Soldiers attack human rights activists volunteering with B’Tselem

On Sunday, 8 May 2022, soldiers attacked, beat and attempted to arrest two Palestinians in two separate incidents in the West Bank. Ahmad Ziyadah (31) from the village of Madama in the Nablus area and Basel Adra (25) from the village of a-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills, both B’Tselem volunteers, were attacked by soldiers while documenting their actions.

Assault on Ahmad Ziyadah (31) from Madama, Nablus District

At around 3:30 P.M., B’Tselem volunteer Ahmad Ziyadah (31) climbed up to the roof of his house in the village of Madama, in Nablus District, to document a gathering of soldiers in the vicinity. Soldiers who noticed him goaded him, waving an Israeli flag in front of him. A few minutes later, Ziyadah climbed down from the roof and found about four soldiers at his front door. One soldier grabbed his camera and another grabbed him, tied his hands with zip ties and dragged him out of the house.

The soldiers dragged Ziyadah away from the area, barefoot and with his hands tied. His mother Yusra (64) and several other family members followed the soldiers, fearing for Ahmad. Yusra tried to pry him free of the soldiers’ hands. After one of them pushed her, Ziyadah managed to break loose and run back home. The soldiers left the area without making any arrests, taking the camera with them.

In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i, Ziyadah recounted:

I live on the second floor of a two-story home. Three of my brothers, Muhammad, Nashaat and Tal’at, live on the first floor with their families. Our house is located in the eastern part of the village, a short distance away from the Huwarah-Jit (Yitzhar) bypass road.

On Sunday, 8 May 2022, at around 3:30 P.M., a village resident called me and said there was a crowd gatherring near the Madama-Burin bridge. I grabbed the camera right away, climbed up to the roof and started filming. I saw an Israeli DCO vehicle and some soldiers. There were about six soldiers gathered by the military post behind our house, and four of them walked over towards the bridge. The two soldiers who stayed behind saw me. They started making taunting gestures and waving Israeli flags. I said nothing and continued filming. Every time I lowered the camera, intending to leave, the soldiers went back to taunting me, so I kept filming. After that happened several times, I decided to stop filming and go back down. There was nothing going on to justify continuing filming.

I went inside and about half an hour later, I was about to turn on the computer to upload the footage from the camera when I heard my nephews, who live on the first floor, screaming and crying. I grabbed the camera and went downstairs right away. On the stairs, I saw my nephews crying. They said the army was in the house. I told them not to be scared and to come with me. While I was still at the entrance to the house, I saw four soldiers pointing their guns at us. I said to them: What are you doing? Look what you’re doing to the children! One soldier pushed me and yanked the camera away. Another soldier grabbed me by the neck and pulled me forcefully.

The soldiers led me outside. I was barefoot. They took me to a path leading to the road that’s about 50 meters away from our house. One of the soldiers tied my hands behind my back and hit me on the head with the butt of his rifle. My mother followed us, crying. I was worried about her. Some of my nephews followed us, too. I told the soldiers I wanted to talk to my mother so she’d go home, but they jumped me and beat me with their rifle butts. One punched me again and again in the face. My mother tried to get the soldiers off me, and then one of them pushed her. When I saw that, I thought I would go crazy. I couldn’t take it. I ripped off the zip ties, got up and tried to break free of the soldiers.

In the meantime, my father, my brothers and some other village residents arrived. We got into a shoving fight with the soldiers, and in the end managed to get away from them. The soldiers fired a few shots to scare everyone. Then four more soldiers arrived. I went home because I was barefoot. When I got there, I changed because the soldiers had torn my clothes. In the meantime, the soldiers went further away, to the bypass road. I was exhausted. I have bruises from the beating on my back and face. My mother was in really bad shape. Her glucose level dropped, and she was in pain because one of the soldiers had pushed her and knocked her to the ground.

Assault on Basel Adra (25) from a-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills

On the same day, at around 7:00 P.M., five soldiers, some of them masked, entered land owned by Raed A’mar (41) from the community of Khirbet al-Fakhit in Masafer Yatta. The plot is located near the community of a-Tuwani, and A’mar was busy building a shed for farming needs at the time. The soldiers ordered A’mar to take it down, but he refused. Some local residents gathered, and some of them began documenting the incident. At that point, the soldiers attacked one of them, Basel Adra (25), who is a journalist, human rights activist and B’Tselem volunteer.

