Soldier: Anyone who touches the fence activates the alerts at the war-room. We got a reference point at Deir Qadis that the fence there was touched. When we got there we saw glass bottle shards. We stood on top of the jeep itself and saw a few kids. We went in, both the company commander’s front command jeep and the patrol, and tried to catch them. It was on the outskirts of the village in the area closer to the fence. The patrol came from one direction and the commander from another entrance through Ni’ilin and the kids were detained. These were three children, the oldest 15 years old, one really little one, 7-8 years old, and another one in between the two, age-wise. The commander caught all three and wanted to check things so he made them sit on the road about five-meters from each other, facing the other way. He took one shoe from each of them and began to walk the fence, looking for tracks. Then he saw tracks, one of the shoes matched it, and realized there were their tracks. He went to the little boy and spoke to him in Arabic, scared him until the kid broke out crying and told him. He detained the two older kids, the little one told him what happened.

 

All these areas are covered with surveillance cameras connected to HQ and lookouts. If the commander wanted to do something extraordinary, he couldn’t, he’s being filmed. He opened the jeep’s two back doors and placed the kid inside. He didn’t beat him but he made brutal threats and the kid began to cry. Anyway, after getting the picture he detained the two older boys and continued back to the village. He yelled: 'Go! Get into the village!’ and the kid was terrified. The commander threw a stun grenade in his direction and the kid ran off.

 

Interviewer: “What did you do with the two others?”

 

Soldier: They were taken the way all detainees are, on to the battalion post, and from there they were sent on. I don’t know what happens to them.