Video Shows Palestinian Child Being Terrorised by Israeli Soldiers

ELECTRONIC INTIFADA: This video shows Israeli occupation forces taking captive an eight-year-old child to use in their search for alleged stone throwers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Filmed by two residents of the area who volunteer with the human rights group B’Tselem, the footage shows a terrified young boy being dragged around the neighborhood and into a building by a group of armed soldiers.



The boy appears distressed and at times in tears.

According to B’Tselem, Sufian Abu Hita was seized by more than 15 soldiers on 19 March, when the barefoot child went looking for his lost toy.

The Israelis demanded that Sufian point out children who have thrown stones at Kiryat Arba, one of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law.

Kiryat Arba settlers habitually abuse Palestinians in the area.

The soldiers held the boy captive for more than an hour. His ordeal ended only when several women intervened and rescued him from the soldiers’ grip.

Sufian’s mother says the boy was forced to accompany the soldiers from house to house. She says soldiers refused to let him go until he named children who had allegedly thrown stones.

A US State Department human rights report released this month notes Israel’s routine abuses and violence against Palestinian children, including subjecting them to military courts and prisons.

According to Defense for Children International – Palestine, the State Department’s annual reports on human rights have routinely included Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian children since 2007.

However, the new report omits reference to the slaying of 16-year-old US-citizen Mahmoud Shaalan who was shot to death a year ago at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.

Defense for Children International notes that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson broke with tradition by not launching the report in an on-camera event that has traditionally been an opportunity to highlight key findings.

The video above offers more stark evidence of how Israel’s occupation targets and terrorizes children.