In response to Adalah's demands, Military Police open 12 criminal investigations into Israeli soldiers’ abuse of Palestinian children during their arrest

On 9 November 2014, the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) announced in his response to Adalah’s complaints that the Israeli military police opened 12 criminal investigations against Israeli soldiers who are suspected of rights’ violations against Palestinian children during their arrests in different areas in the West Bank in 2013.

In one of the testimonies submitted to the MAG and the AG, a Palestinian child spoke of how he woke up to the soldiers’ brutal kicks as he was sleeping in his bed. After they woke him, they tied his hands and feet for more than half a day, even though the child's finger was severed up to the middle from a previous incident. This brutal act led to a serious infection and forced the doctors to amputate the child's entire finger. In many cases, when parents spoke to soldiers for information regarding their children’s’ arrests, the soldiers responded with beatings and insults against the family members. In most cases, a child was arrested without him or his family knowing the reason for the arrest, without a relative accompanying the child during the arrest, and without informing them or the family where he would be moved. The testimonies also reveal that during the child's transfer to the interrogation site, the soldiers used extreme physical and verbal abuse against them, including beatings, smashing the child's head against a wall, threats of violence, and threats of sexual assault and rape.