Tulkarm- In a large agricultural square, men appeared emerging from a high-rise residential building in groups, while a number of them showed signs of beating and torture. They were a group of young men. Tulkarm camp The Israeli occupation forces allowed them to leave The building in which they were detained for more than 48 hours, to interrogate them after raiding their homes and arresting them during the large military operation carried out in the camps of the city of Tulkarm in the northwest of the West Bank since dawn the day before yesterday, Wednesday.
The young man in his thirties, Haitham Ghanem, says that a force of occupation soldiers raided his house in the Tulkarm camp, and severely beat him, before handcuffing him, blindfolding him, and taking him to a building in the Shweika suburb adjacent to the camp.
He added, “A number of occupation soldiers entered my house and began asking me about one of the resistance fighters, even though I denied knowing him. They beat me hard and repeated the question over and over again. I told them: We do not know where these resistance fighters are. However, they arrested me in front of my family and dragged me to their military office, and took off my winter clothes.” Then one of them gave me a red sweater and told me to wear it.”
Like Haitham, the occupation forces detained hundreds of camp residents in a residential building after emptying its residents and turning it into a detention and interrogation point.
Haitham describes the harsh interrogation hours they lived through, and the brutal treatment they were subjected to by the occupation soldiers, saying, “Then they allowed me to leave. There were approximately 300 people in the building who were still in detention. They interrogated everyone, and the most important question was about the resistance youth and what information they might receive.” To them, many hours passed while we were subjected to insults and insults. They insulted our mothers with very obscene words, and hit us with their feet. I was punched more than once in the face by them.”
According to estimates by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, approximately 500 people were arrested and transferred from inside Tulkarm camp to the field investigation point in the Shweika suburb of Jenin.
The club stated in a statement that the occupation forces detained the camp residents for long hours in humiliating conditions that violate human dignity, and that they stipulated that those who were released should not return to the camp until Friday morning, while eyewitnesses confirm that investigation operations are continuing in the residents’ homes that the occupation soldiers are storming.
Hits and insults
In turn, Mahmoud Musileh (36 years old) says that the soldiers stormed his house around ten o’clock on Wednesday evening in a way that terrified his children, and they collected the identities of the men in the house. After they checked his identity and learned that he worked in one of the Palestinian security services, they asked him about his weapon, and he told them that he had left it. Inside his workplace.
Mosileh continues that the soldiers arrested him blindfolded along with his brothers, and at the field investigation point in the quiet building, they separated the young men according to their ages, placing those under 35 years old in one apartment and those over 35 years old in another apartment.
The same witness confirms that the occupation forces are more stringent in interrogating younger men, as they are violently beaten, insulted, and kept in detention for a longer period.
Ambulance crews were providing first aid to those released who had been beaten and abused in the square, while a young man needed to be transported by ambulance after his neck and back ribs were damaged due to the severity of the beating he was subjected to by the soldiers.
Another young man, with a large wound on his forehead, said that an Israeli soldier continued to hit his head with an iron door before arresting him from his home in one of the camp’s neighborhoods.
Video clips showed a large number of young men being arrested on one of the camp’s streets and taken blindfolded to the field investigation point.
Seduction style
For his part, Abu Ahmed – one of those released – stated that the occupation forces tried to use the method of temptation to facilitate obtaining work and improving life for young men between the ages of 13 and 20 years. “Through the investigation, they tried to convince those under the age of 20 to provide them with work permits. Facilitating their entry into the 1948 territories to work and providing assistance to them if they cooperate with the occupation and provide information about the resistance fighters.”
He added, “The share of people over the age of 20 was brutal beatings and great insults. The occupation soldiers would assault us by beating us with rifle butts and our legs. Sometimes the soldiers would spit on the faces of the detainees. Before releasing us, the soldiers sprayed us with tears, then told us that there was no We can return to the camp before the occupation forces withdraw from it.”
Abu Ahmed described the long hours of detention as difficult, as all the detainees were blindfolded for a long period, while their hands remained tied, and they were prevented from drinking or even entering the bathroom. A large number of young men continued to be detained for a period of approximately 48 hours before they were released and stipulated not to return to their homes in prison. Tulkarm camp until Friday morning.
The investigation with the people focused on the whereabouts of the resistance fighters, their deployment, and the places where explosive devices were planted in the streets.
Large forces of Israeli occupation soldiers and vehicles, accompanied by military bulldozers, stormed Tulkarm camp at dawn the day before yesterday, Wednesday, in a large military operation that lasted two days, during which an Israeli drone bombed 4 Palestinian young men deep inside the camp, killing them. An Israeli sniper killed another young man, and ambulances were prevented from reaching him. The soldiers confirmed his martyrdom. He was tied with a rope and his body was abused.
The occupation bulldozers destroyed the camp’s streets and caused major damage to the infrastructure, buildings and homes, before announcing their withdrawal at dawn on Friday.