2017 video of IDF soldiers dragging an 8-year-old Palestinian boy in Hebron to identify stone-pelters shared as a recent one - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 3, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming it shows recent footage of  Israeli soldiers detaining a 13-year-old boy in the West Bank. Calling the incident a clear violation of human rights, the post alleges that the boy’s family has not been able to contact the child since he was captured by the Israeli soldiers. The video shows a crying little boy being dragged on the streets by soldiers. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent video of Israeli soldiers detaining a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank.
Fact: The post shared a 2017 video of Israel Defence Force (IDF) troops dragging a Palestinian 8-year-old boy from house to house to identify other children allegedly accused of throwing stones and a Molotov cocktail on Kiryat Arba Israeli settlement in Hebron. The video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video shared in the post, the same video was found published by B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, on 23 March 2017. B’Tselem published the video with the title, “Israeli soldiers drag 8-year-old from home to home looking for stone-throwers, Hebron, March 2017.”
The description of the video states, “At about 1:30 P.M. on 19 March 2017, a force of more than 15 soldiers seized 8-year-old Sufian Abu Hitah, who was out on the street barefoot, looking for a lost toy. Two soldiers dragged him to the al-Harika neighborhood and took him into several homes, demanding he identify children who had thrown stones and a Molotov cocktail at the Kiryat Arba settlement. Over an hour later, several women managed to extricate the boy and return him to his mother. Two local residents, including B’Tselem volunteer May Da’na, captured the incident on video.”
Several news sites have published articles reporting about this incident of IDF forces dragging the 8-year-old Sufian Abu Hitah from house to house in Hebron to identify the children allegedly involved in throwing stones and a Molotov cocktail on Kiryat Arba Israeli settlement in Hebron.
However, the IDF officials have refuted the allegations made by the B’Tselem and said that Abu Hitah was the one suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail, not rocks, at the settlement. According to the IDF officials, the boy was detained by the soldiers and led home.
To sum it up, a 2017 video of IDF soldiers taking an 8-year-old Palestinian boy from house to house in Hebron to identify stone-throwers is shared as the recent one.