette but I refused because I didn’t trust him. I asked to use the toilet but he refused my request and told me to wait until I was in prison where I could use the toilet.

 

He then showed me documents in Hebrew and asked me to sign them but I refused because I don’t know any Hebrew. He then brought in two soldiers who started to shout at me trying to force me to sign the documents. This went on for about 10 minutes. When I asked him to explain to me what the documents said he told me not to worry about the content and that I needed to sign. In the end I signed out of fear. I was then taken to another room where I was interrogated by a second interrogator.

 

The second interrogator was more aggressive and accused me of firing shots at soldiers. When I denied the accusation, he took off his jacked and approached me as if he was about to beat me. He screamed in my face and asked whether I was going to confess or not. He did not inform me of my rights and kept insisting that I had to confess. He told me I stole discarded bullets from the firing range. I denied stealing bullets and denied ever shooting at anyone. The second interrogation lasted until around 10:00 p.m. I was still without any food.

 

I was then shackled and handcuffed again and taken to the back of a jeep where I sat in the middle on a metal box. The jeep arrived to the police station in Etzion settlement where we arrived at around 11:00 p.m. At Etzion the shackles and handcuffs were removed and I was strip searched and taken to a cell with two other detainees. I slept on a bed without a blanket. I was not given any food but I finally was able to use the toilet.

 

At around 10:00 a.m. I was shackled and handcuffed again and taken to the back of a vehicle which took me to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. At Ofer I was strip searched again and asked to crouch up and down while naked. I found this very embarrassing. I was then taken to Section 13. I was very hungry by this time and the other detainees gave me some food.

 

The following morning I was taken to Ofer military court. My brother attended and my lawyer and the hearing was adjourned. I had about 30 court hearings over a period of four-and-a-half months. I did not understand much of what went on in these hearings which lasted for about 10 minutes each and were all adjourned. I wasn’t given a charge sheet and my lawyer did not tell me what the charges were. At the last hearing I was sentenced to five months in prison in a plea bargain with the prosecution. I was also fined NIS 2,000 and given a suspended sentence of five months in prison valid for two years.

 

I spent the last two months of my sentence at Hasharon prison, inside Israel. I found the conditions there to be hard and had trouble adjusting after I had made some friends during my time at Ofer. I was psychologically stressed. My parents visited me four times in prison and it took about two months for them to obtain the necessary permit to visit me. In prison I did not study but I exercised a lot and watched television.

 

I was released from Hasharon on 1 July 2016. I went home with the family of another detainee who was released with me and I arrived home in the afternoon. My mother had prepared a meal for me and my friends played loud music. Lots of friends and relatives from the village came to greet me. I found it hard to fall asleep that night because I was in disbelief. I kept reminding myself I was finally home.