B’Tselem urgently contacted on Wednesday the Army’s Legal Advisor for Judea and Samaria(the West banck), 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 in Hebron.

Preliminary information received by B’Tselem indicates that the army today(22.3) conducted mass arrests near the area known as route 160 in Hebron. Soldiers detained or arrested over twenty minors on their way to school. About ten of them were released. As far as its known to B’Tselem, among the children detained by the military, at least five children are 8 to 10 years old, with possibly others below the age of criminal responsibility who cannot legally be arrested. Conversations with the Hebron police indicate that some of the children have been taken for interrogation by a youth interrogator.

A demonstrator wearing a mask of Martin Luther King, being arrested by Israeli army forces during a demonstration against the planned visit of US President Barak Obama to the West Bank, last Wednesday, March 20, 2013 (Photo: Activestills)

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.