'Awarta, Habla, Huwwara, Tue 29.3.11, Afternoon
.
13:50
The gate was open; there weren’t many people
14:30 –
Huwwara. An army jeep and soldier at the checkpoint. Light traffic
14:50 –
Awarta. The curfew was lifted but the streets were empty. We went into the village, to the shop selling oil. We spoke with a young man in the shop who told us about the wave of arrests in the village. He was released the day after his arrest. He said that every day the soldiers come in brutally, arrested about one hundred people and released some of them the next day after fingerprinting and taking DNA samples, and then arrested others. He called a neighbor to tell us what happened to him. He was arrested on March 12, taken to the Meggido prison, beaten – he showed us the marks – and he keeps vomiting blood.
They accused him of knowing who carried out the massacre in Itamar, or that he was guilty of incitement. While he was in jail, soldiers brutally entered his home, interrogated his wife and children, broke the wardrobe doors, the drawers, the mirrors and the baby
’s crib, made holes in the walls, broke everything they came across. The little children were frightened.
He was released on March 24. They took his cellphone and his ID, which haven’t been returned. They gave him a document confirming he’d been in jail.
I have a copy of it. He can’t leave the village without an ID. I referred him to Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual.
We took photos with our cellphone; I don’t know whether they came out.
He told us about two other people from his village who were abused by the soldiers and required medical treatment at Hadassah hospital. One was even hospitalized for two days – they broke his glasses and its hard for him without them. After leaving the hospital they were taken back to jail; one was sentenced to four months of administrative detention.
17:00
An army checkpoint at the entrance to Yitzhar, inspecting Palestinian vehicles.
17:40
The Habla gate was open; many people waiting.