The army claims that the soldiers had intelligence that a weapon belonging to a wanted man was stored in the car, and only broke into it after the father refused to give them the keys. The father, however, says the soldiers did not contact him beforehand, and hit him after he tried to stop them from damaging the car which is used to transport his disabled daughter
Two Israeli soldiers vandalized a car used by a Palestinian couple to transport their disabled daughter in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar on Wednesday.
The woman’s father, Mohammed Sabarna, said that after having tried to talk to the soldiers, they beat him with their weapon and shouted at him, telling him to get into his house – where he lives with his wife and daughter.
In response to an inquiry by Haaretz, the military spokesperson said that the soldiers were in the area to arrest a wanted person, and broke into the car because they had intelligence indicating that the man stored a weapon inside it. After they asked the father for the car keys and he refused, they broke into the car by force but did not find the weapon.
The Sabarna family to whom the car belongs told Haaretz that no one from the army talked to them and none of the family members were arrested. The IDF spokesperson has not yet responded to this claim, and Haaretz was able to confirm that the car is registered under the the name of the woman, Yasmin.
Mohammed Sabarna told Haaretz that the incident occurred at 4:30 A.M., when the family sat down to have Suhur, the meal eaten before the sun rises during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Suddenly, the family heard their car alarm go off and then saw soldiers smashing the car’s windows.
When Mohammed went down to the street, ‘they hit me with their rifles and told me to shut up and go inside,’ he said. He also noted that the soldiers did not speak to him before smashing the car, didn’t enter his house or knock on the door.
Sabarna said that Yasmin, who is 30 years old and is recognized as being 100 percent disabled, is dependent on the car to move around. ‘We pick her up and sit her down,’ he said. Sabarna told Haaretz that he went to the Etzion police station in the area but was told to come back next week.