On the morning of 22 January 2007, I was in my house in Sour Baher, which is located to the south-east of Jerusalem city. At approximately 7:30 am, I received a call on my mobile phone from my brother Farid Sami 'Awadallah. He told me that there was a large number of Israeli military vehicles, the exact number of which he was uncertain, positioned at the main western entrance to Sour Baher, which connects to the Israeli neighbourhood of Talpiot. In turn, I called the house of my father-in-law, Mahmoud al-A'mas, which is also located in Sour Baher, 500 metres away from my home. I talked to Mahmoud al-A'mas' wife, Hilwa al-A'mas, and asked her whether she could see any Israeli vehicles positioned near their house. I asked this question because I knew that Mahmoud al-A'mas had built a four-storey residential building four years ago and that the Jerusalem Municipality intended to demolish the building. I had full knowledge of this as I had seen the demolition order issued by the Jerusalem Municipality approximately a month before the intended date of demolition, 22 January 2007.

I left my home by car and headed towards my workplace. As I reached the main entrance to Sour Baher, I looked towards the eastern side of Sour Baher where Mahmoud al-A'mas' building was located, and I saw some Israeli military vehicles. The distance from where I was to where the vehicles were stationed was approximately 500 metres, and I could see them clearly. I decided to go to Mahmoud al-A'mas' building immediately. I was driving my car, which I use to transport furniture. As I reached the building, I saw about 100 Israeli soldiers and police. The special squad soldiers were wearing grey uniforms, and were carrying what looked to me like small automatic guns, as well as batons. There were others wearing the police uniform and also carrying batons and small guns.

As I reached the entrance of the yard leading to Mahmoud al-A'mas' building, more than ten soldiers aimed their weapons at me while I was in my car. One of them shouted at me in Hebrew to stop. I immediately stopped the car and the soldiers surrounded it, shouting, "Stop" and, "Don't talk." One of the soldiers opened the door of the car on the driver’s side and started to pull me out. Another three soldiers came forward and started pulling me by my shoulder and hand. All of a sudden, another soldier opened the passenger door and pushed me out onto the ground. Approximately ten soldiers then proceeded to beat me all over my body with their fists, gun butts and the batons which they were carrying. The beating continued for several minutes. The soldiers then handcuffed me with plastic cuffs and forcefully pushed me inside a nearby Israeli military jeep. Inside the jeep there were soldiers dressed in the green uniform of the border police. My father-in-law, Mahmoud al-A'mas, was also in the jeep with his hands cuffed.
The jeep quickly departed. Two soldiers inside the jeep were constantly shouting at us, ordering us in Hebrew to stop talking whenever we asked them to untie our hands as the plastic cuffs were causing us severe pain. The military jeep drove for approximately ten minutes until it reached an Israeli police station located in the Talpiot area, near to Sour Baher. At the police station, Mahmoud al-A'mas and I were put into an outdoor yard, with our hands still cuffed. The soldiers and the policemen shouted at us whenever we asked them to untie our hands or asked them why we had been brought to the police station. I spoke to them in Hebrew, which I can speak, but they ignored me and did not untie our hands. We asked them for water and food. They only offered us a bottle of water after we had been there for several hours. They did not interrogate us during the ten hours that we were kept at the police station.

At approximately 8:30 pm on 22 January 2007, an Israeli police officer came to us and told us that we were free to go home. He did not give us any reason as to why we had been kept for such a long time. We left the police station in the car of Muhammad al-A'mas, Mahmoud al-A'mas' son, who had been waiting outside. When we reached the yard of Mahmoud al-A'mas' house, we saw that the front of the building had been demolished, and that the rest of the building had been damaged or partially destroyed. I learned from the al-A'mas family that the Jerusalem Municipality had demolished the building with bulldozers that morning.
At approximately 7:30 am on 23 January 2007, I received a phone call from my brother Farid Sami 'Awadallah who told me that he could see Israeli military vehicles at the main entrance to Sour Baher, positioned at the same place where they had been positioned the previous day. I immediately realised that they were coming to complete the demolition of Mahmoud al-A'mas' building, which had been partially demolished the day before.

Again, I drove my car toward Mahmoud al-A'mas' building and parked in the middle of the road so that other cars would be prevented from entering the yard of Mahmoud's building. After approximately half an hour, a large number of Israeli military vehicles came to the entrance of the building’s yard. At that time, a number of young men and I were inside the partially demolished building, attempting to take out the furniture, especially from the kitchens of the residential apartments.
When I saw the military vehicles and the soldiers, I went down towards the main entrance of the building’s yard where the vehicles were positioned. An armed Israeli police officer, wearing a blue uniform, came towards me and began to speak to me in Hebrew. He said that they wanted to complete the demolition of the building and that we had to move the car, which was blocking the road to the building. I told him in Hebrew, which I speak, to allow us some time to remove the furniture. The officer told me that we had only half an hour to do so. Approximately half an hour after I moved my car from the place where I had parked it, I saw two yellow bulldozers coming toward the building’s yard.

The two bulldozers were very large. On one of them "Caterpillar" was written in English, which I can also read, as well as the name of the Israeli contractor. On the other bulldozer, the word "Volvo" was written, also in English. It was the first time I had seen such bulldozers. After the bulldozers had entered the yard of the building, more than 100 Israeli soldiers and policemen entered, all carrying what looked to me like small automatic guns. They were the same policemen and soldiers who had come the previous day (22 January 2007). There were approximately 50 of the neighbours standing in front of the building, including approximately 20 children. The soldiers started pushing the people towards a neighbouring house. They forced the women and children inside this house, and closed the main door which two soldiers proceeded to guard.

I stayed in the building's yard and watched the bulldozers demolish the residential building. The demolition operation continued for approximately seven hours. There
were engineers from the Jerusalem Municipality who directed the drivers of the bulldozers. During the demolition, considerable damage was inflicted on a water well located beside the building, as well as to the yard and the road that leads to other adjacent houses.