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Photos:
Scene. Published by IMEMC News

An Israeli soldier monitors the border with Lebanon, last month. Credit: JALAA MAREY - AFP
Published by Haaretz [Note: this lead photo bears no direct relation to incident reported]
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On Wednesday evening, Israeli soldiers detained and interrogated a Palestinian child in the yard of her home in the Shallala Street, in the center of Hebron city, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

Shadi Seder said many soldiers invaded and ransacked his home before abducting his daughter, Salwa, 12 years of age.

He added that the soldiers took his child to a military roadblock near Hebron Municipality while she was crying and screaming in fear as they dragged her away.

The Israeli army claimed the child “was carrying a knife” in the yard of her home.

The family denied the allegation, and the soldiers could not provide any evidence of the alleged knife before releasing the child.

The family is subject to constant violations by the soldiers and groups of fanatic illegal Israeli colonizers who constantly try to displace them and occupy their home.

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Israeli Army Officer Handcuffs Two Palestinian Children Together

Hagar Shezaf and Jack Khoury for Haaretz
Jun. 3, 2022

An Israeli army officer handcuffed two Palestinian children together in Hebron on Wednesday, after he suspected that one of them might be wielding a knife.

The two sisters, aged 11 and 12, were cuffed after soldiers arrived to question them based on a report that a knife had been thrown at the playground at Beit Hadassah, in the heart of the West Bank city's Jewish settlement.

Shadi Sadr, the girls’ father, said his daughter, Salwa, was detained for half an hour. The military said it would review the soldiers’ conduct.

According to Sadr, Salwa was playing outside with other children when a settler watching them from a balcony called the police. He explained that the soldiers continued to question Salwa after she responded that she was not holding a knife, and insisted that she was concealing something.

This was despite her Sadr telling soldiers that they could check the accusation on security cameras in the area. The officer then decided to use the plastic handcuffs to bind Salwa to her 11-year-old sister, Zaynab. A recording of the incident shows the two girls were cuffed for a few seconds.

“The goal of all this behavior is strictly to oppress and choke us,” Shadi said. “Even children playing was turned into something threatening. Even if they had a knife, who would they even endanger?”

He said the family home is “entirely surrounded by fences, and we’re virtually living in the atmosphere of a prison.” Since the incident, he said, Salwa has been afraid to leave the house. “How do you explain to a girl that playing in the street next to her house can lead to soldiers showing up with weapons and handcuffs?" he asked. “Why do you even have to detain such a young girl? The soldiers are mighty when they’re facing a child.”

The Israel military's spokesman said following the incident: “In cases of this kind, IDF soldiers are expected to act with maximum sensitivity while sticking to the operational mission.”

The military said that the soldiers arrived at the scene after they received a report of a knife being thrown at a playground where children were playing, and that eyewitnesses reported that a young girl had thrown the knife.
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via Twitter

B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم
@btselem
June 20, 2022

Life’s routine under the Israeli apartheid regime, Hebron: soldiers detained Salwa Sidr, a 13-year-old, on charges of possessing a knife. They threatened to handcuff her, took her in for questioning and only released her after she admitted to peeling a cucumber on her doorstep.