"Suddenly, we heard a lot of trucks coming into the village and the sounds of shots being fired into the air. We could hear loudspeakers and we rushed to the village square to see what was going on.

It was the Israelis and they were saying in Arabic, ’Leave your houses and go to Gaza where you will be safe. If you don’t leave we will kill you...........

Then we heard the gunshots - the Israelis had killed two men from our village at point-blank range. They were lying dead on the ground in a pool of blood and their women and children were hysterical.

The villagers were herded into the Israeli trucks like cattle, the killings had made them silent and obedient, everyone was in a state of complete shock. We got in the trucks too. We didn’t have time to pack, all we had were the clothes we were wearing, and all around us was the sound of women wailing and the explosions of Israeli mortar fire."