Al-’Adraa managed to break loose from the soldiers, and residents who were there drove him to al-Qassem Hospital in the town of Yatta, where he was examined and discharged.

B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari took the testimonies:

Raed A’mar said:

I’m a farmer and I own six dunams of land where I have an olive grove and barley fields. On Sunday, 8 May 2022, at around 7:00 P.M., I was building a shed out of tin sheets on my land. When it was almost ready, five masked soldiers suddenly showed up and told me to take it apart. I refused. I demanded they either show me an order telling me to take it down, or get the police or a Civil Administration official. The soldiers ignored what I said and insisted I take it down.

We got in an argument and in the meantime, some residents from the community arrived, including Suliman (Naser) al-’Adraa (47), who started filming what was happening on his cellphone. Two soldiers jumped him. He ran away, and they gave chase. In the meantime, his son Basel (25) and another activist, Sami al-Harini, arrived. Basel was filming on his camera and Sami on his cellphone. The soldiers who had chased Suliman came back empty-handed, and one of them pushed Basel. The two started arguing, and Basel demanded the soldier show him an order instructing the structure be taken down or call the police.

At that point, the officer ordered the soldiers to arrest Basel and Sami, and each of them was grabbed by two soldiers. Basel tried to break loose, but the soldiers knocked him down and tried to tie his hands. He kept struggling, and then the other soldiers let go of Sami and jumped Basel too. Two soldiers picked him up, and a third pushed him hard. He fell on his back.

Basel Adra said: 

While they were trying to tie my hands, my shoes came off. The soldiers picked me up and started dragging me barefoot over thorns and rocks. It hurt a lot. I asked the soldiers to let me put my shoes on, but they ignored me. I sat down on the ground so they wouldn’t be able to drag me, and then one of them punched me hard in the face. At that point, our neighbor Amneh al-’Adraa (45) came over and tried to free me from the soldiers, who were beating and kicking me. They stepped on my bare feet, crushing them into the dirt and thorns. 

In the meantime, my brother, Adam (16), came and filmed what was going on on his phone. The soldiers kept beating me while I was lying on the ground. Amneh was still trying to get them off me, and they swore at her and even hit her a few times. During the incident, a lot of residents gathered there, and when the soldiers tried to make them leave, I managed to get up and run away. It was about half an hour after they beat me. I walked for about 50 meters until I reached Sami’s car, and he drove me home. From there, I was driven to an infirmary in the nearby village of al-Karmel, where I got a painkiller injection. I was dizzy. My head hurt and my foot was swollen. From there, I was transferred by ambulance to al-Qassem Hospital in the town of Yatta, where I had an x-ray done. I had bruises, contusions and scratches all over my body. I was discharged after an hour. My feet are still swollen and have small thorns stuck in them that are hard to get out. 

Amneh al-’Adraa, a mother of five, said: 

I saw on the WhatsApp groups that the Israeli army was attacking our neighbor Basel in one of the plots of land in the village. They were calling residents to go there. I walked there with two relatives. As soon as we got there, I saw soldiers dragging Basel along the thorns on his bare feet. He was crying out in pain. At some point, he sat down on the ground and wouldn’t let them drag him. The soldiers started beating him up. He was in a sorry state. He had bruises and scratches on his face, hands and legs. I tried to pry him out of the soldiers’ hands, and took a few hits from them as I was doing that. They yelled and swore at me. 

Basel was writhing in pain. I demanded the soldiers call an ambulance, but they ignored me. In the meantime, some more residents from the village showed up. They surrounded the soldiers and tried to rescue Basel. Some of them were also filming what was going on on their phones. I saw a foreign activist filming, too. The soldiers chased them to stop them from filming and tried to drive them away. While the soldiers were chasing the residents, Basel managed to get away. I took his things, including the camera and the phone, and ran after him. Sami al-Harini took him away in his car. Later, I heard Basel was taken for treatment at al-Qassem Hospital in Yatta. My left hand still hurts from the beating I took from the soldiers.