At 08:00 a.m. of November 20, 2012, a 16-year-old Palestinian youth from the district of Hebron arrived at Etzion Police Station after he was summoned for interrogation. The youth, who was injured in his leg and using crutches, arrived there with his father, who had just taken him out of hospital before the end of his hospitalization period, as demanded by security officials. The father was not told that his son was about to be arrested, and after the arrest, the family was not notified of the son's whereabouts. The father asked HaMoked to assist in locating the minor, but, in response to HaMoked's query, the military failed to provide any information concerning the boy's whereabouts.

After MA was missing for more than 24hrs, HaMoked filed an urgent petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the High Court of Justice, to order the State to reveal MA's whereabouts. That same day, the State informed that the minor was being held at Ofer Detention Facility, but Ofer Facility informed HaMoked that MA was not registered or kept there. In the hearing, conducted on the following day, over 48 hours into MS's disappearance, the State representatives admitted they still did not know where the minor had been held.

In the days he was held by the security forces without being registered as a detainee, MA underwent an ordeal of abuse and torture: first, he was interrogated at the police station by four interrogators of the Israel Security Agency (ISA), for five consecutive hours. The interrogators beat him, cursed him, threatened him, and refused to provide medical treatment for his leg injury. Needless to say, he was not allowed to confer with counsel.

At the end of the interrogation, soldiers transported him to a nearby military base, where he was kept for over 24hrs in a kitchen, with his hands tied behind his back. At night, he slept, with blindfolded eyes, on the exposed kitchen floor, without a mattress or a blanket. Despite his requests, the soldiers gave him no food, and only twice gave some water to drink, and this only when they relented to his entreaties to go to the toilet.

On the second night, his medical condition growing worse, MA was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. After he received hospital treatment, MA was taken back to the military base, and then taken to another base, where he was kept handcuffed, seating on a chair, outside in the open. No one spoke to him or explained what the military intended to do with him. The only person who addressed him after a fashion was the guard at the entrance to the base: the guard cursed and threatened MA, and applied pressure to his injured leg. Only 60hrs after he was taken into custody, MA was brought before a military judge; only then, for the first time since his arrest, MA was given a meal, and his family was informed of his whereabouts.