On Wednesday morning, February 25, 2004, I was sleeping at home when my sister Zuheira Titi woke me up. She told me: “Get up, they are coming to demolish the house of my sister Noura.” I woke up quickly and put on my clothes. I ran to the site along with my sisters Zuheira, Azhar, and Taghreed Titi. Noura was at home. We found the Head of the Municipal Council standing near the house, still wearing his pajamas. We asked him what to do and he answered that we should do the impossible and try to stop them from demolishing the house. After that, the Head of the Council went home and changed into his clothes. Meanwhile, we stayed inside the house.

Yousef Titi, Noura’s husband, asked the mosque to call to the residents of the village for their help. They responded to the announcement and came from all directions. We saw also that people were coming from the neighboring villages of Der al-Assad and Majd al-Kroum, but many could not enter the village because the police forces had closed all access roads and banned any person from entering or leaving the village. We asked the people who were at the site to stay in the area and block the road leading to the houses threatened with demolition to stop the operation.

A helicopter was hovering overhead. The police forces were stationed at the entrance to the village. At that moment, I was standing on the roof of Yousef and Noura’s [Titi] house, and I could see the troops entering the village and advancing towards us. They were firing teargas bombs. The police forces also removed cars close to where the houses were located, causing severe damage to them.

They continued advancing towards the house until they reached the site. At that moment, I was inside the house with my sisters and my cousin Jirnas Titi (the sister of Yousef) and another girl called Tammam Titi (wife of Arafat Titi, the brother of Yousef). Zuheira went to the porch to see where the police were. The police threw a percussion grenade at our house to scare us into leaving but we stayed put.

The police burst into the building. Instead of asking us to leave they started beating us right away. The police hit us with batons and rifle butts. I heard one of the police officers call me a prostitute. I tried to run from the house, but I felt a strong blow with a baton on my back. I felt treated like a slave.

Finally, I managed to get out of the house. I saw that they were still firing teargas bombs and that they were spraying people gathering at the site with yellow liquid. They even sprayed the liquid at the council building and threw teargas bombs inside it. The Head of the Council asked them to stop their actions, but they continued. A person called Mohammed Dhabbah from Der al-Assad was beaten. I was informed that he suffered fractures to his skull. Another person called Ahmad Qasem was also beaten cruelly.

After they had beat us and expelled us from our house, I headed towards the village center. I did not see the demolition operation; I only saw them take out Noura and Yousef’s belongings, such as the refrigerator and the furniture in the salon, before they demolished the house. When I heard that our house was demolished, I broke down.

After the demolition, the police forces stayed in the village for another two and a half hours. When we heard that they had withdrawn from the village, we went back to the site and saw the damage. They had also uprooted olive trees which had been planted in the time of the British Mandate.

At that moment, I started collecting the remains of the bombs scattered around our house to show the world that we are telling the truth. After that, my cousin took me to Nahariyya Hospital because I had pains in my legs and hands because of the beatings with the clubs.

25/2/2004