On Monday, 5 September 2022, at around 3:30 A.M., dozens of soldiers came to the a-Razem family compound in the Jabal Jales neighborhood of Hebron. The soldiers knocked on the gate leading into the compound, which houses more than 20 members of the extended a-Razem family, most of them women and minors, in two buildings with a total of six apartments. When Sharif a-Razem (34) and his brother Jihad (35) went to the gate, the soldiers pushed them forcefully against a wall and asked for their names. The soldiers then raided the compound, and as they were about to enter the building where the two brothers live, Jihad protested, saying women and children were asleep inside. The soldiers jumped him, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and had him sit in the building stairwell. Some of the soldiers then spread out in the compound courtyard, while others entered the two buildings and led all the occupants to the living room in Sharif’s unit. A female soldier took three female members of the family into another room one by one, where she searched them with a muzzled dog present. Some of the women were strip-searched.
When searching Firyal a-Razem (58), the soldier found 70 grams worth of gold jewelry Firyal had hidden in her bra, fearing it would get stolen. The soldier handed the gold jewelry to a male soldier standing guard at the door of the room. The soldiers left the compound at around 7:30 A.M., taking Jihad to detention with them. When the family asked them about the gold, the soldiers lied and said they had returned it.
Once the soldiers were gone, the family searched the apartment in case the jewelry had fallen, but found nothing. Firyal a-Razem arrived at the Israel Police station in central Hebron at around 10:00 A.M. to file a complaint, and then also filed a complaint at the Palestinian police station in the city.
Military raids on Palestinian homes have long since become a routine part of the occupation in the West Bank. The soldiers invade homes, wake all the inhabitants, including children and babies, sow fear and terror, create a commotion and then depart, leaving a stunned family behind.
B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari took testimonies from members of the a-Razem family on 9 September 2022:
Sharif a-Razem , a married father of five, said:
I was woken by knocking on the front gate. My brother Jihad woke up, too. We went downstairs together to open the gate, and as soon as we did so, several soldiers came in and violently pushed us up against the wall. There was an officer there who asked for our names, and we told him. About 20 soldiers came into the compound. Some of them were masked. There was also a masked female soldier with a dog. They started going up the stairs towards my unit and Jihad’s. The two units face each other. Jihad protested and told them there were women and children sleeping up there. The soldiers jumped him, tied his hands behind his back with zip ties and blindfolded him. I wanted to go with the soldiers when they went into my apartment, but they wouldn’t let me. They went into the apartment with the dog, and I heard the kids crying and my wife asking the soldiers to stay out of the children’s room.
A few minutes later, the soldiers took me to the living room of my apartment. They also locked my wife and children, and Jihad’s wife and children, in there, as well as the occupants of the other building in our compound. The children were terrified of the masked soldiers and the dog. They were crying. I tried to calm them down. The female soldier with the dog took my wife Walaa into another room to search her, and two soldiers stood guard at the door there. After about a minute, I heard my wife and the female soldier shouting. I tried to go in there, but the soldiers blocked me. About five minutes later, my wife came out of the room, scared and angry. She told us the soldier had threatened her with the dog and strip-searched her.
After that, the soldier took Shatha (35), Jihad’s wife, into the room with the dog and brought her back a few minutes later. Then she took Firyal, my uncle’s wife, in there. After two minutes, we heard Firyal and the soldier shouting. The soldier came out of the room holding a sock with something in it and handed it to a masked soldier. The soldier emptied some gold jewelry and an SD card out of the sock and then put them back inside it. Firyal said the SD card had pictures from her son Ayman’s wedding on it. We offered to show the soldiers what was on the card on the computer, so they wouldn’t take it. The officer went with Ayman over to his apartment to look at the photos. They came back 10 minutes later, and the officer returned the SD card but not the jewelry. The soldiers stayed in the house until about 7:30 A.M., and held us in the living room the whole time. We heard them searching the house, moving furniture and throwing things around. They spread out in every corner of the building.
