Israeli forces round up Palestinian kids in Hebron for settlers to ID

Israeli occupation force in Hebron rounded up Palestinian children as young as eight years old for Jewish settlers to identify, Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported.

On 10 August, following a fight between Palestinian and settler children in Hebron’s Old City, Israeli Border Police officers took two Palestinian children aged 11 and 12 to a checkpoint and asked the settler’s son if he recognised them.

Later, the Israeli forces picked up three more children, aged between eight and 13, and repeated the procedure.

That night, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian family home at 2am, and took an eight-year-old boy and his father to the police station for questioning, releasing them three hours later.

According to B’Tselem, “fights between Palestinian and settler children are commonplace in downtown Hebron, where Israel imposes a regime of segregation, causing systematic and extensive harm to the Palestinian population.”

“The immense efforts mounted to locate Palestinians suspected of harming settlers contrast sharply with the near absence of action to protect Palestinians from violence by settlers…or to uphold the rights of Palestinian children below the age of criminal responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian children in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, have returned to school “with no end to the Israeli-enforced military closure of their neighbourhood in sight”, in the words of Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI-Palestine).

“Residents must register in order to enter via checkpoint. Each is assigned an individual number, separate from their standard-issued ID. Closed military zones pose staffing problems for schools and risks for children, who are forced to live in constant proximity to armed Israeli soldiers.”

DCI-Palestine official Ayed Abu Eqtaish said: “Before children in Tel Rumeida even reach their school, their academic potential is threatened by Israeli military instalments restricting their movements, and by Israeli settlers who often target them.”