Human rights group B’Tselem have unveiled harrowing details about a Palestinian teenager who was kidnapped and tortured by a horde of extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank two months ago.
According to a report released last week on August 17th 15-year-old Tareq Zbeidi and five of his friends were enjoying a picnic near their village of Silat ad-Dhahr in the Jenin province of the northern West Bank before a large group of settlers from a nearby illegal settlement later arrived in the area aboard a car and on foot carrying stones and sticks.
“Five of the teens managed to escape to the village but Tareq Zbeidi (15) could not run fast enough as he had been injured in the leg two weeks earlier. The settlers who were driving in the car rammed into him knocking him over. According to his testimony the settlers got out of the car and began beating him with wooden sticks. They then bound Tareq’s hands and feet and tied him to the hood of the car with metal chains held by the driver and the passenger sitting next to him. They drove towards the area once occupied by the settlement of Homesh” B’Tselem said.
“The settlers drove towards me and hit me with their car and I fell to the ground. The car stopped and four settlers got out. Some were holding sticks. They attacked me and hit me in the shoulder legs and back” Zbeidi told the rights group
He added that upon arrival at the abandoned site of Homesh settlement other settlers ran towards him and embarked on physically and verbally attacking him.
“When we reached an area where the settlement’s water tanks were the settler sitting in the passenger seat let go of the metal chains and right at that moment the driver pressed the brakes and I fell hard to the ground. I saw two buses of settlers there and there were about 50 settlers of different ages men and women.”
“Some of the settlers who were there ran over to me and started kicking me. One settler approached me and pepper-sprayed me in the face. It hurt and stung and I screamed in pain. Then one of the settlers brought a piece of cloth and tied it over my eyes” he explained.
“I was terrified. They kicked my hands and at some point lifted me off the ground and hung me on a tree. My feet did not touch the ground.”
“I was left hanging like that for about five minutes with my eyes covered. I felt them cutting and rubbing the skin of my left foot with a sharp object. I was in so much pain. I could not take it. Suddenly I felt a strong burn on my right foot from a lighter or something similar. It lasted a few seconds. I screamed and cried in pain and fear. It was not until then that they took me down from the tree. Someone hit me in the head and then I blacked out.”
“When I woke up I saw that I was lying on the floor of an Israeli military jeep. At one point one of the soldiers threatened me and said that if there was stone-throwing in the area they would come to my house and arrest me.”
“Suddenly one of the soldiers gave me his cell phone and someone that I did not know spoke with me in Arabic. He asked what my name was where I lived and who my family was. He threatened me that now they knew everything about me and that if anyone threw stones at the settlers he would come to my house and arrest me.”
“I stayed in the jeep until my uncle Mraweh Abu Qias and my older brother Hisham came and took me away. I saw that we were by the entrance to the settlement and there was a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance there. They put me in the ambulance that took me to the Jenin Governmental Hospital and my uncle and brother drove there behind the ambulance.”
“I was taken to the ER where I was examined and X-rayed. They found bruises and wounds on my shoulder back and legs as well as wounds and burns on my feet. I stayed there until the next afternoon and then I was discharged.”
“I am lying at home now and my whole body still hurts. I cannot walk by myself because of the cuts and burns on my feet” the teenager elaborated further.
