I woke up startled at around 2:00 a.m. to the sound of loud banging at our front door. My father opened the door and some Israeli soldiers entered our house. They asked my father to tell all the males in the house to go outside, even infants and children.

 

Then the soldiers went to my uncle’s house by mistake because my cousin has the same name as mine. When they realised they had made a mistake they came back and told my father they had come to arrest me because I was accused of throwing stones at soldiers. The soldiers told my father they wanted to take me to the police station in Etzion settlement for interrogation. They gave my father a document with details about my arrest.

 

The soldiers then took me outside the house where one of the soldiers kicked me. They searched me and then kicked me again in the genitals and I was in severe pain. Then they tied my hands to the front with one plastic tie which was very tight and walked me towards the centre of the camp. A female soldier tried to drag me and when I complained she beat me.

 

When we arrived at the centre of the camp I was put in the back of a jeep where I sat on the floor. The same female soldier continued to beat me inside the jeep.

 

The jeep drove for about 15 minutes to the police station in Etzion settlement where I was taken for a medical examination. The doctor removed the tie because he noticed how tight it was and that my hands had turned blue. After the examination I was re-tied but this time the ties were not tight. Then I was taken back to the jeep where I was blindfolded. I remained inside the jeep for about 30 minutes and a soldier was with me the whole time.

 

The jeep then drove for about 30 minutes to the police station in the settlement of Kiryat Arba where I was taken to a room with a couch. I was able to sleep until around 7:00 a.m. Then I was taken back to the jeep which took me back to Etzion. At Etzion I waited in a courtyard on the ground until around 3:00 p.m. when I was taken for interrogation.

 

On the way to the interrogation room I was taken down a dark corridor where the interrogator asked me how I was and then started to bang loudly on a door in an attempt to scare me. Then he spoke in a very loud voice and asked me to tell him where I had hid the weapons. He also wanted to know why I threw Molotov cocktails at soldiers. He shouted a lot and swore at me and told me I was "a son of a whore". Then he asked me for names of boys from the camp. All this happened while I was standing in the corridor. About 30 minutes later I was taken to the interrogation room.

 

Once inside the interrogation room my blindfold was removed and I saw that there was a tape recorder in the room. The interrogator left the room for a couple of minutes and when he came back he asked me whether I had seen the first interrogator. When I told him he was the first interrogator he became so angry and punched me in the chest, which made me scream. He then asked me whether I wanted to behave myself and cooperate with him or not and accused me of throwing a Molotov cocktail at settlers. He also accused me of throwing stones at settlers and of hitting a settler woman. He also accused me of making a pipe bomb and starting a fire near the military watchtower at the entrance to the refugee camp. I denied all the accusations.

 

About 30 minutes into the interrogation he told me I had the right to silence and the right to consult with a lawyer. He then asked me about my relationship with one of the young men in the camp who was killed by soldiers. When I told him I did not know him he punched me in the chest. Then he repeated the same accusations but I denied them all and told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He interrogated me for about an hour then he pointed to some soldiers who were standing outside and told me if I did not confess he was going to ask them to beat me hard because they had no mercy.

 

At the end of the interrogation he printed out my statement in both Hebrew and Arabic and showed it to me. When I realised he had include all the serious accusations I was scared and told him I wanted to confess to throwing stones although I did not throw stones. I told him I denied all the other accusations except this one and he wrote this down in the statement. Then he asked me to sign the statement but I refused because I was afraid there would be a contradiction between the Arabic and the Hebrew texts.

 

Then I was taken to a courtyard where I sat on the ground for about two hours. After two hours I was taken to see a policeman who printed out my statement and asked me for my father’s number and called him and told him to appoint a lawyer for me. The policeman told me I had confessed to throwing stones at soldiers. I told him the only reason why I confessed to throwing stones was because I wanted to clear myself of the more serious accusations and that in fact I did not throw stones at anyone. The policeman became very angry and swore at me saying I was "a fucker brother of a whore". He wanted me to sign the statement but I refused.

 

Then they took my photograph and fingerprints and I was strip-searched. I was then taken to a cell where they removed the tie. At around 11:00 p.m. I was shackled and handcuffed and taken to a police car where I sat on a seat and driven for about 30 minutes to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. At Ofer I was strip searched again and taken into Section 13.

 

The following day I had a military court hearing which my father and a lawyer attended and I was allowed to speak to them. The hearing was adjourned. On the second hearing the military judge asked the prosecutor to present a charge sheet but a charge sheet was never presented.

 

On 6 December 2016, one day before my third military court hearing, my lawyer visited me in prison and then I was released without charge on the same day. I was released with other children from the camp and we took a taxi home. I arrived home at around 7:00 p.m.