On the night between 13 and 14 April 2016, military, police and Border Police forces came to a money-changing store in the center of al-Birah, a Palestinian town near Ramallah, as part of an investigation into suspicions that the owner was laundering money for Hamas. The forces confiscated computers, money and documents and attempted to break into the store’s safes with explosives. This resulted in a fire in the store. B’Tselem’s investigation and testimonies given to our field-researcher Iyad Hadad indicate that the officers had brought the elderly store owner with them, but that he had warned them that he did not know how to open the safes and had asked to bring his son to do so. The officers refused his request, tried to break into the safes themselves, and eventually resorted to using explosives.
Our investigation also found that after setting fire to the store, the forces left without trying to put it out. On their way out of the area, they detained a Palestinian firetruck that had been called in. The fire spread from the money-changer’s store to five other stores on the first floor of the building and to the top floors, which serve as a warehouse for the nearby vegetable market. The stores and warehouses were heavily damaged.
In a testimony he gave to B’Tselem on 18 April, money-changer Ghazi Qassem ‘Issa (al-‘Ajuli), 63, said that he had been summoned for questioning at the Binyamin police station on Wednesday, 13 April. He arrived at the station at around 3:00 P.M. with his son Muayad, 34. After several minutes, officers took him alone to the Ma’ale Adumim police station, where they stated he was to be interrogated for suspected involvement in a car accident. ‘Issa said that in the interrogation, the officers confronted him with accusations of money laundering and funding for Hamas, and the car accident story turned out to have been a ploy.
Ghazi 'Issa recounted:
When we got there, at 4:30 P.M., they took me into an interrogation room with seven or eight interrogators in civilian clothing. One of them said to me: We suspect that you’re involved in money laundering and in funding Hamas-related activity. They said they wanted to go to the store to take documents and money. I answered all their questions and denied any involvement in the actions they had mentioned. I asked an interrogator to note that I’d cooperated with the interrogation and had answered all their questions.
The interrogation lasted until 2:30 A.M. Then they told me to come with them to the store. I asked one of the officers to let my son Muayad come with us, to help me open the store and the safes, but the officer refused. I told him I’d never opened the safes by myself and that I didn’t know, but the officer was very firm in his refusal. When we got to the settlement of Psagot, at least 15 security force vehicles were waiting for us. They rode with us to the area where al-Birah meets Ramallah, which is where our store is, on the same street as the market.
They went into my office and confiscated four computers, accounting reports, checks, IOUs, and lots of other things. They may have taken some money too. It’s hard to know, because everything they didn’t take was lost in the fire. Then they went into the room that has two large safes. They asked me to open them and I explained again that I didn’t know how to. One of the officers said that if I didn’t open the safes, they’d use force. I said: Do whatever you want.
They brought in an oxygen tank, sawing tools and a drill, and tried to break into the safes that way. After about 45 minutes of trying, they took me outside. Everyone left the store except for four to six soldiers. Ten minutes later, while we were standing on the street, they told me and the soldiers to cover our ears with our hands and counted down from four to zero. There was a very strong explosion that shook the area. About 15 minutes later, there was another one, and 15 minutes after that, a third explosion, even more forceful. I was standing about ten meters away from the store and was thrown back from the shock wave.
I looked around and saw that the store doors had come off. Even the door to my brother’s store, which is next to ours, came off. There was a commotion. One of the officer told everyone to evacuate and they all got in the vehicles and left. It turned out that a fire had broken out in the safe room. The fire spread very quickly but hadn’t reached other stores at that point. They stayed there for another 10 or 15 minutes and then left. I had to leave with them because the interrogation wasn’t finished.
When they released me the next day, after the interrogation was over, I went back to the store and found immense damage. The fire had spread to neighboring stores and even to the vegetable market warehouses on the second floor. There’s no final estimate yet of the damage caused to all the stores, but my estimate is that it will reach millions of shekels.
B’Tselem research indicates that not only did the forces make no attempt to put out the fire they had started, they even forced the Palestinian firetruck that was called to the scene to take a detour that delayed its arrival. Further along the detour, the fire truck stumbled upon clashes between security forces and Palestinians, resulting in further delays.
In his testimony to B’Tselem, firetruck driver Amin ‘Ayash, 36, said:
At 4:00 A.M., we got an order to respond to a fire at the al-‘Ajuli money-change store. We were sent by mistake to al-Hadadin Street, the next street over. Normally it would take two minutes to get there at that time of night, because it’s less than a kilometer away. On the way, when we reached Shawarfah Junction, we came across Israeli vehicles. I think there were more than ten of them. I was blinded by their lights and couldn’t tell if they were military or police cars. They were standing close to the burning store and looked like they were getting ready to leave.
When we were about 40-50 meters away from them, they ordered us through their loudspeaker system to stop and take a different route. When we left the fire station, we assumed our response was coordinated with the Israeli side. That’s a condition for our work here even though this is defined Area A, which is officially under Palestinian control.
I did as they ordered and switched routes. That forced me to take a long detour, so it took us about 15 minutes to get to al-Hadadin Street. When we got there, it turned out that the fire wasn’t even there but on the next street, where the vegetable market is, no more than a 100 meters away. We tried to drive to the right address but came across a minibus and someone fired a shot at us from inside it. Then they threw stun grenades from inside. We realized it was an Israeli special-forces car and saw that there was a confrontation going on between demonstrators and the forces in the minibus, as well as with the military forces that were getting ready to leave the downtown area. We were afraid to drive on for about 15-20 minutes and had to wait, about 40-50 meters away from the fire, until the forces were completely gone. We got to the location of the fire only at 4:40 A.M., about 40 minutes after we got the call and left the station.
By the time we got there, the store that belongs to the al-‘Ajuli family had burnt down completely. The fire had spread to other stores on that floor and to the top floor too, which is a warehouse for the vegetable market. The fire was starting to spread toward market stalls and another building. It was a frightening sight. I asked to send all of the Ramallah District firefighters there. About ten firetrucks and at least 30 firemen, technicians and auxiliaries arrived in less than ten minutes. It took us two and a half hours to put out the flames completely – that is, until 7:30 A.M.
This incident illustrates just how easily security forces can damage Palestinian property and disrupt life in Palestinian communities with their unbridled callousness. In this case, disregard for Palestinians resulted in dozens of families losing their livelihoods as their places of business went up in flames. The incident also illustrates how the official division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C is utterly meaningless, as Israel makes cynical use of it – upholding the division when it helps Israel take over land in Area C but trampling it under foot when Israel wishes to operate in areas that are officially under full Palestinian control. This conduct proves that Israel uses the arbitrary division of areas to hide the reality on the ground, which is that the occupation continues everywhere in the West Bank.