H. GH. (31), from North Gaza, gave her testimony on 07 February 2024.

I lived in a tinplated room in my deceased parents’ house and have 5 siblings. I support my self financially from my father’s salary.

In the beginning of Israeli aggression on Gaza on 07 October 2023, the Israeli warplanes started bombing in our area, including houses, enticing fear among us.  later, they dropped leaflets to evacuate the area, so my brother, his wife and I left the house at 13:00 on 18 October 2023.  We went to al-Fakhourah School and stayed there until mid-November.

During that time, the Israeli tanks fired artillery shells at the school while we were inside, so we evacuated to Hafs School in Jabalia refugee camp near Abu Rashed pool.  At around 19:00 on 01 December 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired white smoke bombs, killing 55-year-old Naderah al-Taweel as her daughter told me that she was beheaded by those bombs and an ambulance arrived half an hour later and took her.  They heavily fired those bombs between us, causing smoke plumes.  We could not see anything and tents were set on fire at the school.

The next day at around 08:00, we walked to Netzarim checkpoint via the so-called “safe corridor.”  When we arrived, IOF ordered all those evacuating via loudspeakers to sit on the ground in order to wait for the rest to come.  We waited for half an hour and they then order us to move while raising the ID cards and keeping a distance between each of us.  Meanwhile, IOF called me to come with my ID and my belongings, including my pack bag that had my clothes inside along with a snake-bracelet, a light necklace, 2 rings, a pair of earing, Note 9 cell phone, mini cell phone and 2000 shekels.  One of the soldiers ordered me to throw the belongings all what I had on the ground and enter a tent, where there was a female soldier.  The tent was all closed but a small part like a door was open.  I threw all what I had and entered the tent.

The female soldier was talking to me in Hebrew while she was 2 meters away and there was a soldier outside translating for me at the tent’s door.  She then ordered me via a loudspeaker to take off all of my clothes, including my underwear, shake each piece and my shoes and then throw it on the ground.  After taking off all of my clothes, she shouted out loud at me and ordered me to put on my clothes quickly but without the scarf.  She then had my hands tied with plastic zip ties, blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and sat me on a sand berm.  Few minutes later, she took me to a tent, where there was a chair and an interrogator.  He asked me about my siblings and their work claiming that my brother is affiliated with al-Qassam Brigades. When I told him that I knew nothing, he started shouting at me saying, “liar… you are all liars” and slamming his fist on the table.  During the interrogation, which continued for 5 minutes, the interrogator blackmailed me to answer each question and collaborate with them in order to secure my release.  He then ordered the soldiers to take me away.  They threw me on the ground and left me under the sun until 18:00.  I could see through the blindfold women detained, including a nursing mother who was released at 14:30.  The soldiers were constantly cursing us with the nastiest words and when I asked for water or to go the bathroom, they would refuse and insult me.  I sat with my head between my knees upon the female soldier’s orders.  In the evening, I felt cold so I asked her for a blanket and she brought me one and put it on me but pulled it again like it was not.

At around 19:00, I was taken to a gravel-floored room blindfolded and with my hands tied.  After an hour, I was taken to an SUV that drove me to Zikim detention center, where female soldiers ordered me to take off all my clothes and gave me a grey pajama that I wore without neither my underwear nor my hijab.  They tied my hands, blindfolded me and then took me to a doctor, who examined me and asked if I had any disease.  Afterwards, I was taken to a barrack and was given a blanket and very light mattress that was too small for my size.  I slept while blindfolded and with my hands tied.  After half an hour, the female soldiers came and woke us and whenever we closed our eyes to sleep, they would wake us again and order us to kneel while the female and male soldiers kept cursing us with the worst swears.  They pointed their guns at us while moving the red laser lights and said, “who wants to be shot first?”

The next day at 08:00, they took all women for interrogation and my turn was at 18:00.  They put me in a small container, where there were a soldier writing behind a computer and a female soldier interrogating me.  She showed me a picture of our house from the outside as well as the neighbors’ houses and then asked me why there were surveillance cameras in the area and about the locations of tunnels.  I would only answer: “I do not know.”  She asked me If I participated in the Great March of Return protests and I answered, “yes once,” so she asked if I had seen any armed persons during the protests and I answered,” I do not know.”  She also asked me about my siblings and what they do for a living.  She also inquired about al-Shaymaa’ School near our house and if there were any weapons there and I told her no there were not any as it was a school for children.  She said that I was lying and then showed me pictures of neighbors’ bombed houses and asked why they had been bombed.  I told her that you bombed them.  In the end, she blackmailed me to collaborate with them and gave me time to think.  The interrogation continued for half an hour.

