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1 Apr, 2013

Israeli Defence Forces must stop arresting children – Haaretz Daily

Twenty-seven Palestinian children were ambushed and arrested by Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Hebron on March 20. Eighteen of them were less than 12 years old, the minimum age at which they can legally be held responsible for a crime.

This large-scale roundup was arbitrary. Soldiers arrested every child they saw on the street − including first- and second-graders no older than 7 or 8 − on suspicion of throwing stones at roadblock 160, which separates Palestinians from settlers.

Among them was 8-year-old Ahmed Abu Remeila, who was quoted by Gideon Levy in Haaretz on Friday as saying he was abducted by soldiers on his way to school from the grocery store, where he had bought himself a biscuit, and that he was held at the police station for almost two hours.

Read the rest: The IDF must stop arresting children – Opinion – Haaretz Daily Newspaper.