Yousif ‘Atiyah Yousif al-Khodari (52), from al-Shija’iyah neighborhood in Gaza City, gave his testimony to PCHR on 09 February 2024.
On 07 October 2023, I was working in the Negev when I suddenly heard sirens and explosions of unclear origin everywhere. I turned on the news to see that rockets were fired from Gaza, so I immediately left work and went to my lodging to hide. We were 6 persons and stayed like that for 4 days.
On Wednesday, 11 October 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) cancelled my work permit so I decided along with 6 others to surrender to the Israeli police so that we would not be violating the law. At the police station, we were searched, handcuffed and blindfolded for 3 days after taking all our belongings (cell phone, ID card and money). I had 3500 shekels but they confiscated them. We were held for 3 days along with 25 other workers and were given 2 meals a day that were too little for one person. We were only allowed to drink when we asked for some. All that time at the police station, we had not been subjected to interrogation.
We slept on the floor in a small room without a blanket while turning on the AC on the cool mode amid the cold weather. They severely beat us whenever they wanted. After 3 days, an IOF’s bus arrived and drove us handcuffed out of the police station while beating and torturing us all the way. We did not know first where we were heading but then learnt to ‘Ofar Prison. It was 12:00 when we arrived, they dropped us in a big yard lined with barbed wires and used for IOF training. We were then unblindfolded and unhandcuffed. We were given 3 meals a day; they only brought us a small loaf of bread and little jam not enough for a person, while the water was contaminated and non-potable. They were provokingly eating and drinking in front of us and brought us 4 cigarettes a day.
We stayed there for 15 days, but we were not interrogated; only detainees above 40 years old were taken for interrogation. We were referred to another place in the prison and after 5 days, I was taken to the interrogation room while I was handcuffed and blindfolded. They asked for my name and my neighbors’ names and then threatened to subject me to cruel and deadly torture. They left for 5 minutes and came back to ask me the same questions. I told them I had no relation to any faction or Hamas. The interrogator then asked me if I knew the locations of tunnels and I told them that I had been a construction worker in Israel for 2 years and I knew nothing. He left me alone after having been handcuffed and blindfolded. I was thrown on a gravel floor and forced to kneel for a long time. Five days after forcing me in that position, I was suddenly pulled into a bus not knowing where It would take me. The bus drove far away and I along with other detainees were unblindfolded and unhandcuffed. We were dropped at Kerem Shalom crossing, and the Israeli officer ordered us to run and not look back; otherwise, he would shoot us. We ran around 5 kilometers until we Reached Rafah City. We stopped to find a cab and I tried to call my wife and kids, whom I knew nothing about. I went to Deir al-Balah and learnt that my wife and kids were still in Gaza City and evacuated to al-Sahabah area after a house near ours was bombed. However, when they arrived at a relative’s house there, the Israeli warplanes bombed them, killing my wife, Leila Subeih, my sons, Ibrahim and Hamzah al-Khodari, and my son, ‘Atiyah al-Khodari with his 8-month pregnant wife, Alaa’ al-Ghefari, and his daughter Batul al-Khodari. Meanwhile, my granddaughter, ‘Atiyah’s daughter, sustained burns in her face and Only 3 of my sons survived, Mohammed, Khaled and Mahmoud. Also, Mohammed’s wife sustained a fracture in her legs and underwent a fracture fixation surgery to implant titanium plates. Moreover, my father, ‘Atiyah al-Khodari, was injured in the head and there were many others killed from al-Ghefari family in the same house. Meanwhile, my daughters survived.
I am now at ‘Abdel Karim al-‘Aklouk School and have been here for 80 days fully hopeful I would reunite with my alive children in Gaza and that the world would end. I wish I can go back to repair my damaged house and live with the rest surviving members of my family.
