Police raid West Bank yeshiva where five teens accused of terrorism study

Eighty students at Pri Haaretz in the Rehalim settlement are summoned for questioning following the raid

Police raided the West Bank yeshiva of five teenagers who were taken into custody for allegedly causing the death of a Palestinian woman.

Eighty students at the Pri Haaretz Yeshiva in the Rehalim settlement were summoned for questioning in Wednesday’s raid.

The following day, the Rishon Lezion District Court ordered the release of four of the five teens being held by Israel’s security agency in the woman’s death to house arrest. Their attorneys had complained that the teens were being held under “illegal” and abusive conditions and had been tortured during interrogations.

The fifth teen was ordered held for another six days.

One of the teens “described to me harsh interrogations. For most of the day he was handcuffed to a chair with his arms behind him and given very short breaks for basic needs,” attorney Adi Keidar said in a statement Tuesday issued by the Honenu legal defence organisation after meeting for the first time on Tuesday with one of the teens three days after his arrest.

The Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, said in a statement following the order that “during the investigation the suspects enjoyed all the conditions that the law mandates according to their age and their beliefs.”

The teens are accused of involvement in a rock-throwing attack in mid-October that led to the death of a Palestinian mother of nine.

Following Wednesday’s raid, police summoned the students for immediate questioning students in the nearby settlement of Ariel. Thirty other students already have been questioned, Haaretz reported.

Honenu said in a statement that the police entered the yeshiva without a warrant, making it “illegal.”