On 9 April 2014, a 16-year-old minor from Dura was arrested by Israeli soldiers at 4:00 a.m. and accused of throwing stones. He reports ill treatment and being denied his basic rights under Israeli military law. He reports being held in solitary confinement for 8 days. He reports being sentenced to 5 months in prison and fined NIS 1,000.

I was asleep on the front porch by the window when I was suddenly woken up by an Israeli soldier. It was 4:00 a.m. The soldier took me inside to where my father was standing with other soldiers. A masked man was also standing among the soldiers. The soldiers asked the masked man whether I was the person they were looking for and the masked man nodded, indicating yes. The masked man was a collaborator.

 

A soldier then asked me for my identity card to make sure I was the intended person and they told my father I was under arrest. I was told to get dressed and a soldier accompanied me to my bedroom. They gave my father a document with details about my arrest and said I would be taken to the police station inside the settlement of Kiryat Arba for interrogation.

 

After I got dressed I was taken out of our house where I was tied to the front with three plastic ties: one on each wrist and one connecting the two. The ties were painful. I was also blindfolded and taken to the back of a jeep and put on the floor. The jeep drove for about an hour before stopping. I was then taken to a room and I found myself with a doctor who asked me whether I smoked or drank alcohol or took drugs. One of the soldiers removed the blindfold before I was taken to see the doctor. The doctor told me I was in Ashkelon prison, inside Israel.

 

After the medical check I was put in a very small cell where I could hardly fit myself in. I slept there for one night. The following morning an interrogator came for me. 

 

The interrogator wore civilian clothes. He made me sit on a chair and immediately started to interrogate me. He did not inform me of my right to silence or my right to see a lawyer.

 

The interrogator told me he wanted to know about the mine that had exploded in the village. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and that I didn’t know anything about the explosion. The interrogator was not convinced and made me stand in an awkward position against the door. He asked me to face the door and to lift my hands up. He left me in this position for 30 minutes before resuming the interrogation. Each time he asked me the same questions about the mine and I gave him the same answers. He made me stand up against the door three times, each for around 30 minutes. The interrogation lasted for about four hours. The interrogator also directed verbal abuse against my mother and sister.

 

When the interrogation was over I was put back in a very small cell measuring 2x1 meters. There was a sink and a toilet in the cell and soldiers brought me food regularly. I was kept in this cell for eight days in solitary confinement.

 

During the eight days I was interrogated several times. The interrogation method was similar each time. I was never informed of my rights. The subsequent interrogations lasted for about 30 minutes. I think the objective was to collect information about the explosion in the village. On the fourth day I appeared in a military court where my detention was extended for a week. A lawyer was there to represent me.

 

Eight days into my detention the interrogator told me that other young men had confessed against me claiming I threw stones at soldiers. I asked the interrogator to confront me with those young men but he told me he wasn’t going to do so. In the end I confessed to throwing stones at soldiers on a number of occasions because I was afraid.

 

After I confessed the interrogator took me to see a policeman who wrote my statement in Hebrew and asked me to sign it. I refused to sign. I was then photographed and fingerprinted and put in the back of a military vehicle after I was handcuffed and shackled. This time I sat on a seat. The vehicle drove for about two hours before arriving at Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. At Ofer I was strip searched and then given prison clothes and taken to Section 13 where I stayed with other prisoners my age.

 

The following day I was taken to Ofer military court. A lawyer was there and so was my father. The hearing was adjourned. I had three other hearings in the military court.

 

At the last hearing I was sentenced to five months in prison and was fined NIS 1,000. This was as a result of a plea bargain that my lawyer negotiated. A week later I was handcuffed and shackled and taken in a military vehicle to Megiddo prison inside Israel.

 

At Megiddo I was strip searched and taken to the juvenile section where I served the rest of my sentence. My father was waiting for me at Salem checkpoint when I was released on 25 August 2014. In prison I was allowed to study Hebrew and English and my parents visited me once.