Amneh a-Swayyer, 50

I live on the third floor of a five-story building on Salah a-Din Street in Gaza City . My husband, Jamal, is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail. I have two grown sons. Ahmad, 24, is divorced and lives in the apartment next to mine. His baby daughter lives with me. Samer, 22, his wife, and son live with me. Samer is an amputee, having lost his leg when he was shot by the Israeli army in November 2000. My little son, Muhammad, who is four and a half, my divorced daughter, Samia, 29, and her six children, and my other daughter, Ghada, 27, and her infant daughter, live with me as well.

On 23 June 2007, after midnight, everyone was asleep and I was watching TV. Suddenly, I heard the sound of vehicles stopping outside. I looked across the patio and saw patrol vehicles of the (Hamas) executive force park in front of the entrance to our building. Four men, dressed in the black uniforms of the executive force and carrying rifles, got out of the vehicles. They broke the pane of the front gate and came into our building.

At first, I thought they had come to set up a post in the building, but I heard banging on our door and on the doors of our neighbors. I woke my sons up.

Ahmad opened the door of his apartment and the executive force members shouted at him: “Face to the floor, face to the floor, keep your mouth shut”. I opened the door to our apartment and two of the intruders came in, dragging Ahmad by the legs, shouting at him and ordering us to gather in a corner of the living room. My daughters and I begged them: “For Allah's sake, leave Ahmad be. What's wrong?”. They shouted at us to keep quiet. The children were crying and screaming. The intruders ignored the commotion. Two of them began to search the rooms, going through everything. Another of them aimed his rifle at the small children, and the fourth one put his foot on Ahmad's back and ordered him to keep his mouth shut. He asked Ahmad where the M-16 rifle they were searching for was hidden. I recited a prayer and begged them to leave my children be. I told them that I was in charge of the house, and that if they found one bullet, they could shoot me.

When I saw they were threatening us and destroying our possessions, and in particular when one of them tore and stepped on the picture of my nephew, the martyr Muhammad Kamal al-Afghani, who fought for Hamas, I became angry and tried to tear the mask off the face of one of the intruders. He hit me in my right hand with his rifle, which almost knocked off one of my finger nails and broke three of my fingers. I started to bleed and prayed out loud that Allah would take vengeance on them. The same man started firing towards the floor between my legs. He was standing about two meters away. One bullet hit the floor and another hit me in the right leg. It felt as if my leg had been blown off and was on fire. I couldn't stand and I fell to the floor, shouting. The bullet hit me about 15 centimeters under the knee, and I bled a lot.

When my sons heard and saw what was happening, they started to scream and attack the intruders. The members of the executive force felt they were losing control. The one who had shot me fired two more shots into the same leg. Then they fled.

I recited the martyr's prayer, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger,” and lay down on the bed. I lost consciousness and woke up in the morning in a-Shifa Hospital , in Gaza . I had a metal splint on my leg, to stabilize it, and I couldn't move it. My hand was bandaged and had a metal splint attached too. All my sons and daughters, including the small children, were standing around my bed. They were afraid to go back home for fear of retaliation. My family stayed in the hospital, slept there, and hid until arrangements were made to transfer me to Ichilov Hospital , in Tel Aviv. There was concern that the doctors [in Gaza ] would have to cut off my leg, because the medicines and means for treating injuries like mine aren't available in Gaza .

On 26 June, I was taken to Ichilov, where I underwent five operations and was hospitalized for about six weeks. The staff there treated me well. Palestinian religious leaders, among them Taysir a-Tamimi and Archbishop ‘Atallah Hana, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and members of the Palestinian Presidential Security forces came to visit me at Ichilov.

On 6 September, after my condition improved, I was transferred to Sheikh Zaid Hospital , in Ramallah. I still have a metal splint on my leg and can't walk. Most of the time, I lie in bed and can only relieve myself in a pan. I shower only once every ten days because it takes four people to help me shower. I am tired and lonely since my family is far away in Gaza .

I know that the executive force arrested my son Samer and my daughter Samia during Ramadan, and that they were released after being interrogated for two days. I constantly worry that something will happen to my children. I am afraid they will kill me when I get back to Gaza because I gave interviews on Israeli TV and on Arab stations talking about violence by Hamas forces.

Amneh Muhammad Hamudeh a-Swayyer, 50, married with five children, is a homemaker and a resident of Gaza. Her testimony was given to Iyad Haddad at Sheikh Zaid Hospital, Ramallah, on 22 October 2007.