Testimonies

Hana Kub'ah, mother of four

On Wednesday, the 29th of August 2007, my daughter Batul, who is fifteen months old, and I woke up in alarm at 3:30 in the morning by knocking on the door. My daughter started to cry. The person at the door demanded that I open it. I was alone with the children because my son and my husband were abroad. I hesitated to open the door. I felt better when I saw light shining from the house of Lutfi Baq'a, my husband's brother. The knocking continued, and I opened the door, which faces to the west. Our house has two entrances, one facing north and other west. When I opened the door, I saw two men in uniform and black masks with equipment on their back. I thought they were from the army. One of them asked me where the other door was. Everything happened in a few seconds. When they were ready to go out the door facing north, a third person, who looked the same as they did, joined them. He also entered through the door I had opened and left through the other door. Except for asking about the door, they didn't say anything to me. When they left, I closed the doors, and the children and I sat there panic stricken.

Around seven in the morning, somebody on a loudspeaker called to everyone to come out. I went outside with the children, and my brother-in-law's family did the same.

Outside, I heard the soldiers demand my brother-in-law Lutfi and his son Muhanad to undress in front of them. I went back into the house, I was so embarrassed and confused. In the house, I took some jewelry and money to safeguard them. When we went back outside, the soldiers searched my body and my handbag, using a metal detector, and then they ordered us to sit on the main road, in the sun, opposite the house of Jamal Qub'a. In front of us were a few naked young men. Meanwhile, the soldiers questioned my brother-in-law's wife and her thirteen-year-old son separately. Then the soldiers told me to take my three small children and go to the place where they were questioning people. An officer introduced himself as Captain Munir, from the Shabak [Hebrew acronym for Israel Security Agency] in Qalqiliya, and said he worked in interrogations at Jalameh Prison.

Captain Munir started out talking about peace and then asked me to look out the window at the houses that the Israeli bulldozers had destroyed. He said they know there are wanted persons in the area and asked if I had seen them. I told him that my children and I woke up because of the knocking and that three soldiers had come in one door and gone out the other and had left me and the children frightened.

Finally, I said, "Even if you, the officer, came to my house and knocked on the door, I would open it, because I am a helpless woman. If I don't open the door, you'll break it."

The soldiers kept me for three hours on the second floor of the building. I begged them to let me go to the children and give them milk, but the soldiers and the officers refused.

During the questioning, another interrogator came over to me and told me that they had decided to demolish the house because wanted men were inside. I begged them and swore on my children that nobody was in the house, and that demolishing the house would harm my family. I told them my husband was abroad and that it would be a shame to destroy the house. All this happened while I was sitting next to our neighbor, who was naked.

Around eleven o'clock, the soldiers began to taken the naked young men from the second floor to the "divan" [room where guests are received] of the Hourani family, one after the other, right in front of our eyes, which really embarrassed me.

After they took the young men, one of the soldiers took me to the divan. There were lots of naked men in the room. I couldn't sit looking at them so I kept my head turned to the wall all the time I was there. It was not until afternoon, after I had insisted time and again that I be allowed to leave the divan to breast-feed my infant daughter and change her diaper, the soldiers let me go to my brother Abdullah's apartment, which was on the floor above the divan.

When I went outside, I saw the bulldozers demolishing my house. It was very painful. All my dreams died in that one moment. My whole house was demolished: three rooms, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and all the contents. I fainted. My sister-in-law called for help. When I opened my eyes, I saw three male soldiers and one female soldier standing around me. The female soldier checked my pulse and asked me to breathe. I requested to be taken to hospital for medical treatment, but they didn't let me.

Later, the soldiers allowed a doctor, a relative of mine, Ahmad al-Hourani, come and treat me. I had sharp pains in my whole body. He gave me an injection.

My dream that I would have a house to enjoy like everyone is gone. My children and I are staying with my father, above the divan where they had held me.

My house was 200 meters. It had three rooms, kitchen, bathroom and living room. Everything in the house was destroyed.

Hana Taher Mahmoud Kub'ah, 41, married with four children, is a homemaker, and a resident of a-Naqqar neighborhood of Qalqiliya. Her The testimony was given to 'Abd al-Karim a-Sa'adi on 1 September 2007 at the home of a relative of the witness.