Testimony: Iman A.
| Name: | Iman A. |
| Age: | 39 |
| Date: | 9 August 2017 |
| Location: | Tuqu, West Bank |
| Event: | Night raid / child arrest |
On 9 August 2017, a 16-year-old minor from Tuqu was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 1:00 a.m. The boy's mother describes the night raid on the family home and the arrest of her son.
I was asleep when at around 1:00 a.m. I heard loud banging at our front door. I was the first to wake up and I immediately woke up my husband who answered the door. About seven Israeli soldiers entered our home. They were accompanied by my brother who showed them the way.
My heart sank when I saw the soldiers. I was overwhelmed by feelings I had never felt before. I always thought of myself as a fearless person but I was terrified to see fully armed soldiers inside my home. They looked like they were on a battlefield. Our daughters were terrified.
Soon it became clear they had come to detain our 16-year-old son. They asked my husband for his identity card and told him they wanted to take our son away for two hours for questioning and would return him home soon. This never happened. Our son spent nearly two months in prison.
It all happened very quickly and I soon found myself at home without my son. I could not sleep and spent the rest of the night crying with my daughters. I was worried about my son and I thought to myself anything could happen to him. It was terrible watching my daughter give her brother a hug and tell him to take care of himself. When he told his sister not to worry and to take care of herself I felt nauseous and cold and almost passed out.
The worst part was yet to come. For a long time I called my son’s name when we had meals, forgetting for a second he was not at home. This was my first experience of a night raid although Israeli soldiers are always in our village and I always expected them to come. They don’t leave us alone.
Problems in our village started when a military checkpoint was built on the road a few hundred meters away. The checkpoint changed our lives and instilled fear in us, especially the young boys.
