News / Palestine

Israel has placed 65 kids in al-Quds under house arrest in first half of 2016

Wednesday, 29 June 2016 3:08 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 29 June 2016 3:08 PM ]

Israeli forces inspect the purse of a Palestinian woman with her children at the Damascus Gate of al-Quds (Jerusalem)'s Old City on March 13, 2016. (AFP photo)

The Israeli regime has placed 65 children in al-Quds (Jerusalem) under house arrest in the first half of 2016, the Palestinian committee for prisoners and former prisoners’ affairs says.

The committee added that 12 other children in al-Quds have also been detained without trial or charge under the so-called Israeli policy of administrative detention since the beginning of 2016.

The report added that 18 children were taken out of their residential areas in al-Quds in the same period.

The head of the committee, Issa Qaraqe, said the Israeli regime places the children under house arrest in return for their release from jail. The Israeli forces conduct sudden raids on the children’s houses to make sure they have not broken the house arrest.

Palestinian sources say some 23 percent of the children who have been placed under house arrest suffer psychological problems and 44 percent of them have left their studies unfinished.

An Israeli soldier stops a Palestinian woman and her son at the entrance of Yatta near the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), June 9, 2016. (Reuters)

The committee said 440 Palestinian children are currently held in Israeli detention centers, while between 500 and 700 Palestinian children appear in Israel's military courts annually.

The committee decried Israel's systematic targeting of Palestinian children as a blatant violation of international law.

There are reportedly more than 6,500 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the administrative detention, which is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

More than 210 Palestinians, including women and children, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since October 2015.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk