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by IMEMC News

Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Tuesday at dawn, six Palestinian children in the al-’Eesawiyya town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem. The soldiers also kidnapped one Palestinian in the southern West Bank district of Hebron.

Media sources in Jerusalem has reported that the army stormed and searched several homes in al-‘Eesawiyya, before kidnapping the six children, after interrogating them and their families.

The kidnapped children have been identified as Shadi Nasser, 14, Adam Kayed Mahmoud, 14, Mohammad Mobtasem ‘Obeid, 14, Yahia Arafat Derbas, 14, Majd Nayef Mustafa, 14, and Mohammad Mazra’o, 15 years of age.

The six children were handcuffed and blindfolded, before the soldiers took them to an interrogation center in Jerusalem.

In addition, several military vehicles invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron, and kidnapped a young man, identified as Ishaq al-Khatib, 20, after violently searching his home.

The soldiers also invaded various neighborhoods in Hebron city, and installed roadblocks on its northern roads, in addition to the main entrance of Sa’ir town, northeast of Hebron, before searching dozens of cars, while investigating the ID cards of scores of Palestinians.
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police physically assaulted a 15-year-old Palestinian and detained six other teenagers aged 14 and 15 overnight Monday and early Tuesday in occupied East Jerusalem, locals said.

Family members told Ma'an that Abd al-Karim Aziz al-Haddad, 15, suffered internal bleeding and multiple bruises after he was briefly detained from his family home by Israeli police on Monday night.

Israeli police raided the house in the Old City's al-Saadiyyeh neighborhood shortly before midnight to check whether Haddad had adhered to his house arrest, which he was sentenced to last week and which ends Tuesday, relatives said.

The boy's uncle, Alaa al-Haddad, said that Israeli forces raided the family home and attempted to provoke Abd al-Karim by claiming that he was not adhering to his house arrest, even though he was in the house's yard at the time.

He said that Israeli forces then attempted to raid the rooms inside the house, which led to a heated verbal exchange between the family and police, before they detained Abd al-Karim.

Alaa al-Haddad said that Israeli forces took the 15-year-old to the Chain Gate police station where they beat Abd al-Karim on his waist and genitals inside a police station toilet.

Al-Haddad said that two other Palestinians, Mahmoud Abu Sneineh and Obada Najib, were also assaulted at the police station after police claimed they had not adhered to their house arrests.

Al-Haddad said that Abd al-Karim was transferred to the al-Qishla police center where it was discovered he was suffering internal bleeding when he urinated blood.

He was released from the prison and taken to al-Maqasid hospital where he was kept for treatment under observation until Tuesday morning.

Separately on Tuesday, Israeli forces detained six Palestinian teenagers from the town of Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem.

The head of a local committee representing families of jailed Palestinians, Amjad Abu Asab, told Ma’an that Israeli forces ransacked houses in Issawiya and detained six teenage boys.

He identified them as Hani Shadi Nasser, 14, Adam Kayid Mahmoud, 14, Muhammad Mubtasim Ubeid, 14, Yahya Arafat Dirbas, 14, Majd Nayif Mustafa, 14, and Muhammad Mazarou, 15.

Israeli police took the teenagers to the Russian Compound detention center in Jerusalem.

An Israeli police spokesperson could not be reached for comment on either the detentions or physical assaults.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of "abusive arrests" of Palestinian children as young as 11 and of using threats to force them to sign confessions.

Israeli authorities failed to inform parents of their children's arrest or whereabouts, the New York-based watchdog added, drawing on accounts of several children detained during intense unrest in East Jerusalem and the West Bank late last year.

Last week another international rights group Defense for Children International said in a statement that violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian child detainees has seen a rise this year.

Lawmakers in both the US and UK have recently called on their governments to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinian child prisoners, with 19 members of Congress sending a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on June 18 urging him to prioritize the issue of Palestinian child detainees in Israeli detention.

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