Hassan Ramadan, age31, Red Crescent volunteer

I have been a volunteering with the Red Crescent for more than three years now. I am a member of the Young Volunteers Committee. I passed a Red Crescent first aid course.

On Thursday, 16.1.03, I was at the headquarters of the Red Crescent in Ramallah participating in a course for medics. On the way back to Jenin, I rode in an ambulance driven by Muhammad Mer'i. At approximately 4:10 PM, the ambulance left the Qalandiya checkpoint, where I waited with Sammer Dghalas who is a clerk. The driver passed through Jericho and from there to road number 90, an area with which I am not familiar. We passed Jericho and got to the A-Tamasich checkpoint. The soldiers at the checkpoint checked our ID cards and let us pass. Muhammad continued driving until we reached the Hamra checkpoint. There were quite a few vehicles waiting at the checkpoint. Mar'i passed all the other vehicles and stopped by the checkpoint. There was a car being searched, and after it drove on three soldiers approached the ambulance. One of them ordered Muhammad to turn off the engine. Muhammad did as they ordered. When the soldiers approached our ambulance, Muhammad got out of the ambulance, as the soldier had told him to do. One of the soldiers told him: "This is a new roadblock and there are new rules." Muhammad opened the ambulance's rear door so the soldiers could conduct a search.

While Muhammad was behind the ambulance, one of the soldiers approached Sammer and I, and told us to get out of the ambulance. The soldier told us to stand at a distance of two meters (6 feet) from the ambulance. Muhammad stayed near the soldiers who were talking to him. One of the soldiers approached Sammer and I, and demanded our ID cards. Muhammad, who had our IDs, gave them to the soldier.

Then, following the soldiers' orders, Muhammad took the stretcher and chair out of the ambulance. The soldiers threw them on the ground angrily. Five minutes later, one of the soldiers came with our IDs. This soldier gave Sammer and I our IDs back and told us to move away from the ambulance. We obeyed his order and drew back, but kept watching what was happening. I saw the three soldiers pass from the rear of the ambulance to the right door. Inside the ambulance there was a bag with clothes and other items belonging to Sammer. One of the soldiers demanded that Muhammad open the bag. When Muhammad opened the bag, the soldier told him to empty it. Muhammad did so.

Later, Muhammad and the soldiers went back to the rear door of the ambulance, but one of the soldiers remained next to the side door. Sammer and I got the things that had been thrown from the bag and put them back into the bag. None of the soldiers prevented us from doing so. While doing so, we heard on our walkie-talkie one of the staff people at the Jenin Red Crescent headquarters asking us where we were. The soldier took the walkie-talkie and my cellular phone, removed the batteries from both and threw them into the ambulance. Sammer and I remained where we were. During this time, one of the soldiers demanded that Muhammad take down all the equipment from the cabinets and shelves in the ambulance and place them on the ambulance floor. Five minutes later, Muhammad got out from the ambulance, through the side door on the right, screaming: "My head, my head." A soldier got out from the rear door. Muhammad spoke to the soldier standing next to us, and the soldier slapped him across the face four times. Muhammad told him not to beat him, adding that he was a paramedic. This same soldier began insulting Islam, and an argument broke out between them. Another soldier ran towards them and cocked his weapon. Then he hit Muhammad in the mouth, and told him he would shoot him. Muhammad raised his hands in the air and said to the soldier twice: "Shoot, shoot."

Then, Muhammad began shouting: "My head," and he seemed completely exhausted. We could hear that he was breathing very rapidly. He began calling out loudly and asking for a doctor be called. The two soldiers ignored Muhammad's request, and one of them demanded that he remove one of the ambulance's wheels and replace it with the spare tire. Muhammad refused, saying there was no need to replace the tire. At this moment, one of the two soldiers began to hit Muhammad. Muhammad proceeded to change the tire. While Muhammad was changing the tire he demanded that the soldiers call a doctor.

At the same time, one of the soldiers stopped a burgundy colored Volkswagen with Israeli license plates. The soldier demanded that the driver translate for us what the soldiers wanted. Muhammad fell to the ground and began shouting: "I want a doctor." I approached, bringing the stretcher and placing it next to Muhammad. Sammer also advanced, while the two soldiers spoke with the driver. I began treating Muhammad who was lying on the ground. The driver [of the Volkswagen] approached and told me that the soldiers said that Muhammad is faking and they did not hit him. I told him that the soldiers did beat him and I saw it with my own eyes. At that time, I looked towards Muhammad and saw the three soldiers circled around him, shouting loudly and cursing at him. This lasted ten minutes or so, all the while Muhammad was shouting and asking for a doctor.

I spoke to the driver so that he would translate to the soldiers that I wanted permission to use our walkie-talkie and inform headquarters of what was occurring. I approached the ambulance and took the walkie-talkie without waiting for the soldiers' permission and informed Jenin headquarters of our situation. Sammer also called headquarters. While Sammer was speaking on the radio, the driver and I moved Muhammad to the stretcher. Then, one of the soldiers approached with another soldier and said that he was a doctor. The doctor went over to Muhammad and checked his pulse, but without instruments. Afterwards, he told me: "Take your colleague to a hospital." I placed Muhammad inside the ambulance, but told the soldier that I cannot drive the ambulance since I have no license and do not know how to drive. One of the soldiers approached me and said that I had five minutes to leave the checkpoint, otherwise they would shoot us.

I had no choice but to get up into the ambulance and drive. I left the area of the roadblock but returned in order to retrieve our IDs, but the soldiers refused to return them. One of the soldiers had taken back our IDs after they were returned to us earlier. When I insisted that the IDs be returned, one of the soldiers went inside a nearby room and came back ten minutes later. He said that he had Sammer's and my IDs, but he asked me about Muhammad's. I gave him Muhammad's ID and waited in the ambulance. The soldier wrote down Muhammad's ID number on the paper in his hand and left without giving back our IDs. I stayed in the area and turned on the siren. The doctor came out to me and asked why I had not left. I told him that the soldiers had not returned our IDs. The doctor called the soldier who had our IDs and he gave them back to us.

I left the checkpoint and as I was driving, I contacted the Jenin headquarters of the Red Crescent. I asked that they send an ambulance with an extra driver so that I would not have to drive our ambulance. I did not want to get into an accident since I don't know how to drive. When I got to Tubas, I transferred Muhammad to one of the clinics there. After examining him, the doctors decided that he should be transferred to the hospital. On the way from Tubas to Aqraba I came across an ambulance coming from Jenin. At that moment, I lost consciousness and fainted. I think it was because of what I endured at the checkpoint.

Hassan Radwan Muhammad Ramadan is 31 years old . He is unmarried, and a resident of Jenin. Hassan volunteers for the Red Crescent . This testimony was given to 'Atef Abu a-Rob, in Jenin, on 22 January, 2003.