Grave suspicion of extrajudicial execution of two wounded Palestinians, November 2006

Muhannad Kabalh, merchant

I live in a-Libdi, a neighborhood in the southern section of al-Yamun.

Last night [8 November], I was sleeping at home. My brothers Salah and Mujahed and my parents were also sleeping in the house, and my brother Shadi and his wife were in their apartment, on the second floor of the house.

Around 1:50 in the morning, I awoke to the sound of explosions, gunfire, and shouting near the house. My brothers also woke up. I left the room and saw my father and brother Bashar with two persons who were lying on the floor. They tried to help the two of them, who were wounded. When I went over to them, I recognized Hamadeh a-Rajah, who is called "Mahmud," and Salim Tahbush Abu al-Heija. They were not armed. I went to get my cell phone and called my friend, J'afer. I told him that Salim and Hamadeh were wounded, and I asked him to call an ambulance, because I can't call 101 [the ambulance hotline] from my cell phone.

I went back to my father and the two guys. We brought a blanket and covered Hamadeh, who was wounded in the abdomen. He asked me to cover him gently because he was wounded. I think that Salim was wounded in the thigh. He moved around in the house trying to find a place to hide. After 10-15 minutes, I heard the sound of army jeeps, and soldiers shouting into the house. I went to my room and called people to get an ambulance. While in the room, I heard an explosion. I later learned that the soldiers had thrown a stun grenade into the courtyard. The soldiers shouted out in Arabic, "Open the door!"

My father went out and opened the door. The soldiers were still inside the jeep, next to the house. One of the soldiers shouted out in a loud voice for everyone to sit on the steps of the house. We all went to the courtyard and sat on the steps. Hamadeh was already in the courtyard, about a meter and a half from the gate. Salim had crawled into a room we use for storage, next to the gate. That room has two doors – one facing the road and the other facing the courtyard.

Then the soldier ordered my father to open the second half of the gate. The gate is wide, and we usually only open half of it. My father opened the second side. The soldier said, "Everybody in the house, come out and come to the middle of the courtyard, facing the door." We all sat where the soldiers pointed to. My brother Shadi and his wife also sat with us. The soldiers were still inside the jeep, which was parked parallel to the gate. The soldier next to the driver got out, and he and two soldiers went into the house. The three passed by Hamadeh and went to the room where Salim was crawling. After a minute or two, I heard two shots from inside the room, and a few seconds later, I saw, through the door, a rifle that fired a shot that hit Hamadeh in the head. I saw Hamadeh's hand go up and then fall, and he made a weak sound.

After that, one of the soldiers told my father and me, "Haj, get up, lift up your clothes, drop your pants, turn around, come." After my father did as he was told, the soldiers ordered us, one by one, to do the same thing. Then they ordered us to go into the house. After we went inside, the soldiers asked for our ID cards. We collected the IDF cards and my brother Mujahed gave them to the soldiers.

Salim was already dead. His blood was on the floor. The soldier asked us if other people were in the house, and threatened to kill any person found inside the house. Then he asked my brother's wife if there were weapons in the house. She said that weren't. Then they ordered us to leave the house. Only Salah remained inside, because they ordered him to open all the windows and doors.

The soldiers told us to go to the street, and they sat us down next to the corner of the house, where another jeep was parked. There were soldiers in the jeep, four I think. One of the soldiers in the jeep told my father to go over to him. Father went to the soldier, who asked him about the persons who had been killed. My father told him that there were two young men he didn't know. My father called me, and I went over to the jeep and stood next to the driver's door. One of the soldiers grabbed me and put the radio transmitter to my ear. Somebody asked me over the radio to tell him my name, and I told him. He asked me the names of the people who had been killed, and I gave him their names. He also asked me what I do for a living.

Then I went back to the corner where we had been sitting. I heard gunshots inside the house. Then they returned us to the room in which Salim had been killed. The soldiers were still inside the room. One of them said, as far as I could understand it, "You have to walk between the jeeps, and whoever runs will be shot. Boom, boom." The soldiers spoke a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew. I went with my brothers. Father, because of his age presumably, was allowed to stay in the house, as were the women. We stood outside the house. The jeep next to the corner proceeded forward. The jeep at the entrance left the alley. We stood the way the soldiers ordered, between the two jeeps, and we walked that way along the streets.

When we were about forty meters from Lutfi's house, the jeep stopped. The soldiers ordered us to sit down, and we sat down. Then one of the soldiers opened the back door of the jeep that was in front of us, and told us, "You, the two of you, come!" He pointed to a person on the road, who was dead, and told us, "Pick him up!" Bashar and I went and picked up the body and put it on the side of the road. One of his legs was almost completely severed.

Then we reached the yard of the bakery. The soldiers ordered us to get into the jeeps. They put me in a Border Police jeep. The jeep drove through the village and took us to the area of al-Arqam Mosque, where a bus was parked. The soldiers put me, my brothers, three other young men, and employees of the bakery into the bus. We were a total of eleven detainees. The bus took us to Sallem, where they bound our hands with plastic cuffs and sat us on the floor. They interrogated us about what happened. I told the interrogator that two guys had come to us and that the army had come in and shot them. The interrogator was surprised, but I insisted that that was what happened. They also questioned Bashar, Shadi, and Salah. They released us about eight, eight-thirty in the morning.

Muhannad Jamil Kabaleh, 28, is merchant and a resident of al-Yamun in Jenin district. His testimony was given to 'Atef Abu a-Rub at the witness's house on 9 November 2006.