IDF troops detaining a 15-year-old Palestinian boy armed with pipe bombs, in the West Bank on Tuesday. (Reuters)
IDF arrests 15-year-old boy carrying five pipe bombs By The Associated Press The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who was carrying five pipe bombs at a busy West Bank checkpoint, a military spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said the boy, who was not identified, raised the suspicions of soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus when he appeared in a heavy winter coat on a day that temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Israel Radio reported the boy attempted to ignite the bombs with a match before soldiers stopped him.
Advertisement The spokeswoman said when soldiers isolated the boy and searched him, they found that he was carrying five pipe bombs.
The boy was detained for questioning, the spokeswoman said.
In April 2004, soldiers arrested a 16-year-old Palestinian boy with a suicide bomb strapped to his body at the same checkpoint.
That boy, Hussam Abdo, later said he was on a mission to kill IDF soldiers.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, IDF soldiers operating on the Egyptian border in southern Gaza near Rafah uncovered two 35-kilogram bombs. The bombs were safely detonated by Israeli sappers, the radio reported.
Hassan Hashash, a Palestinian aged 15, was detained by the Israeli military on Tuesday, April 12, at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus in the West Bank. Hashash had been hiding five explosive charges under a winter coat before attempting to ignite one in the presence of Israeli soldiers, the military said. In the sweltering 26°C (78°F) heat, the teenager's incongruous attire caught the attention of an IDF paratrooper nicknamed Muli.

"The boy pulled out a matchbox, held up a pipe bomb, and attempted to detonate it," said Muli. "We aimed our weapons at him and told him to move away from us" (Ynet).

The military reported that after taking the youth to an isolated area they searched him and found another four explosives.

"You could see it's a young child who was sent by someone," said Muli. "I looked into his eyes: he was on the brink of tears and scared to death."

The Hawara checkpoint has seen this kind of trouble before. In April 2004, soldiers there arrested a 16-year-old, also Palestinian, with a suicide bomb strapped to his body. The teenager, Hussam Abdo, later told an Israeli newspaper he was on a mission to kill Israeli soldiers. 

Israeli radio noted that this is the third Palestinian child in the past two months caught attempting to transfer explosives past Israeli checkpoints.