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Gaza -

 Despite escaping arrest through a checkpoint set up by the Israeli occupation army west of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, Hussein Shaheen remained near the place for 5 days, spending the night in the open amidst the extreme cold, hoping that the soldiers would release his brother, who was detained through the gate that was being forced. All displaced people have to pass through it.

After learning that the detainees would be released through the Kerem Shalom crossing, he lost hope and decided to walk towards the city of Rafah, which is the only remaining refuge for displaced people fleeing the crimes of the Israeli occupation.

Out of pity for a family consisting of a father and three of his young daughters, who had also been spending the night outdoors for two days, Shaheen invited the father to leave with him because there was no point in staying.

But the father, who was waiting for his son to be released, told Shaheen that he knew that staying was useless, but he needed someone to convince his three daughters to do so. “He is their only brother,” he added after pointing to them.

Majid Qudaih: The day I crossed the Khan Yunis checkpoint was a terrifying day, as if it were one of the horrors of the Day of Resurrection (Al Jazeera)

Painful scenes

According to Shaheen, who spoke to Al Jazeera Net, the painful scenes he witnessed while he was near the checkpoint were too many to count, as the occupation forces separated families by arresting some of their members, leaving them in a state of “uncertainty” about their fate.

At the end of last month, the occupation forces forced residents of western Khan Yunis Governorate to flee to the city of Rafah and pass through gates they had set up, during which their identities were checked and many of them were arrested.

Eyewitnesses who passed through the checkpoint told Al Jazeera Net that army soldiers ordered young men to walk in rows of 5 people, holding up their ID cards, and forced some of them, via a loudspeaker, to step aside in preparation for interrogation or arrest, while women and children were ordered to walk in separate rows without being examined.

The army forces the person who decides to arrest him to remove all his clothes, including his underwear, handcuffs him, blindfolds him, and brutally beats him.

Returning to his experience of crossing through the checkpoint, Shaheen says that he was displaced at the end of last month after the occupation army threatened residents residing in the western city of Khan Yunis.

He added, "The situation is very difficult and miserable. We remained standing for 4 hours between the tanks and the rain falling on us, and the people were in a miserable situation." He describes the joy of crossing the checkpoint without being arrested by saying, "My feeling was like seeing the light after complete darkness."

Shaheen explains that the arrests are carried out arbitrarily, and without any justification, as evidenced by the release of his brother after about a week of detention and being subjected to severe torture. He added, "If he had anything to do with the resistance, they would not have released him. So why was he arrested in the first place? There is no reason."

Fabricated scenes

The young man, Bassam Falyouna, reveals that the occupation army was filming fabricated scenes showing it distributing water or food to create the illusion that it was treating those passing through the checkpoint well. Falyouna, who was displaced last week through the checkpoint, adds, “After filming ended, they abused people.”

Regarding his testimony about what he saw through the checkpoint, Falyouna explained to Al Jazeera Net that the soldiers forced them to walk for 3 hours between the tanks, and they deliberately insulted them by insulting and mistreating them.

He added, "It was harsh scenes, especially when they arrested a young man in front of his mother, and she started screaming and crying... They arrested many young men and even arrested children for reasons we do not know." He continues, "You cannot imagine the amount of terror in the children's eyes."

He points out that many people were throwing away their bags full of food and important items, because they were unable to carry them during the long road they were forced to take.

The scenes that Bassam Fliyouna saw after passing through the checkpoint were no less bad than those he witnessed during it. After crossing the checkpoint, he was surprised by women and children crying and asking passers-by about their relatives who had been detained.

The same witness added, "A woman asked me if I had seen her husband who was wearing such-and-such, and I told her that he had been arrested. The woman collapsed in tears and remained in the street crying and waiting in the hope that they would allow him to cross."

Bassam Falyouna: The occupation was filming fabricated scenes showing that it treated passersby well, and after filming it tortured them (Al Jazeera)

Terrifying day

Majid Qudaih described to Al Jazeera Net the experience of crossing the checkpoint as, "It was a terrifying day. We were children, women, young people, and the elderly. The rain was very heavy and the situation was very difficult."

He pointed out that the occupation forces forced some of the displaced people to throw away their belongings and mattresses and enter through the gates “with nothing.”

Abdul Karim Fayyad's experience seems different from his predecessors, as he was detained at the checkpoint for several hours before being released. While he was at the checkpoint, Fayyad saw how the occupation soldiers treated the young men they arrested.

He added to Al Jazeera Net, recounting the incident of the arrest of a young man, "The soldiers called a young man, forced him to remove all of his clothes, even his underwear, then tied him up and covered his eyes." He continued, "Then an officer attacked him and beat him violently, especially in his flanks and genital area."

He stated that he witnessed the army arrest about 25 young men during the short period he spent at the checkpoint. Regarding how he was detained, Fayyad stated that he was walking through the checkpoint, after waiting for about 4 hours, when one of the soldiers called on him to go towards them while he ordered his wife and children to continue on their way without stopping.

After another wait and checking his identity, the soldiers decided to release him. After his release, he joined his family, who were waiting for him near the checkpoint in a state of great anxiety.

Rami Abdo, head of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, estimates the number of those arrested by the occupation army through the gates west of Khan Yunis at about 400 people.

Abdo told Al Jazeera Net that his observatory documented the severe suffering of thousands of residents during their forced displacement from Khan Yunis, amid rainy and cold weather, torture measures, and without the availability of any safe shelter that meets the minimum humanitarian needs.

Source: Al Jazeera