Testimony: B.I.T.A.
Name: | B.I.T.A. |
Age: | 17 |
Date: | ** February 2023 |
Location: | ****, West Bank |
Accusation: | Administrative Detention |
On ** February 2023, a 17-year-old minor was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 2:30 a.m. Following interrogation he reports being given a 4-month administrative detention order which was renewed a further two times (12 months in all). He was released early on 24 November 2023 the Hamas/hostage deal. He describes prison conditions after 7 October 2023.
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The soldiers asked to see my identity card and then searched my room. Then, within about 10 minutes one of the soldiers tied my hands behind my back with three plastic ties: one on each wrist and another connecting the two. The ties were very tight and painful. I asked him to loosen the ties but he refused. There was a mark on my wrists for weeks.
Then, without giving my parents any documents, the soldiers took me on foot to the nearby settlement of Adam, about 3 km away. I fell on the way and injured my hand. They took me inside the settlement and made me sit on the ground in an outdoor area. A soldier blindfolded me and then they all left. After they left settlers harassed me. They also swore at me.
Then, about 10 minutes later, I was taken in a troop carrier to a military base. On arrival I was put into a shipping container and a paramedic gave me a quick medical checkup. He looked at my injured hand. I was left in the shipping container until around 7:00 a.m. I was not given any food or water and I did not have access to a toilet.
At around 7:00 a.m. I was driven back to the settlement and then onto Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. At Ofer I was strip searched before being taken into section 13. The following day I was taken for interrogation with an intelligence officer.
The interrogator was not wearing a uniform. The interrogator told me he had instructions to allow me to speak to a lawyer. Then he called a lawyer and gave me the telephone to speak to him. The lawyer told me I was going to be given an administrative detention order but he did not tell me for how long. He also told me, as a lawyer, he could not do anything about it. The call lasted for about three minutes and the interrogator was listening on speaker phone.
Then the interrogator told me I had the right to remain silent. He told me I could ask for a lawyer to be present if I wanted to speak rather than remain silent. I wished for the lawyer to attend the interrogation but he had already ended the call before I could ask him to come.
Then the interrogator told me he was going to ask me some questions and that he wanted me to answer with a “yes” or “no”. Then he told me what I was suspected of but did not tell me where he got his information from. I denied all the accusations.
The accusations included throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and protesting. They also included suspicions that I was "a threat to the security of the Area". He did not give me specific dates. He was calm and made it clear that it did not really matter if I confessed or not. He questioned me for about 30 minutes. He did not threaten me at all. At the end of the interrogation he asked me to sign a document written in both Arabic and Hebrew. I read the Arabic and then I signed because it was identical to what I had told him.
After the interrogation I was fingerprinted and photographed. I was then left in a room until around 3:30 p.m. Then I was told I had a military court hearing. I was taken to the waiting room at the court but I was never taken into the court room. I was told the hearing had been adjourned till the following day.
The following day, at around 6:30 a.m., I was taken back to the military court. I waited all day in the waiting room and then, at around 4:30 p.m., I was taken into the court room. My mother attended and the military judge said they had an administrative detention order for me and adjourned the hearing for another 48 hours. He told me I would receive the administrative detention order in prison within 48 hours. This was exactly what happened. I was given a four-month administrative detention order. I was devastated, at the same time there was a sense of relief because I knew what I was facing. After court I was taken back to prison.
On 19 June 2023, I received another four-month administrative detention order. I was expecting this because the other prisoners told me it was highly likely. In September, I received yet another four-month administrative detention order. I was given this one after my family had visited me. I felt good when I saw my family and had a sense of hope. But then I was given the order.
I spent my prison time at Ofer. Luckily, instead of spending a year in prison, I spent about nine months because I was released in the Hamas/hostage release deal. On the day when I was released, I was told I had an interrogation with an intelligence officer. They told the same thing to other prisoners and when they brought the prisoners back they were badly beaten up. I thought it was my turn to be interrogated and beaten up.
At the entrance to the prison, I was met by representatives of the Red Cross and they told me I was going to be released in the deal. I was very happy. Then I was taken for a meeting with the intelligence officer for my area. He told this was my last chance. He also told me if I am arrested again he was going to lock me up in prison for four years. Then the intelligence officer called my father and warned him against celebrating my release. He told him we were not allowed to have guests at our house, or raise flags of political factions or celebrate in any shape or form.
Then I waited for a long time, and I was not released until 8:00 p.m. I was taken to a Red Cross car which drove the released prisoners out of Ofer. They were going to take us to Ramallah, but I asked the driver to drop me off at the gate where my father and uncle were waiting. I went home with them. We arrived home at around 10:30 p.m. We found some friends had gathered outside our house and my father told them to leave because of the warning he had received from the intelligence officer. I was released on 24 November 2023.
After the events of 7 October 2023, conditions in the prison became terrible. The guards often raided the cells and beat up the prisoners. They banged the windows early in the morning to count the prisoners and were rude to us. They also took away everything we had including the hot plate, the water kettle, extra blankets and clothes, razor blades, radio and television. We were left with just the clothes we were wearing. They also stopped family visits and court hearings. It was terrible.