I was asleep when I woke up to the sound of aggressive banging at our front door. It was 1:30 a.m. My father opened the front door and a group of Israeli soldiers stormed into our home. They asked my father to gather all of us in the living room.

 

Once we were all gathered in the living room the soldiers checked our identity cards and told my father they wanted to arrest me for questioning. They gave my father a document and told us they were going to question me at the police station in Bitar because I was suspected of starting a fire in the undergrowth near the settlement.

 

They told me to get dressed and then I was blindfolded and they tied my hands to the front with one plastic tie which was not painful. I was then taken outside where I was put in the back of a military jeep and made to sit on the metal floor.

 

The jeep drove for about 10 minutes to a nearby military base. On arrival at the base I was taken to a shipping container where I sat on a chair. Then I was examined by a doctor who removed the blindfold and asked me some medical questions. When he was finished the doctor re-blindfolded me and took me to a room where I waited until 9:00 a.m. I managed to sleep on the chair and the soldiers allowed me to use the toilet and to drink some water.

 

At around 9:00 a.m. I was taken to back to a jeep where I sat on a seat and the jeep drove for about 10 minutes to the settlement of Etzion. At Etzion I was left on the ground in a courtyard for about an hour before I was taken for interrogation.

 

The interrogator asked me to stand up for about five minutes and started to question me while standing. I was still tied and blindfolded. He wanted to know who were my friends and classmates and asked for their names. Then he removed the blindfold and made me sit down. The interrogator did not inform me of my rights and immediately accused me of starting a fire in the undergrowth near the settlement of Bita Ilit. He also accused me of throwing stones at soldiers.

 

I denied the accusations and told him this was not true and that I hardly leave the house. Then he started to question me about one of my classmates whom I think they wanted to gather information about before arresting him. The interrogator wanted me to say that my friend started the fire. I told him the person was my classmate but I didn’t know much about him.

 

The interrogation lasted for about five hours. Most of the time, the interrogator was interested in collecting information about my friends, my classmates and about other boys in the village. He kept telling me I had to confess to starting the fire and wanted me to confess on other boys. I denied the accusation.

 

Then the interrogator told me it was in my interests to at least confess to throwing stones at soldiers. I told him I didn’t throw stones at anyone. He then told me I could contact my family. He called my father and allowed me to speak to him. Then he told me I was going to be released. The interrogator was typing on his computer and didn’t printout any documents and didn’t ask me to sign anything.

 

At the end of the interrogation I was taken to the courtyard where I was blindfolded again and I waited on a chair. At around 6:30 p.m. I was released. My father picked me up and took me home.