Jenin

- next to her father and her brave brother, the girl Hanadi Jaradat sits searching in her mobile phone, looking for a picture of her captive mother, Ataf and her two captive brothers, Omar and Ghaith. And my brothers, I miss you."

Less than a month ago, Israel arrested Omar, 20, and Ghaith, 17, Jaradat, then their mother, Ataf, 49, and her brother, Sheikh Muhammad Jaradat, and 6 other of their relatives, in connection with the killing of an Israeli settler near the settlement of Homesh (northwest of Nablus), to form The arrest is an episode in the series "Collective Punishment" experienced by the whole family.

the nightly raid on the Jaradat family’s homes, detaining all its members and interrogating them amid systematic abuse;

The most prominent forms of collective punishment were the occupation, after which the summonses of its members, young and old, women and men, to the Israeli military investigation centers, were preceded by notices of house demolitions and the drawing of signs for that.

In the details, Ahmed Jaradat (Abu Muntaser) tells Al Jazeera Net that the occupation practiced terrorism during the arrest of his wife Ataf and before her his two sons Omar and Ghaith, as the house was surrounded by special forces before storming it with more than 100 soldiers armed with weapons and police dogs, and then they threw sound bombs inside it before they tampered with its contents and destroyed it. his furniture.

The captive Etaf Jaradat and her captive son Ghaith (Al-Jazeera)

target wholesale

The intrusion lasted - according to Father Jaradat - for several hours, during which children and adults were intimidated and detained outside the house in the open and in extreme cold. They did not allow them to warm themselves or relieve themselves, "but they interrogated his two sons, Omar and Ghaith, for 3 hours in the field."

Then the soldiers took them, handcuffed and blindfolded, in a state of terror and violence, accusing them of murder.

The violence of the occupation soldiers did not decrease in their subsequent storming of the house, especially when his wife, Ataf, was arrested a week after the arrest of his sons.

So far, the occupation has arrested 8 members of the Jaradat family in connection with the settler’s killing, most notably the brother of Ataf Sheikh Muhammad Jaradat (70 years), who spent the previous 10 years in Israeli prisons. accusations against themselves and others.

Above the arrest, the Jaradat family faces notifications of the demolition of 6 homes of its own, including 3 homes of the family of the captive Ataf, who refuses to evict them. There is no other place to go to in the event of demolition, “except to live on the rubble or in the basement of the mosque next to it,” says Abu Montaser.

The house of Sheikh Muhammad Jaradat, brother of the captive Ataf, is notified of demolition among 6 houses (Al-Jazeera)

Arrest and intimidation

The life of the captive’s family, Ataf, was turned upside down after her arrest and her children as a result of the intimidating night raids, as described by her 14-year-old daughter Hanadi, because of which she sleeps with her sister and children in one room, and stays awake all night, and puts extra clothes next to her to wear when the raid.

In addition to the violence practiced by the occupation soldiers against her mother at the moment of her arrest from interrogation and beatings, she also lived in terror, as the occupation soldiers prevented her from going to the toilet alone and stipulated that she be accompanied, but she refused and endured.

They also refused to bring her medicine to her mother, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, and yet she was able to bid her farewell and take her advice and say, "You are my companion and my little spoiler, take care of the family."

The occupation authorities increased the punishment of the family by refusing to disclose any information about the captive Etaf, who is in Damoun Prison, and not allowing her lawyer to visit her, as well as with her two sons Omar and Ghaith, who are detained in Al-Jalama Prison (Northern West Bank).

Ahmed Jaradat, the husband of the captive Ataf and the father of the two captives, Omar and Ghaith, points to the signs drawn by the soldiers to demolish the house (Al-Jazeera)

Revenge, intimidation and blackmail

Since its occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel has recorded about one million arrests among Palestinians, according to what human rights institutions concerned with prisoners' affairs say, which reflects the extent of collective punishment that Israel has taken as a policy and approach.

Forms of collective punishment go beyond arresting family members or interrogating them and detaining them in harsh conditions, to barbaric intrusion that includes shooting and destroying home furniture. Rather, punishment reaches the neighbors of the targeted person and the entire neighborhood and some of its residents are taken as “human shields.”

Jurists at the Addameer Foundation for Prisoner Care and Human Rights spoke to Al Jazeera Net that the occupation wants to intimidate and intimidate the prisoner to break his thorn and extract his confessions, by threatening to demolish his house or arrest his relatives and blackmail him by putting pressure on them, "and even threatening him to commit heinous acts against them to achieve his goals."

Although human rights organizations documented what happens with the detainee during the interrogation, especially the physical and psychological torture “legalised by Israel alone among the countries of the world,” such as isolation and “spies” (spies inside prison) that Israel practices against him; Military courts refuse to accept the interrogation mechanism and issue an indictment based on his confession, "and this aims to avenge the prisoner and his family," as jurists say.

According to jurists, and as a close example of collective punishment, Israel put the families of the "Freedom Tunnel" prisoners under the microscope, from the moment they escaped from Gilboa prison in early September until it arrested them all again, and this included daily and intimidating raids and raids on their homes.

And before that, she used this method with the family of the martyr Ashraf Na’alowa from Tulkarm, where five of his family were arrested for a sin that none of them committed.

Day after day, Hanadi and her brave brother Jaradat, who were named after the names of martyrs from the family who died in battles against the occupation, feel the absence of their mother and take responsibility early.