When the soldiers started withdrawing, I followed them along with my father, my brothers and Firyal, asking them to return the gold jewelry. They denied taking it and said they left everything on the table. They wouldn’t let us go near them, but we persisted and followed them all the way to the entrance to the military base about 200 meters from our houses. One of them was holding a white plastic bag. I don’t know what was in it. An officer came and said the raid and the search had been filmed and that he would look into it.
We went home. The house was a total mess. We looked for the gold but could only find the sock, which was lying on the floor near the table. The soldiers didn’t confiscate any of our belongings.
My wife is still stunned by the female soldier’s behavior and the humiliating search she went through, and I have to live with the knowledge I couldn’t protect her.
Firyal (58) and Yusef (60) a-Razem , their son Ayman (25) and their daughter-in-law Zeinah (19), were woken up by soldiers knocking on their door. The soldiers then told them to go to Sharif’s apartment in the next door building. In her testimony, Firyal said:
I asked the officer to let me take my money and gold jewelry, and he agreed. He went with me to where I keep it. I took my jewelry, about 70 grams of gold that were inside a sock, and about 8,000 NIS (~2,260 USD) I had there, and put everything in my bra. Then the soldiers took us to the apartment of Sharif, my brother-in-law’s son. On the way, I saw Sharif’s brother Jihad sitting on the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded, and about 40 soldiers around the house.
The soldiers locked the entire family in Sharif’s living room. There were more than 20 of us there. A masked female soldier who had a muzzled dog took Walaa, Sharif’s wife, into another room and closed the door. Two soldiers stood guard next to the door. After about a minute, we heard Walaa and the soldier shouting. Five minutes later, the soldier brought Walaa back. She looked miserable and told me the soldier made her take off all her clothes and tried to take the money she’d hidden in her bra when the soldiers came into the house. Then the soldier took Shatha, Jihad’s wife, also with the dog, and brought her back a few minutes later. Shatha said she’d refused to take off her bra and underwear. Then the soldier took me into the room with the dog and told me to take my prayer clothes off. I did so, and then she demanded I take off the nightgown I was wearing underneath, but I refused. She started yelling in my face, pushing me with the rifle and threatening me. I yelled back and refused to take my clothes off.
In the end, I lifted my nightgown and told her I wasn’t carrying any explosives on me. The soldier saw the sock with the jewelry in my bra and took it out. She yelled to the soldiers that she’d found something. Luckily, she didn’t see the money that was in the bra. She left the room with the sock, and I followed her, shouting at her to give it back. She handed the sock to a masked soldier. There was an SD card in the sock too, with pictures from my son Ayman’s wedding. My husband, who speaks Hebrew, tried to explain to the officer that these were photos from the wedding and offered to show the officer what was on the card on a computer. The officer agreed, and Ayman went with him to our house and showed him some of the photos on the computer. They came back 10 minutes later, and the officer gave us back the card.
The soldiers kept us in the living room until 7:30 A.M. and then left, taking Jihad with them, still handcuffed and blindfolded. When they left, I asked my family about my jewelry, and they said the soldiers had taken it with them. We followed the soldiers and asked them to give the jewelry back. They denied taking it and said they left it on the table. My husband got into an argument with them in Hebrew. He accused them of stealing, and then an officer came and asked what was going on. My husband told him the female soldier didn’t give us back the gold jewelry after searching me. The officer spoke to the soldier, who said she’d left the jewelry on the table. The officer told my husband the raid and search had been filmed and that he’d look into it. Then he left with the soldiers.
We went back to Sharif’s living room and searched it. We found the empty sock near the table. The whole house was a mess. We didn’t find the jewelry.
At around 10:00 A.M., I went with my husband to the police station at al-Haram al-Ibrahimi (Tomb of the Patriarchs) to file a complaint. An interrogator took my statement and asked if we filmed anything during the soldiers’ raid on the house. I told him the soldiers took our phones and didn’t give them back until they left the house. I showed him footage filmed by a family member of the last few minutes, when the soldiers were leaving and we were following them and demanding the jewelry back. After that, we went to the Palestinian police station and filed a complaint there, too, but we haven’t heard back from anyone so far. The jewelry was worth about 20,000 NIS (~5,650 USD). Jihad is still under arrest.