Nadira Hamad, mother of four

I live in a three-story building. The first floor has two apartments. My husband's parents live in one of them, and my husband and I and our children live in the other. My brother-in-law Muhammad lives on the second floor. The third floor belongs to Muhammad.

On 23 October, at around 11:30 P.M., I awoke to the sound of gunfire next to my house. The sounds got louder, and I realized that the gunfire was aimed at my house because some pieces of the inside walls fell off . The children and I were very frightened. We went to the bedroom, because it was safer. My husband was at work and my in-laws were in Saudi Arabia , on a pilgrimage to Islam's holy places.

We were in the bedroom for half an hour, and then I started to smell smoke. I heard the sound of bullets hitting the walls of the house. I couldn't move, I was so afraid and shaken. I heard knocking on the door, and my brother-in-law Yusuf calling me to go outside. We got up and went outside. On leaving the room, I saw that the inside of the house was on fire. We weren't able to take anything with us. I was so afraid that I forgot to take my ID card and other documents that my husband and I need. Everything was burned.

The burnt bedroom in the apartment of Nadra Hamad. Photo: 'Abd al-Karim a-S'adi, B'Tselem.

Once outside the house, Yusuf took me to his house, which is south of my house. After an hour or so there, the smoke began to penetrate his house, and we left. Afterwards, we went to the al-Ghoul's house, where we stayed until 8:00 A.M. When the army left, I went home and found that the fire had spread and damaged the whole building. The eastern part was completely destroyed, and the rest of the building was uninhabitable.