It was 8:30 p.m. and I was at home when Israeli soldiers came to our house. The soldiers had entered our village and were conducting a search following clashes and the burning of a military jeep. Soldiers banged at the door aggressively and my father answered. About 10 soldiers entered and they started to speak to my father in Hebrew.

 

My father told me that the soldiers had come to arrest me. My father gave them my birth certificate and they showed him some photographs of boys taken during the clashes with soldiers. Among the photographs was one of me standing among the boys. The photograph didn’t show me throwing stones. A soldier asked me if the boy in the photograph was me and whether I did throw stones.  I told him I didn’t throw stones and I didn’t know any of the boys who were throwing stones. They allowed me to dress and then took me outside.

 

Once outside I was led about 50 meters before they stopped to blindfold me. They also tied my hands to the front with three plastic ties; one on each wrist and one connecting the two. I was then pushed into the back of a jeep and made me sit on the metal floor. The soldiers who were in the jeep put their boots on my back. The jeep drove for about 10 minutes before it stopped. I was able to see through the blindfold that we were at the military camp near our village.

 

On arriving at the camp the soldiers took me out of the jeep and made me crouch in an outdoor area even though it was cold. I stayed there in a crouching position for about an hour. I was tied and blindfolded. After about one hour I was taken to see a doctor who took my pulse and asked me if I had any illnesses or allergies. The doctor removed the blindfold during the examination and put it back on when he was done. Then he took me outside to where I was before. I remained there for another hour.

 

After about an hour a soldier, who spoke good Arabic, removed the blindfold. He asked me for my name and took a picture of me. Then I was taken inside and sat on the floor in a corridor. I remained there until around midnight. I wasn’t given any food or drink but I was allowed to use the bathroom. Then I was put on a bus with other detainees. The soldiers were swearing at us but they did not beat us.

 

The bus drove for about 30 minutes before it stopped somewhere. A policeman took me aside with two other boys. The policeman told me we were at the police station inside Kiryat Arba settlement. He made me sit on a bench for about two hours. Then he came back and removed the ties and told me I was going to be released. He told me he was waiting for the Palestinian police to pick me up. At around 5:00 a.m. the Palestinian police arrived and they took me to the Palestinian police station in Hebron. They called my father who came and took me home at around 6:00 a.m.