A Palestinian teen charged with assaulting Israeli soldiers appeared at a military court in the West Bank's Ofer Prison on Monday for a hearing.
Israel indicted 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi last month on charges including assault for punching an Israeli soldier in the face two weeks earlier.
Tamimi's lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said she asked the court to release Tamimi, who has been in detention for almost three weeks, until the end of her trial. The judge said he would hand down his decision this Wednesday.
Israel has held Tamimi since arresting her three days after she was filmed punching the soldier at the entrance to her family home in the village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. The confrontation took place after what Israel says was a stone-throwing assault on its troops.
Maj. A., the platoon commander who was assaulted by Tamimi and her cousin, was asked in court Monday why he did not arrest them the spot.
"Behind the girls there were two other families, around 12 people altogether, and we were two soldiers. If we would have arrested them [on the spot] the result would have been bad and I don't know how it would have ended. We were in the middle of a mass riot without enough manpower," he told the court.
"It's known that when a riot starts, the activists start gathering in the [Tamimi] family's front yard to throw rocks at IDF troops. So we got there to prevent the rocks from reaching the road. We entered the yard. [The other soldier] and I were there for around 20 minutes. Then the two minors [Tamimi and her cousin] came, they were speaking in Arabic, I don't understand the language and therefore didn't know what they were saying.
"One of the minors, around 12, 13 years old, blond hair, started shoving, kicking and raising her hands at me, she slapped me and punched my radio guy in the face. The second minor, 12 or 13, with black hair, was less violent and mostly just shoved me. Afterwards, the adult women [the mother] came, she tried stopping her kids, she didn't totally succeed," he said.
Asked by the court to describe what he was feeling during the incident, Maj. A. said: "At the end of the day I need to have the riot under control. There were two flashpoints [Tamimi and her cousin] and I didn't want to arrest them and create more [flashpoints] because there weren't enough soldiers at the scene. I was busy with the overall rioting, which is why I didn't really consider [the incident] that important."
The charge sheet against Tamimi, seen by Reuters, included counts of aggravated assault against a soldier, obstructing a soldier in the performance of his duty and throwing stones at troops. The army said the soldier's brow had been bruised by her punch,
"Tamimi threw stones at [the soldiers], threatened them, obstructed them in fulfilling their duty, took part in riots and incited others to take part in them," the IDF said on its Twitter account.
Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents Palestinians in Israeli jails, said the charges were false.
Last week, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman revoked the entry permits of 20 of Tamimi's relatives, barring them from entering Israel. Lieberman said the entire family was involved in inciting violence and terrorism.
Lieberman also signed an order restricting the girl's father, Bassem, who has been arrested dozens of time for rioting, from traveling.
Dealing with Tamimi and her family has to be severe, exhaust all legal measures and generate deterrence, the defense minister said.
He stressed that his office would not tolerate incidents in which Palestinian protesters accost Israeli soldiers or incite terrorism.
