IDF soldiers steal phone cards from family's house in Hebron, June 2004

Rabah al-Qawasme, age33, resident of the a-Sheikh neighborhood, Hebron

I live in the a-Sheikh neighborhood in Hebron. I live in a three-story building next to the a-Shuhada cemetery. My vegetable shop is on the first floor and I also work at a car garage across the street. My brother is co-owner of the garage. On Tuesday, 1 June 2004, around 3:00 AM, my wife, my seven-year-old daughter and I woke up to the sound of our doorbell ringing. There is a peephole on the front door that allows you to see who is standing outside. I looked through the peephole and saw a number of soldiers standing there. One of them ordered me to open the door. I opened it and six or seven soldiers came inside. I told them that maybe they were mistaken in the address and were looking for another house, but the soldier who had ordered me to open the door said that they knew which house they wanted. I remember what the soldiers looked like. The one who ordered me to open the door was tall, heavy-set and dark-skinned. He looked about 35 or 40 years-old. The second soldier was tall, heavy-set and had a sparse, blond beard. He looked about 30 years-old. The third soldier was shorter than the first two, heavy-set and looked like he was in his late twenties. The fourth solder was average-height, wore glasses and also seemed to be in his late twenties. I believe that he was the officer. He spoke fluent Arabic. I don't remember what the rest of soldiers looked like. This officer approached me and asked me what my name was and I answered him. He then asked my wife what her name was and she answered that she was from the al-Jabari family. The officer looked at the house and asked us to go into the children's room and to shut the door. Before we went inside, I asked him to allow me to go to my bedroom and take my gold and money. He agreed. After I left my bedroom I went into the kids' room with my wife and daughter and shut the door. At that moment my five-year-old son, Abed, woke up. After a couple of minutes I asked the soldier if I could leave the room to bring my daughter some water. They agreed. When I went out, I saw that some of the soldiers were sitting in the family room and some were in the living room. One of the soldiers had almost fallen asleep. I went back to the kids' room after I took the water. I want to comment that I did not worry that the soldiers would damage the house, especially because the officer had allowed me to take my money and gold with me from the bedroom, but I suddenly remembered that I had left a wallet with fifteen "Talkman" prepaid calling cards for cell phones in a drawer. I asked one of the soldier's permission to go and get them but he didn't answer me, and I forgot all about it. The soldiers stayed in my house until 7:15 AM. Before they left, the officer knocked on the door to the children's room and allowed us to come out. He shook my son's hand and told him that he was a good boy and that he sometimes sees him standing opposite my vegetable shop. Then he spoke to my daughter, Yusrah and asked her if she was scared. She said that at the beginning she had been frightened and that now she wasn't. The officer told her not to be scared and that he was a human being just like her. The officer told her that he had seen photos of her in one of the drawers in our bedroom. Yusrah told him that she was smart and that she wants to be a doctor and he replied in Arabic, "Allah karim [God is generous]." The officer left the room and told my wife that the soldiers had not vandalized anything in the house. After they left, my wife went in to our bedroom and opened the drawer where the calling cards had been. The contents of the drawer were scattered and the calling cards were not there. They were 75-shekel cards and in total were worth 1,125 shekels. Three days later, around 6:00 PM, as I was standing outside of the garage, a group pf six soldiers passed. I recognized two or three of them and remembered that they had been at my house. The soldier looked me over and two of them went inside the car-shop. I spoke to them in Arabic but they didn't understand me. So I called over to Kamal al-Qawasmi who happened to be walking by and asked him to tell the soldiers in Hebrew that three days ago a soldier had stolen calling cards from my house. One of the soldiers told me that he had been in my house, and that nobody had taken anything. The other soldier told him not to pay any attention to what I said, and then turned to Kamal and said that I was surely referring to the Talkman cards. I am sure that I heard him say the word "Talkman." Kamal translated what the soldiers said into Arabic for me and said that one of the soldiers said that if we have any extra calling cards, to give them to him. However, the first soldier promised to look into the incident and to help me. The next day, I went to members of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) and reported the theft. Likewise, I submitted a complaint to the Palestinian police and at the Palestinian DCO [District Coordinating Office] in Hebron.

Rabah Hijazi 'Abd al-Qader al-Qawasme, age 33, is married and the father of two. He works as a vegetable grocer and car garage employee, and he is a resident of the a-Sheikh neighborhood inHebron. The testimony was taken by Musa Abu Hashhash in the witness' store in Hebron on 10 June 2004.