JENIN, Nidal Arda, a 46-year-old Palestinian physician from the town of Arraba, near the city of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, said Israeli soldiers gave him sedatives after a soldier pushed him following his detention and he fell to the ground and broke his arm.

According to Arda, he was driving home at dawn on September 8 after performing the dawn prayers at the town’s mosque when Israeli army jeeps surprised him when he arrived at his house.

“They were waiting at my house and apparently wanted to ambush me. The jeeps turned on their lights in my direction and then ordered me to come out of the car,” he told WAFA today.

The soldiers, whom he said were between 30 to 40 in number with dogs, had broken into his house and searched it thoroughly before his arrival there.

“They (the soldiers) destroyed my house,” he explained. “They broke the doors and windows and ransacked the entire house. They terrorized my family and children, who were separated from their mother and put in another room.”

The soldiers then interrogated him at the location about the Palestinians who broke out of an Israeli jail two days before and who included two members of the Arda clan.

“They threatened me with my son and said they would not allow him to travel to finish his higher education abroad if I do not cooperate with them,” he said.

Half an hour later, they put him and other members of the same family they had also detained in a jeep and took them away.

“We were blindfolded and handcuffed,” he said.

When they arrived at an army base, they were taken out of the vehicle.

“One soldier pushed me and I fell to the ground. My right arm hit something and I felt great pain. I knew it was broken since I am a doctor,” he added.

The soldiers then removed his handcuffs and gave him sedatives to kill the pain and that was all, he said.

The soldiers then took them into the detention center but because of the pain he had in his arm, he was taken to hospital where it became clear he had a broken bone. A cast was put on his arm and then he was taken back to the same military camp before being transferred to another one where he was detained and interrogated about the prisoners who escaped if they had been in touch with them or had helped them. A week later, a military court ordered his release.

After his return home, he continued to treat his arm, which doctors told him will take some time before it heals.

The two Arda men who escaped from prison were caught by the Israeli army before his release.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency