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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained two Palestinian boys at a military checkpoint in Hebron on Sunday, Palestinian Authority officials said.

A Ma'an correspondent identified the detainees as Amjad Nidal Taha, 13, and Husam Hussein Abu Sneina, 12. He said they were detained at a checkpoint known to locals as Talat Abu Hadid located near the Ibrahimi mosque.

The two boys were on their way to the Ibrahimyya school, near the mosque.

Director of the Hebron office of the Palestinian Ministry of Education Nisreen Amr denounced Israeli harassment at checkpoints in Hebron's Old City.

She called on all school principals and teachers to work together with the local community to protect pupils from anticipated settler attacks as the UN bid approaches.

“None of the school’s students is immune against the unjustified detention and stopping at Israeli checkpoints,” said Salih Abu Sleima, principal of the Ibrahimiyya School.

An Israeli army spokesman was not aware of the incident.

Around 800 Jewish settlers live among 30,000 Palestinians in the parts of Hebron that are under Israeli control.

Israeli restrictions on movement and access, many of them dating back to the Palestinian uprising at the start of the decade, have turned parts of Hebron into a ghost town.

Poverty has risen in a city that was traditionally an engine of the Palestinian economy.