IDF soldiers raided the home of 43-year-old Hussein Hardan last Friday, and after he attempted to escape, shot him to death. Later, suspicious marks were found on his body. An eyewitness claims the soldiers strangled him
Gideon Levy for Haaretz
A dead pigeon lies at the spot where Hussein Jamil Hardan died last Friday night – right at the entrance to the Atlantic car rental agency in the West Bank city of Jenin. The red ‘For Rent’ sign hanging on the adjacent shop had been torn down. The rope that held it up is identical to the one shown to us by an eyewitness, who claims that Israel Defense Forces soldiers used it strangle their victim to death.
What exactly happened there in the early hours of that day? We may never know for certain. But there are a few disturbing and undeniable facts: Hardan, a local baker, was shot in the lower back as he tried to flee from soldiers who had raided his home. The troops then encircled the house, with their jeeps surrounding them, for about half an hour before moving out.
Afterward, the eyewitness says he noticed dark marks on Hardan’s neck and discovered the piece of rope lying on the sidewalk after the soldiers had left the scene with the body. The man is convinced the troops strangled Hardan: He says he heard him cry out in pain before suddenly falling silent.
Jenin has become a battered and broken city in recent months. Its refugee camp is destroyed, deserted and sealed off. Most of the city’s main roads have been at least partially demolished by the IDF, which also systematically demolished all the memorials that stood inside the traffic circles. Traffic moves sluggishly. Is this our total victory – or what?
This past Monday when we visited, Jenin’s streets were empty due to the general strike declared across the West Bank in solidarity with the victims of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Hardan lived with his disabled mother, his wife and their children in the Sabah al-Khair (‘Good Morning’) neighborhood in the city’s north. He was 43 years old at his death. A father of five, he came from a long line of bakers who ran the oldest bakery in the Old City of Jenin.
When we arrive, his children – 14-year-old Hamza, 12-year-old Aseel, 11-year-old Sadeel, 7-year-old Malek and 4-year-old Taha – run through the house, not yet grasping that their father is gone. His widow, 32-year-old Fadiya, remains secluded in her room. According to tradition, she is forbidden from being in the company of men for four months and 10 days following her husband’s death.
Hardan’s mother, 70-year-old Subhiya, relies on a walker to get around. As her bed is positioned next to the front door of the Hardans’ house, the soldiers first encountered her when they stormed the house. Hussein was shot just a few dozen meters away.
On the living room table sit dates wrapped in aluminum foil, date-filled cookies covered in cloth and a made-in-China digital beads counter – a modern substitute for traditional Muslim prayer beads. The three formal days of mourning and condolence calls at the house had ended the day before we arrived.
Hardan’s brother, 44-year-old Mohammed, was his partner at the bakery, where they worked side by side seven days a week. In their youth, while their father still ran the family business, the brothers had spent eight years working at Shawarma Hazan in Haifa.
Last Thursday, the two finished their 12-hour work day at 4 P.M. and returned to their respective homes, located next to each other. At around 1 A.M., Subhiya says, she was abruptly awakened by soldiers who were trying to break down the door with an iron rod. She screamed at them to stop, but it was too late. The troops – who said nothing about why they were perpetrating such a violent nighttime intrusion – forced their way inside and ordered everyone in the house to come out.
Fadiya tried to explain to the soldiers that there were young children sleeping in the house, but they insisted that everyone get out of bed and come out into the street immediately. Meanwhile, Hardan fled with his eldest son, Hamza, through the back door. Video footage taken by a neighbor shows him walking and then breaking into a run.
Jamal Zubeidi – one of the most respected figures in Jenin’s refugee camp, who is currently sheltering at his sister’s house in the nearby village of Burkin – says that these days every resident of the city fears arrest, which is why some attempt to flee when the army arrives, even if they are sure they are not wanted individuals. ‘When the soldiers arrive at my house, I, too, at the age of 69, simply fled,’ Zubeidi says.
Abd al-Karim Sa’adi, a field researcher with the B’Tselem Israeli human rights organization, who first investigated the incident and accompanied us to Jenin, agrees that pervasive fear is plaguing the city.
Hamza ran to a neighbor’s house while his father continued to flee. The soldiers shot Hussein from behind, striking him in the lower back; he collapsed on the sidewalk outside the car rental agency, not far from his house. Three IDF vehicles – a Namer armored personnel carrier and two jeeps – formed a circle around him as he lay there, apparently mortally wounded.
A video taken during those moments shows only a beam of light – the street was completely dark – and a few soldiers standing around the baker. Around 2 A.M., they left with Hardan’s body and drove toward the Jalameh checkpoint north of Jenin. For the next two hours, the family had no idea whether he was dead or alive. All they knew was that their loved one had been taken by the army.
At 4 A.M., staff at the Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration contacted their Palestinian counterparts, instructing them to retrieve Hardan’s body from Jalameh. An ambulance from the Palestinian Red Crescent transported it to the government hospital in Jenin, located at the entrance to the refugee camp. Hamza’s uncle, Mohammed, told the youth, ‘Let’s go to the hospital.’
For his part, Hamza tells us that already – deep down – he knew his father was dead.
When they arrived at the hospital and saw the body, the two noticed blue marks around Hardan’s neck. At the mourners’ house, at our request, a neighbor, W. – the eyewitness, who is afraid to reveal his name – arrives holding the piece of rope he had found. He places it on the table; no one dares to touch it, as if it were a cursed object.
‘W’ recounts that his entire family was asleep early last Friday when they too were suddenly awakened by the noise of soldiers outside. He then watched as events unfolded from his window. He recalls seeing Hardan running toward the Haruba neighborhood, on the other side of the main road. After a while, probably assuming the troops had left by then, Hardan was seen heading back home. The soldiers, who had been lying in wait, fired several shots at him. W. saw Hardan collapse.
The neighbor says he then saw the soldiers gather around Hardan’s body. He heard cries of pain, followed by a single, choked scream, and then – silence. Hearing these recollections again, Hardan’s grieving mother rests her head on her walker and wails in sorrow.
The IDF Spokesman’s Office provided this response to a Haaretz query:
‘During an operation to thwart a terror incident in Jenin on April 4, IDF forces acted to arrest a terrorist incriminated for acts of terror. During the arrest the terrorist attempted to escape and the troops acted according to protocol, which involved the use of fire, as a result of which the terrorist was killed. The claim that troops strangled the terrorist lacks any basis whatsoever and is totally fabricated.’
According to ‘W’, it took about half an hour before the soldiers left with Hardan’s body. At that point, he decided to go out to the street to try to make sense of what had happened. He says he saw a few small bloodstains on the sidewalk and the rope lying on the ground, which he took with him.
On Monday, we saw what looked like the other half of the rope – attached to the sign that had been torn down. It was the exact same kind of rope, which makes W. quite certain that it was used to strangle his neighbor.