The World - News from Sept. 10, 1987

Three Palestinian youths from the Israeli-occupied West Bank charged that Israeli soldiers tortured them to force them to confess to crimes they did not commit. At a news conference in Jerusalem, the youths--aged 15 to 16--said they were beaten by Israeli soldiers at a detention center near Nablus. They added that they served three to eight months in prison for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Asked about the accusations, an Israeli military official said: “It is not our policy to beat children, but if something like this happened, we will check it, case by case, and if a soldier behaved improperly, he will be punished.”