Recently, B'Tselem has received reports of soldiers abusing young Palestinians in Dura, a town southwest of Hebron. Evidently, the soldiers' actions were in response to stone-throwing at cars traveling on Route 60.

On Sunday, 26 April, around 4:00 P.M., a number of army jeeps and a detention van came to the Wadi a-Shajna neighborhood of Dura, about 300 meters from Route 60. The soldiers detained, at random, six men, aged 17-31, who happened to be present in the area, handcuffing and blindfolding them.

Testimonies given by three of the detainees to B'Tselem indicate that the soldiers took them to the Adurim army base and placed them in a room, keeping the door open. Soldiers entered from time to time, kicked them all over their bodies, mainly in the face,  and slapped, punched, and struck them with rifle butts. The soldiers prevented the detainees from praying and sleeping, and did not give them food. Only after midnight did the soldiers let them go to the bathroom and drink water The soldiers humiliated the detainees, forcing them to be counted, for their amusement."  One of the detainees refused to be counted, and as punishment, all the detainees were required to stand for ten minutes.

At 4:30 A.M., the soldiers began to remove the detainees, in pairs. The soldiers put each pair of detainees in a jeep, and drove them to different places in the area and threw them from the jeep, beating them in the process. Soldiers stole money from two of the detainees: 600 shekels from one and 140 shekels from the other. The last pair of detainees was left at the entrance to al-Fawwar refugee camp, at approximately 6:30 A.M. Four of the detainees were subsequently treated at ‘Aliyah Hospital, in Hebron.

B'Tselem requested that the Judge Advocate's Office for Operational Matters, the Military Police Investigation Unit, and the Hebron Brigade commander to open a Military Police investigation immediately to identify the perpetrators and to prosecute them for their abusive conduct.

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In another incident in Dura, which took place yesterday afternoon (29 April), ten army jeeps entered the town and soldiers detained some twenty minors and children, the youngest ones six years old, for questioning. Most of the detainees were at home when they were detained. The soldiers led them to a school, at the edge of the town. Some of them walked barefoot, the soldiers not having allowed them to put on their shoes.

Musa Abu Hashhash, B'Tselem's fieldworker in the area, filmed the incident. One of the officers, who was riding in a jeep with the license plate number 655537, took the video camera and erased the film. Another soldier tried to prevent Abu Hashhash from recording the jeeps' license plate numbers. The questioning of the detainees lasted for about two hours, after which they were released, except for a thirteen-year-old boy, who was released the following day.

B'Tselem requested that the authorities investigate the incident and protested the soldiers' actions that impeded its fieldworker's efforts.