The next day at around 08:00, they took me again for interrogation and the female soldier asked me, “did you think about working with us? I am sure my offer is way better than Gaza.” She added, “you are smart and you can play your cards right, believe me it would be way better than your Gaza.  I told her, “I do not want to work with you.  I just want to go back to Gaza.”  She then asked me about my brothers-in-law and I told her they were just farmers, but she shouted and hit my head on the table accusing me of being a liar.  She started threatening to refer me the next day to the intelligence services, where I would be tortured way worse than here.  She added, “I am only playing with you now and it would never be like this with the Intelligence services.” I told her to take me wherever she wanted and I would have nothing else to say. She then threatened to bomb my house, and I told her that there were innocent people inside.  She told me, “we would bomb them all and wipe off Gaza; we would bomb the innocents and non-innocents.” A senior interrogator in a green uniform then came in and unblindfolded me.  He had a piece of paper and started asking me about October 7^th and taking part in it.  A female soldier then came and threw the paper in my face as she did not like my answers. She said, “you are all liars.”  “just wait for tomorrow and watch what I can do to you,” she added.

I was then taken to a barrack lined with barbed wires and roofed with tinplate.  We were 5 women and stayed there for 5 days.  One of the detained women was from Jabalia and appointed by the soldiers to do all the work.  I had my period, so I asked her to bring pads and she brought me only one, so I used toilet paper instead.  We went to bathroom while our hands were tied with plastic zip ties and she helped me whenever I asked her.  Meanwhile for food, we only ate labneh and two loafs of bread that was too little food and we should finish eating in specific time otherwise they would throw it in trash.

Five days later, female soldiers came and ordered us to go to the bathroom because they would take us to a far place and we were all tied.  When they took us out of the barrack, a female soldier pushed me to the barbed door and had my hands tied with metal cuffs.  She then blindfolded me and had my foot tied to another detainee’s food.  They put us on a bus which drove us 5 hours away.  When I tried to look up while on the bus, a soldier attacked me and hit me on the head that he almost killed me, but another soldier intervened and stopped him.

We were taken to Damon Prison in Haifa.  They started pulling us and we fell on each other. We could not walk or get off the bus because we were blindfolded. My foot was tied with another detainee’s foot.  A soldier then arrived and unblindfolded us to get off the bus and I was held in a small room.

We were taken in turns for to be interrogated by a senior interrogator wearing beige pants and a grey t-shirt while there was a soldier behind a computer.  The officer started asking me questions about electing al-Senwar and about my brothers.  He also asked me if I was affiliated with any faction or posted on Facebook about October 7^th.  The interrogation continued for 5 minutes, and then 2 female soldiers took me to a small room, where she asked me to take off all me clothes.  While naked, she started stepping on my body while they were all laughing and speaking in Hebrew.  They then ordered me to wear my clothes and took me to the doctor’s room.  afterwards, I was taken to a room with 12 female detainees from Gaza.  They gave me a very light mattress and a blanket and then pushed me into a room with 5 beds. There was also a bathroom without water and with one tissue. Moreover, there was a tap with non-potable water to drink from.  Food was too little and unhealthy; they gave us labneh and bread for breakfast and very old rice or lentil for lunch while for dinner they brought a burnt egg and a piece of bread.  While sleeping, they would come and count us.  They did the inmate count 4 times a day as I had a plastic bracelet in my hand with my detention number, which I do not remember.  We were searched every other day; they took us out in the cold and searched us.  We had a break daily only for 15 minutes in a yard lined with barbed wires and surveillance cameras watching us all the time.  In the break, we were allowed to take a shower.

Four days before my release, they took me for interrogation while my hands were tied with metal cuffs.  I was interrogated for half an hour and then they took my fingerprints and toeprints in addition to inserting a stick in my throat (I think they took a saliva sample.) I asked the female detainees from the West Bank about what happened with me and they said it was part of the release procedures.  At around 13:00 on Thursday, 18 January 2024, we were taken one by one to a small room, where a female soldier ordered me to take off all my clothes and strip-searched me.  She ordered me to wear them again and walked me to another room, where they again took my fingerprints and toeprints. They then tied my hands and feet and put me on a microbus, which was a steel box with barbed wires that I could not see through as it only had small holes so we could breath.  The microbus drove us 4 hours and stopped in a detention facility, where I slept on a very light mattress with a light blanket.  We were shivering from the bitter cold and there was a woman detained with us namely Fahimah al-Khaldi screaming out of cold, but the soldiers came in and ordered her to shut up.

At around 05:00 on Friday, 19 January 2024, male and female soldiers came in and woke us, ordering us to get ready.  After half an hour, I had my hands tied in front, blindfolded and walked to a big bus, where there were male and female detainees.  The bus drove us for 3 hours and then stopped at Kerem Shalom crossing as the detainees told me.  We were forced out of the bus, unblindfolded and unhandcuffed.  They only gave me my ID and ordered us to walk.  We ran 200 meters away and took the wrong way when suddenly the soldiers shot in the air, so we came back and walked 100 meters into the other way.  We found 2 UNRWA vehicles that took us to a tent 200 meters away to the west.  There were employees from the International Committee of the Red Cross, who gave us food, water and 300 shekels.  They sent us to al-Ta’ef Preparatory School for Boys, a shelter in the Saudi neighborhood in Rafah, where I am staying now with 5 other women; some of them were detained, in the stairwell.  There is no lighting and we only eat canned food once a day.  With cash assistance and money collected from each other, we could buy a bag of flour.  There is also no bathroom so I go to men’s bathroom; the situation is catastrophic.  I finally hope this war would end soon and I return to live in peace and security in my tinplated room in my family house’s yard.