Testimonies

Samir Abu 'Amra, victim, age 28

I live in a three-room apartment on top of my parents' home. My apartment is made out of tin. The house is about three hundred meters west of the Kfar Darom settlement. Residents of the area do not usually leave their homes after evening prayers, which end around 7:00 P.M. This is because the Israeli soldiers fire at the area, particularly at our street, al-Mazr'a.

Last Thursday [22 August], I was at home, as usual. Around 9:00 P.M., intense, heavy-machine-gun fire began. It was aimed at our area and at our house. When flares were fired over our roof, the children began to scream.

At some point during the night, I heard a person shouting for help. I looked out the window and asked my neighbors where the voice came from. I asked them if somebody in their house had been wounded. My neighbor replied that the sound came from my house. A little later, my mother, who has medical problems, crawled up to our apartment from the ground floor. It was around 4:30 A.M. She asked me how I was and if I had been wounded. I said that I hadn't.

My mother suggested that we go down to the ground floor because it was safer there. It was dangerous going down because we had to go onto the roof to get to the steps. The shooting continued and flares were being fired. We had to crawl on our stomachs. I hugged my children and crawled with them. My wife, who is seven months' pregnant, and my mother also crawled. We got to the steps and went down to the ground floor. We hid in a room that was safe.

We heard shots being fired in the direction of the room, and saw the flash of a bullet flying by the window facing west. We heard the sound of a bulldozer approaching and stopping opposite our house. We also heard the sound of tanks. Then we heard the bulldozer begin to demolish the guest-room. The room is a separate unit that is located in the yard, near the entrance on the northern side of the house. I looked out the window facing the guest-room and yard to see what the bulldozer was doing. I thought it was going to demolish the house with us inside. The guest-room had been demolished and one of the tanks fired at me. The bullets struck a concrete pole. I crawled toward the adjacent room, where my family was. I asked them to yell. I told them that the army was demolishing our house. They began to scream and call for help, but none of the neighbors came to help us.

A few minutes later, I heard a voice calling out in Hebrew over a loud-speaker. It came from the back street, south of us. We didn't understand anything he said. Then someone called out to us in Arabic, demanding that we leave the house. We were sure that they were going to totally demolish it. My family and I went outside. I supported my father and mother who are both ill. We all went into the street.

I saw four tanks positioned opposite our house. One of them was close, parked on the ruins of the guest-room. A huge army bulldozer was parked next to the tanks. Soldiers standing opposite the house ordered us to go back inside the house. We started to move, but when we got near the door, the soldiers who were positioned behind the house ordered us to go over to them. We were confused, not knowing whether to go to them or to go into the house. After waiting for a few minutes outside the house, the soldiers positioned opposite the house let us go to the back street.

As we were walking, my mother fell. She was exhausted and couldn't walk any further. My father and I supported her, and we continued walking. My mother and the children were screaming. Over the loud-speaker, the soldiers ordered us to move faster and to reach them within five minutes, otherwise they would shoot us. The gunfire had continued non-stop from the time it began.

We got to the southern side, where we saw another bulldozer and three more tanks. Some neighbors were there, among them women, children, and young people, whom the army had gathered on the lot belonging to Abu Khatab.

When we got to where the soldiers were, one of them called out to me. While I was walking over to him, one of the tanks fired shots over my head. The soldier told me that there was a wounded person in our house, and he ordered me to bring him out, dead or alive, within five minutes. He added, "If you don't do it, we'll shoot you and your family and demolish your house." The shots were still flying over my head, and the neighbors were screaming. The same soldier spoke to me over the loud-speaker in Hebrew. He was positioned on the tank. Our neighbor, Ahmad 'Abd al-Qader Abu 'Amra, who used to work in Israel and knows Hebrew well, translated for me what the soldier was saying.

I retraced my steps to go back to my house. When I got to the street, one of the tanks opposite the house fired over my head. I was frightened and confused. I didn't know whether to go back or to go into the house. But the soldier stuck his head outside the tank and motioned me to go into the house. I went inside and started to look around the house and yard in accordance with instructions I received from a soldier who was standing on a tank facing the house. He pointed toward the west corner. There was a water container with a pigeon coop on top of it. The soldier said that the wanted person was located there. When I got to the place, the soldier told me in poor Arabic to bring him out whether he was alive or dead.

I saw a guy wounded in the head and leg. I told him about the soldiers'demand. He refused to leave, and I saw that he had a grenade in his hand. I was frightened. I went back to the soldiers who were behind the house. The soldier who was in the tank opposite the house ordered me to go back to the wounded man, but I continued to walk toward the soldiers. One of the soldiers asked, "Why didn't you bring him?" I replied, "He has a grenade in his hand, and I am afraid I'll die." The soldier ordered me to go back. I explained to him that I had diabetes and can't stand the sight of blood. My wife said that I was liable to faint if I saw blood. The soldier told her to shut up and threatened to send her and my mother [to do it.] Then the soldier ordered my neighbor Ahmad Abu 'Amra to go with me to bring out the wounded guy. The soldier ordered us to jump on the roofs of the houses behind my house and not to walk the same way as before. I jumped onto the fence of the house adjacent to mine and almost fell. Ahmad also jumped. The soldiers on the other side fired over our heads.

I got to the barbed wire on top of a stone fence, but couldn't get over it because I am heavy. Ahmad managed to jump over; the soldiers forced me to go around the fence. Ahmad got to the wounded fellow, spoke with him, and told him about the soldiers'demand. The fellow didn't manage to say anything in reply. He had lost a lot of blood. Ahmad told the soldiers opposite the house that the guy was dead and was not answering us. The soldier ordered us to bring him out alive or dead. Ahmad responded that we couldn't do that because he has a grenade in his hand. The firing of shots over our heads continued. The soldier ordered Ahmad to take the coop off the water container behind which the guy was lying. Ahmad couldn't pick it up, and he pushed it over. At that stage, I was standing on a rock behind the fence that separates the two houses. I was about a meter and a half from them, and I could see and hear what was happening. The soldier ordered Ahmad to move the water container. He replied that he couldn't because it was my house, and not his, and he pointed at me. The soldier ordered me to move the container. I jumped onto the roof and tried to move the container, but couldn't. The soldier ordered me to move back. He said, "The container is blocking him (meaning the wounded guy). Move away, we want to shoot him." I said to the soldier, "He is not a chicken for you to kill. Take him and treat him. Maybe he is still alive." Ahmad and I left and went back to the back street. I was a mess. I had to lean on Ahmad as we were walking.

When we got near the three tanks, the soldiers ordered the civilians there to move away. Then they opened fire at the guy. While the shooting went on, we heard explosions as well. I became dizzy, collapsed, and fainted. It was around 6:30 A.M. I later learned that my family had requested an ambulance be sent, but the soldiers refused to call for one. My family told me that a tank came about an hour later. It had an army doctor, who summoned a Palestinian ambulance. I was taken to al-Aqsa Hospital, where I stayed for two days. When I got back home, I found my family in a terrible state.

Samir Muhammad Hmeidan Abu 'Amra, 28, is married with two children, a Palestinian Authority employee, and a resident of Deir el-Balah. The testimony was given to Nabil Mkherez in Deir el-Balah on 27 August 2002.