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I live with my husband,
Yehiye Naim Bani 'Odeh, in our family's house in Tammun. We got
married one month ago. The house has two floors. Yehiye and I, my
mother-in-law, and her son Jihad live on the first floor. Yehiye's
brother Bashar, his wife Hanin, and their three children live on the
second floor.
On Monday, 7 June 2004, around 4 AM, I was sleeping alone in the
bedroom. That day, my husband was sleeping at the site where he
works in Israel. My mother-in-law and Jihad, who live on the first
floor with me, were sleeping on the roof because it was so hot.
Suddenly, I woke up to the sound of gunfire, explosions, and
soldiers shouting near the house. I was very frightened and stayed
in bed.
After about fifteen minutes passed, I got out of bed and went up to
the second floor. On the way up, I met my mother-in-law, my
brother-in-law Bashar, his wife Hanin, and their children. A large
group of soldiers stood behind them. Later, they told me that
soldiers had been on the neighbor's roof, jumped over to our roof,
and ordered them to go down to the first floor. The soldiers brought
us to the front door and ordered us to go outside. Some of the
soldiers stayed inside the house and the others escorted us outside.
Outside, I saw six military jeeps and about thirty soldiers
encircling the house. Some of the soldiers pointed their guns at us,
and others ordered Bashar to join them. They went inside the house
belonging to Khdayer, my other brother-in-law, which is a few meters
away from our house. My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and I cried
the entire time. From time to time, we heard the sound of explosions
coming from our house. After a few minutes, the soldiers came out of
Khdayer's house. They had handcuffed and blindfolded Bashar. Then
they pushed him towards one of the jeeps. All of the sudden, they
removed his blindfold and handcuffs and said to him in Arabic, "You
should be ashamed of yourself. You have kids. How can you behave
like this? We won't arrest you this time, but we will be back."
Around 7:30 AM, a group of soldiers ordered us to move a couple of
meters back from our house. After about fifteen minutes, we heard a
blast. The soldiers let us go back inside, then they left. We went
inside and saw that all of our furniture and possessions were strewn
all over the floor. The windows were broken, the couches were torn,
and the plants were overturned on the floor. We were horrified and
didn't know what to do.
After about half an hour, Hanin asked me my about my jewelry and
told me to check to see if anything had been stolen. I went to my
bedroom, which was a total mess. I found my jewelry scattered
throughout the room. I had stored the jewelry in a black bag in the
top of my closet. I collected it all and saw that nothing was
missing. In addition to the jewelry, there had been 1,000 shekels in
the closet. I had wrapped it in a handkerchief and hidden it in a
blanket. I searched the whole room to find the money, but I didn't
find it. In the afternoon, I straightened up the room and checked
every corner. I also cleaned the entire house and searched
everywhere, but I did not find the money.
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