The IDF on Wednesday detained five Palestinian children near Havat Maon outpost in the West Bank, the left-wing NGO B’Tselem said. The group published a video of the incident in which soldiers can be seen apprehending a number of boys, one of whom appears to break into tears.
An adult male yelled at the soldiers, “are you embarrassed to arrest children? This is criminal work.”
According to B’Tselem the Palestinian boys were aged between eight and 13. Israel has a policy of not arresting children under the age of 12.
A boy tried to free one of the detained children from the soldiers’ clutches by grabbing him and pulling him away, creating a tug-of-war situation but a second IDF soldier separated the boys.
Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem tweeted that “the army is accusing them of trying to steal parrots from the Havat Maon outpost.” She added that the boys were held for several hours and then released.
“The older ones (aged 12-13) will be interrogated on Sunday,” Michaeli tweeted.
The IDF said the boys had entered the yard of a home and the soldiers had removed them from the scene and transferred them to the police.