At around 2:30 a.m. Israeli soldiers quietly opened our front door using a hydraulic device and entered our home. I woke up when the soldiers entered my bedroom. I opened my eyes and saw a soldier aiming his gun at me. 

 

One of the soldiers took me and my younger brother to another room. Then they separated me from my brother and my hands were tied behind my back with three plastic ties: one on each wrist and another connecting the two. The ties were tight and painful and got tighter as I moved my wrists. I was also blindfolded me.

 

The soldiers searched our house, turning it upside down; they did not leave anything untouched. They did not tell us what they were looking for. My younger siblings were terrified to see soldiers in our home, especially my younger brother who was 11.

 

After the search a soldier gave my father a document filled out in Hebrew and then took me outside. The soldiers then led me on foot to the nearby settlement of Qedumim. The soldiers beat me on the way, kicking and slapping me and swearing at me. They left me outside until around 10:00 a.m. when the intelligence officer for the area took me to a shipping container and started to question me. 

 

The intelligence officer sarcastically asked me how I was and told me I was never going to go home. He swore at me calling me "a son of a whore". He accused me of all sorts of things which were a complete fabrication. I denied everything. He spoke to me for about half an hour without allowing me to speak to a lawyer and without informing me of my right to silence.

 

After questioning me I was taken to the back of a military jeep where I sat on the metal floor. The jeep took me to Megiddo prison. inside Israel. On arrival I was strip searched before being taken to the minors’ section. 

 

The following morning I was taken for interrogation. The interrogator was in civilian clothes and had a computer in the room. He did not call a lawyer for me but he gave me a document written in Arabic, English and Hebrew about my rights. It said I had the right to remain silent.

 

Then the interrogator asked me why I was a trouble maker by taking part in clashes with soldiers. He told me young men had confessed against me. Then he showed me some photos of clashes with soldiers and accused me of taking part. I denied the accusation. Then he yelled at me and threatened not to ever allow me to go home if I did not confess. 

 

He questioned me for about an hour and at the end he showed me a document written in Arabic and asked me to sign it but I refused to sign.  After the interrogation I was taken to a military court. My parents were there and my detention was extended. 

 

I had about 20 hearings. Initially the prosecutor wanted to put me under administrative detention but then the military judge accepted a plea bargain where I was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined NIS 2,000. I was also given another year in prison suspended for five years. The last hearing was on the day of my release. I accepted the plea bargain because I was desperate to go home. 

 

I spent my prison sentence in Megiddo. My parents visited me six times and I was able to call home from a telephone provided by the prison authorities twice a month. In prison I attended classes in Arabic, Hebrew and mathematics.

 

I was released at Salem checkpoint on 14 November 2022 and I went home with my father and some friends. I arrived home in the early evening.