More child abuse in the PA

When will the international press start writing about the abuse of teens in the Palestinian territories?

Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Thursday arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian boy attempting to smuggle weapons across the Hawara checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Security forces suspect that the militants took advantage of the teen's mental disability, Israel Radio reported. He said members of a Palestinian armed group had asked him to smuggle the mortar shell through the checkpoint.

The youth, Saed Sawafta, apparently aroused soldiers' suspicion by trying to circumvent the checkpoint. The troops stopped him and found a 52-millimeter mortar shell and two knives in his possession.

The incident was the sixth time Palestinians were thwarted as they tried to smuggle weapons across Hawara in the last two months, the IDF said. Nablus is one of the centers of Palestinian militant activity in the West Bank.

The boy's father, Hussein Sawafta, 50, a mechanic, said he got a phone call at midday from soldiers at the checkpoint who told him they were holding his son and asked him to come to the checkpoint. When he was told that his son was being held for carrying explosives, Sawafta said he was shocked.

"I thought he threw stones at something ... this can't be. Someone who wanted to hurt me did this. My son isn't like this," Sawafta said.