Israeli forces threaten mass arrest of children

Faces of the wanted youngsters

Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers in Hebron, on the West Bank, report a worrying new development this evening. The Israeli military have stuck images of dozens of children they plan to arrest for stone throwing, on the wall of Shuhada checkpoint.

These images of children, under threat of arrest, interrogation and administrative detention, hang as a message of force and impending threat to children and their parents - sending a powerful message of Israel's lack of regard for in international law.

Boys have been stopped today and compared with the photos, some of whom have been taken into military bases, and then the police station for interrogation.

Many of the suspects are in their early teens, but some are much younger than that. On Monday, Israeli forces raided a home Hebron, searching for a Palestinian boy they accused of throwing stones, only to discover the child was only three years old, the boy's father told Ma'an.

Muhammad Jamal al-Jaabri said that Israeli forces raided his home in the al-Ras neighborhood of Hebron seeking to arrest his son Yousef, who they accused of throwing stones. He said the soldiers ransacked his house and threatened to detain the child, at which point the father said that he told the soldiers: "Go ahead and take him if you want."

He said the soldiers left his home without any arrests.

Human Rights Watch has condemned Israel over its 'abusive arrests' of Palestinian children as young as 11 and of using threats to force them to sign confessions.

Israeli authorities regularly failed to inform parents of their children's arrest or whereabouts, the New York-based watchdog said in a report in July.

"Forces have choked children, thrown stun grenades at them, beaten them in custody, threatened and interrogated them without the presence of parents or lawyers, and failed to let their parents know their whereabouts," the report said.

See the work of Military Court Watch for accounts and testimonies of children's experiences of interrogation under arrest of the Israeli military here:
www.militarycourtwatch.org/

Source: CPT/HRW