Two 11 Years Old Detained in Hebron

I received this email today.  I am sharing it as I received it, the pictures were included in the email. 

I wanted to let you know about an incident that happened 2 days ago. Below is my eyewitness account to the incident. Two 11 year old boys were detained at Cordoba school.Towards the end of our monitoring period this afternoon,as we were leaving the area, the TIPH (temporary international presence in Hebron) and I saw 6 soldiers armed with M-16's run urgently up the hill towards the school. We then heard 6 soldiers shouting violently at the children and heard children screaming and crying. The three of us ran up the stairs to find the soldiers pulling the boys by their clothes to take them to the police station. The teachers from the school were still on the school grounds and surrounded the children to protect them and attempted to talk to the soldiers. The soldiers yelled at the teachers several times to "go away". Finally, the Principal came out and intervened. The soldiers made the teachers leave and allowed the principle to stay and talk to them on the boys behalf since she told him the parents were at home and not near the school.

The Israeli army the moment they detained the Kids

The soldiers were accusing the boys of throwing stones at the Israeli settlement across the street and down the steep hill from the school (Beit Hadassah Settlement). The principle explained that the boys were playing and started to fight with each other and did not intentionally throw stones at anyone. TIPH said while they had been standing near the school, they only saw the boys playing. They did not see anyone throw a stone. The principle pleaded that the boys not be arrested. The captain for these soldiers who was negotiating with the principle of the school threatened her by saying "Next time if stones are thrown at the Jewish people, I will take the nice little children to the police and I will make a big (something in Hebrew or Arabic I could not understand but thought he meant a raid) at your school". He then told the principle and the students they were free to go.

An Israeli soldier garbing one of the 2 kids

After the incident, TIPH and I talked to the principle. The children who were involved and another student who had been playing with them were crying historically and were visibly traumatized by this incident. .I am attaching photos of the children mentioned in this report and did get the captain's threat to the principle on video tape which I am in the process of downloading to you tube (details below). Please let me know if you are interested in the video information, or if you would like any addition information from me. Thank you,Tammie

Best