Some Palestinian laborers talked about the ill-treatment and humiliation they faced from the Israeli soldiers during their journey of torment between Yafa and Kafr Qasim, and how they suffered at the hands of Israeli soldiers for about an hour and a half in a bus that was moving them from Yafa (Palestine 1948) to some areas of the Palestinian self-rule.
According to the Palestinians, the Israeli soldiers demanded them to say (about themselves), “We are rubbish, we are dogs”, and forced them to insult the Prophet Muhammad . In the end, and after an hour and a half, they threw them in a place near Kafr Qasim. 29 of the passengers were taken to the hospital of Qalqilyah for ‘receiving treatment’ as they stated.
The Palestinians added that they were exposed to persecution including physical and verbal abuse. Moreover, the Israeli soldiers struck anyone of them with the back of their revolvers if they failed to respond to their commands.
Waa’il Jameel Al-Khateeb from Bethlehem who was wounded in his head said, “They struck me several times on my head. I do not know why they did so. They also humiliated us; and in the bus, they trampled on us as if we were cockroaches and not human beings, and walked on our bodies as if they were walking on a bridge. Along the time, they were shouting to us to keep our heads down on the ground.”
It is worth mentioning that at that time, military sources revealed that two days before this incident in 2002, a group of soldiers belonging to the unit of what is known as the Israeli border guards, severely ill-treated, beat and humiliated tens of Palestinian laborers, who were moved from Yafa (Palestine 1948) to the village of Kafr Qasim, under full Palestinian control.
According to the same sources, individuals from the unit of the Border Guards ill-treated tens of Palestinians who were detained in Yafa claiming they were staying illegally in areas inside the Green Line, adding that some Israeli soldiers from the Border Guards attacked a house in which those Palestinian laborers were living.
The sources added: Once the Palestinian laborers were detained, an Israeli soldier from the Border Guards kicked a Palestinian which left many injuries. Then, the Palestinians, estimated at 60, were put into a bus with their hands tied in pairs, and their heads lowered. The Israeli army committed atrocities against them using sticks; and whoever dared to raise his head was beaten badly.
The same sources, which were talking to a Hebrew radio station, indicated that such maltreatment and strikes against the Palestinians continued all along the way from Yafa to Kafr Qasim until the Palestinian assaulted laborers were released.