Israeli soldiers force Palestinian minors to eat sand

4/7/2005 2:05:00 PM GMT

Three Israeli border guards confessed to torturing a group of Palestinian children, forcing them to eat sand and kiss their boots.

A human rights group in Jerusalem, representing the Palestinian minors, filed a lawsuit against the three soldiers before an Israeli court.

After the soldiers confessed, the court convicted them of torturing children and disturbing court procedures.

The three guards were on patrol in the area near Abu Gush village near Jerusalem when they stopped the Palestinian minors at the Qutnah village and detained them, claiming that there were not carrying IDs, the court said.

They then took the children to a nearby Jewish settlement where they abused them and forced them to eat sand and kiss their boots before releasing them.

The Palestinian minors returned to their village and were photographed by a resident before filing the case against the soldiers.

Meanwhile, a released Palestinian child, Mahmoud Ereiqat, 16, from Jerusalem, said that he was severely tortured by Israeli guards during his detention in an Israeli jail inside the settlement of Ma'aleh Adomim.

Ereiqat told the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) that Israeli interrogators tied his testicles to a thread and pulled it strongly, causing severe pains.

He added that they used him as an ashtray, putting off their cigarettes on his skin, and that he was deprived of sleep, movement and using the toilet.

Hussein al-Sheikh, lawyer of PPS, said that he saw wounds in Ereiqat’s head, which asserts his abuse accusations. He added that many Palestinian detainees presented several testimonies on the abuse they faced during their detention in Israeli jails.