NOVANEWS
Update: On the day of the incident B’Tselem wrote to the Legal Advisor in Judea and Samaria, the Legal Advisor of the Israel Police and to the spokesperson for the Judea and Samaria Division regarding this issue. The officials confirmed that, further to a stone-throwing incident earlier that morning, the military apprehended 27 minors, including at least 14 under the age of 12. Later, the military released 20 of the minors to the custody of the Palestinian Authority. The other seven minors were questioned by the police. B’Tselem stressed the following: minors should not be questioned without their parents’ knowledge and the presence of an adult representative on their behalf; the police is duty-bound to inform parents immediately upon the detention of their children; it is unlawful to detain or transport minors under the age of 12.
B’Tselem this morning urgently contacted the Army’s Legal Advisor for Judea and Samaria, Col. Doron Ben Barak, demanding his emergency intervention regarding the detention of numerous children, including some as young as 8 to 10 years old, by the Israeli military this morning in Hebron.
In a conversation between B’Tselem and the spokesman for the military’s Judea and Samaria Division, we were told that the children and youths taken away by the military may have been involved in throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. If there are specific suspicions against youths over the age of criminal responsibility, the police have the authority to detain them and interrogate them, but this cannot justify the mass detention of youths for unspecified suspicions, let alone the arrest or detention of children under twelve.
The Israeli Youth Law requires that a parent or adult be present during the interrogation of child suspects. The law does not formally apply to Palestinians in the occupied territories, who are subject to Israeli military law, but the military court has recommended that the relevant provisions be taken into account in all dealings with Palestinian children.
