Palestinians’ demonstrations would regularly end in tear gas and rubber coated bullets, but the Israeli army has recently come up with something new - posters with kids’ faces, reading “We are the army. Be careful. We will catch you if we see you”.

Asaf Hikmat, a West Bank Palestinian teen, has been on the lookout for Israeli soldiers ever since he found his face on an Israeli army wanted poster.

“We got very afraid when they put our pictures up, they are threatening that they will arrest us and they will come and take us from our homes,” Asaf relayed his fear to RT in West Bank.

The posters depicting the children as outlaws with a bounty on their head are just part and parcel of Israel’s intimidation techniques, says Murad Shtaiwi, Coordinator of the Popular Resistance Committee. 

“Every night, nearly, they come and shoot tear gas and sound bombs toward the houses to frighten and to let the children live in very bad psychological situation,” Shtaiwi told RT.

Asaf is one of several youngsters who took part in their village’s weekly protests against Israeli settlement expansion.

Israel’s controversial settlement activities and its refusal to halt them in the face of international demand have been seen as a major obstacle to any peace process between the regime and Palestinian authorities.

The Tel Aviv occupying regime has increased its illegal settlement expansion following an upgrade of Palestine’s status at the UN to a non-member observer state on November 29, 2012.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. Much of the international community considers the settlements illegal.

Last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel’s plan to build more than 1,000 new illegal units in the occupied West Bank.

SHI/SHI