Rami ‘Abdel Razeq Ahmed Musleh (42), a construction worker from Beit Hanoun, north Gaza, and married with 10 children.
PCHR received his testimony on 09 January 2024.
At around 01:30 on Sunday, 08 October 2023, the Israeli warplanes bombed the area where I lived with several missiles. All the house windows were broken and doors were blown up, filing the air with dust and debris. I took my family downstairs to the ground floor and saw neighbors running. I asked one of them where you are heading and he said to the school because it is safer. I went with my family to UNRWA Palestine Preparatory School for Girls.
People started flowing into the school, and we became 3200 persons distributed in 30 classrooms and 18 tents in the school yard. After the UNRWA ceased aid delivery, volunteers at school provided supplies for the displaced and met their needs as much as possible. We hardly provided water, and could barely have one meal instead of 3 to save food, living only on canned and starchy food.
On 13 October 2023, around 1800 persons remained in the school, including my family, after people started evacuating to the south upon leaflets dropped by Israeli planes ordering evacuation. I refused to evacuate as my family is big and we do not know anyone there. Moreover, transportation price is very high and I only had money to meet my family’s needs, particularly the children.
On 05 December 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) surrounded al-Faloujah area, where the school we were staying in was located right next to al-Faloujah School. IOF topped the high buildings, forcing us to move cautiously fearing to be sniped.
At around 13:00 on 10 December 2023, we were surprised with an IOF’s bulldozer destroying the school wall and then 6 tanks and an SUV stormed the school, ordering us via loudspeakers to get down to the yard while raising our hands and holding ID cards. They had destroyed 9 cars and 18 tents in the yard and then ordered women and children to get out of the school and go to Abu Zaytoun Schools, claiming they were in a safe area. They then ordered us, men, to stand inline and took photos of us. they called us one by one and when it was my turn, they ordered me to go behind the tank, meaning they wanted to arrest me. There were elderly men walking slowly and thereby arriving late, so the soldiers severely beat them with their hands, feet and batons.
Behind the tank, one of the soldiers tied my hand with plastic zip ties behind my back and another one blindfolded me. They arrested 40 persons from the school, including me, and walked us to another place apparently Shadia Abu Ghazalah School. We were then taken by trucks to Zikim military base, where there were a lot of detainees from different parts of northern Gaza and Gaza City.
The place was a tin-roofed barrack lined with barbed wires, and when we arrived, they indiscriminately beat us with their weapons, batons and feet and then forced us to take off our clothes except the underwear. They took us separately for interrogation and then wrote down our personal data. We were interrogated for an hour and a half mainly about Hamas and October 7th. We were then taken to a place on sand and it seemed like we were on the beach as we could hear the sound of waves. We were interrogated again but together this time and asked the same questions.
On 13 December 2023, we were taken by buses to another place, which was a room made of concrete. We were still stripped of our clothes to the underwear and blindfolded with our hands tied. We had no food or drinks and were not allowed to go to the bathroom until some detainees peed on themselves. During interrogation, we were beaten and their questions did not change. I think that place was in Erez.
On 14 December 2023, we were taken by buses to Beersheba and put us in a room where they removing the ties from our hands and eyes and then took photos of us. They gave us grey pajamas to wear and then put us in a tin-roofed barrack lined with barbed wires. We were again blindfolded and had our hands tied behind our backs. They forced us to kneel and whoever moved or fell would be subjected to Shabeh for 4 hours, a common torture technique where your hands and feet are tied together behind your back while you are hung until it hurt and your hands start to bleed. I had been subjected to Shabeh more than 100 times and each time for 4 hours. I had been interrogated 4 times and each time took 2 hours asking me questions about Hamas and mentioning names wanting me to tell them where they are.
On 28 December 2023, I was taken to a place they called “Cinema”, which was a closed placed with a wet floor covered with broken aggregates. They stripped my clothes to the underwear while I was blindfolded and handcuffed. I was with other detainees sitting on the floor for 12 hours; during which, they turned on the ACs and fans directing them at us thought it was very cold. They opened loudspeakers threatening to end Hamas and kill and torture us. They sporadically beat us with their feet, batons and weapons until one time I passed out and woke up to find a doctor in front of me. He gave me some medicine and an injection in my arm. I was then returned to the barrack and they allowed us to wear our clothes again. At night, they stormed with their dogs where we were held to search us.
At around 02:00 on 03 Janaury 2024, a doctor arrived and asked us who could walk and removed the steel cuffs and replaced them with plastic zip ties. We sat on the street, and after around 2 hours, a bus arrived and we got on it, driving us for 2 hours.
At around 06:00, we arrived at Kerem Shalom crossing and got off the bus. They unblindfolded us and removed the ties, ordering us to take a specific road. We walked one kilometer to see UNRWA officers in front of us. I then called one of my brothers and knew that they evacuated to an UNRWA school in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, so they came and took me with them. I am now with my brothers in a tent at the school but without my 2 wives and children who remained in North Gaza and I could hardly call them. I also knew that my family evacuated to several areas and my 19-year-old son, Mohammed, was injured in his knee. I am constantly worried about my family and do not know how they handle food and water supplies and medicine in case one of them got sick amid the dire situation and no aid delivery into North Gaza.
