News / Palestine

Israel detained 30 Palestinian teenagers in August: Rights group

Tuesday, 06 September 2016 5:12 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 06 September 2016 5:34 AM ]

In this file photo, Israeli soldiers are seen arresting a Palestinian teenager during a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel and the construction of a separation wall in Salwad village, eastern Ramallah, occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian human rights body says Israeli military forces arrested some 30 Palestinian teenagers last month, amid continued aggression in the occupied territories.

The Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs announced in a statement on Monday that there were minors as young as 13 among the detainees in August.

The committee’s lawyer, Luay Akka, said 17 children were arrested when Israeli soldiers raided their homes across the West Bank, five were detained off the streets, four at military checkpoints, and four others turned themselves in after receiving summons from Israeli authorities.

Akka added that three of the teenagers are being held under the practice of administrative detention, which allows Israeli officials to keep detainees behind bars without charge for an indefinite time.

Mousa Khanafsa, a 14-year-old boy from the town of Abu Dis, told Akka that he was savagely beaten when Israeli soldiers arrested him on a street near his house.

Khanafsa said a group of plainclothes Israeli officers had chased and caught him before they “assaulted him with the butts of their rifles, stomped on him with military boots, and left him bleeding from his nose.”

On Saturday, Israeli police detained and assaulted 16-year-old Jamal al-Zaatari in the At-Tur neighborhood, located approximately one kilometer east of the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds. The soldiers pepper-sprayed and violently beat Zaatari. The Palestinian teenager sustained injuries to his face, back, and feet.

The Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights recently warned against a growing trend of Israeli forces shooting and injuring young Palestinian men, especially in the knee and the leg, during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs recently said Israeli forces had detained 560 children in the East Jerusalem al-Quds alone since the beginning of the current year.

According to the committee, 110 minors are currently being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

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