Taher Kussa, age 24, paramedic .

I live in Nablus and work as a paramedic for the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees.

On Tuesday, 9 September 2003, around 11:30 AM, the ambulance driver, Jarir Kanadilu, and I were asked to go to Al-Watani Hospital in Nablus to take kidney patients to the village of Huwwara. We picked up the two patients and drove them to their homes in Huwwara. Afterwards, we returned to Nablus by way of the Huwwara checkpoint. When we arrived at the checkpoint, we were given a routine search and after that we started to cross the checkpoint. When we reached the point where the road branches off to the army camp and Israeli settlement of Itamar, two soldiers called out to us to stop.

I got out of the ambulance because I thought that the soldiers wanted to search the ambulance. However, the two soldiers ordered us to get back into the ambulance. They opened the side door of the ambulance, got in and closed the door behind them. Then, they held their weapons up at us, next to our heads, and ordered Jarir to drive. One of them said in Hebrew, " Drive." Jarir answered them in Hebrew that it is illegal to use an ambulance like that but they pushed their weapons up against our heads and shouted, "Yallah, get a move on, drive!"

One of the soldiers was tall. The other was short and wore glasses and wore a khaki colored yarmulke. We started to drive and Jarir and I exchanged a look of disbelief. We drove in the direction of Nablus, following the soldiers' orders, until we reached the edge of the checkpoint. As we approached the checkpoint, Jarir began to drive more slowly because he thought that the soldiers would want to get out. But the soldiers pointed their guns at us again and said to Jarir, Let's go, drive to the taxis!" They forced us to drive to the place where all the taxis that go between Nablus and Huwwara checkpoint were parked. When we got there, they shouted at us in Hebrew, "Wait here, don't move!" Jarir stopped the ambulance and the two soldiers got out quickly from the side door. The approached the spot where the taxis were and fired two shots in the air. I could see them shooting in the rear-view mirror of the ambulance because we began driving away immediately after they got out. I also saw the soldiers chasing someone there, I think it was one of the taxi drivers, and I saw them beginning to beat him with their hands, legs and rifle butts. I didn't see anymore than that because we drove away, fearing that the soldiers would force us to drive them back to the checkpoint.

The soldiers' use of us and our ambulance under threat of weapons is blatantly illegal. When we returned to our headquarters, we told our bosses what had happened to us. I know that Dr. Rasan Hamdan, the director of the headquarters, passed on our report to the Red Cross.

Taher Kussa, age 24, is single, a paramedic, and a resident of Nablus. The testimony was taken by 'Ali Daraghme at the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees' headquarters in Nablus on 23 September 2003.