Israeli soldiers have abducted a 13-year-old child and paraded him through the streets of the West Bank City of Hebron a new video released by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has revealed.
The video, taken on November 2, shows the ordeal of Abed al-Razeq Idris who had been taken from the streets in Hebron and put into a jeep. The squad drove the petrified and blindfolded child around the area before taking him a full kilometre from his home and parading the child through the streets.
The soldiers, who seem to find amusement in the mental torture of the child, refused to surrender the boy to his father when he arrived on the scene.
The young boy’s ordeal continued after being publicly paraded, being taken to a military post and then to the police station at Kiryat Arba. The entire ordeal lasted two and a half hours.
“This case is no aberration… It is part of the routine violence imposed on Palestinians in Hebron by Israeli security forces and settlers, including physical attacks, threats, verbal abuse, soldiers’ incursions into homes (usually at night) – and the false arrest of minors and adults.”
B’Tselem
Speaking to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’abri, the young boy stated that he was assaulted by two Israeli soldiers in the jeep.
“Two soldiers jumped on me and started to drag me toward an Israeli jeep. One of them picked me up and put me in the jeep, and then he blindfolded me. I was really scared and didn’t understand what was going on. I sat in the jeep and didn’t say a word. One of the soldiers slapped and kicked me. He spoke to me in Hebrew so I couldn’t understand what he was saying.”
Abed al-Razeq Idris, 13
Abed also revealed that he had inhaled gas during the incident, the occupation soldiers engaging in an assault on local Palestinians while parading the child in the streets.
“A soldier blindfolded me again, tightening it painfully. I didn’t say anything because I was afraid that if I asked the soldier to take it off, he would hit me. I was really scared when the soldiers started firing gas cannisters and shouting at people in the street. My nose and mouth burned.”
– Abed al-Razeq Idris, 13
Abed’s father Sadeq Idris, 46, has also commented on the abduction and torture of his son, stating that Abed was frightened by the ordeal and suffering the effects of tear gas inhalation.
“I saw a woman and a young guy talking to the soldiers and trying to get them to let him go. I parked my car close to them and got out to speak to the soldiers. I explained that he was my son, and one of them said, “Your son is a stone-thrower.” He showed me a photo of a boy on his cell phone. The photo wasn’t clear and I don’t know whether it was my son. I replied that even if the photo was of my son, he was still a child and shouldn’t be treated like that. ‘Abd a-Razeq looked pale and scared, and I think he’d inhaled tear gas.“
Sadeq Idris
B’Tselem states that the outrageous incident is a regular occurrence in apartheid Israel, with the colonial state frequently targeting children for intimidation and torture, citing security reasons to justify their conduct and the segregation it imposes on the city of Hebron. Yet as this case proves, these claims are baseless and serve merely to bolster a policy of driving Palestinians to leave Hebron by making daily life unbearable.
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