Palestinian minors suspected of perpetrating even minor crimes against settlers are subject to extreme pressure during detention and interrogation in an effort to extract a confession, the Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International claims. Children International
The group, which represents hundreds of minors in Israeli military courts every year, cites as an example the case of two 16-year-olds from Assira al-Qibalya, near Nablus, who were suspected of setting fire to a field near the settlement of Yitzhar. They were each detained for a total of three weeks, including 10 days in a Shin Bet security service facility in Petah Tikva. Six of those 10 days were spent in isolation. In the end, they were released without charge.
The fire near Yitzhar started on June 2. At 2 A.M. on June 10, the army raided the boys' homes and arrested them.
Both were handcuffed, M.M. in front, but F.A. from the back - even though army regulations forbid handcuffing people from the rear. They were blindfolded and taken to a lock-up in Hawara, where they were held for two weeks. At that facility, they said, the food was insufficient and almost inedible, and they were allowed outside for only half an hour a day.
From Hawara, they were taken twice to the army's Salem lock-up, where an interrogator who called himself "Jihad" threatened to torture them with electric shocks unless they confessed, the boys said. F.A. said Jihad also threatened to charge him with illegal possession of a rifle and stone-throwing if he did not confess to the arson.