Israeli forces have severally beaten up and arrested a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank after claiming he attempted to stab an Israeli settler.
The15-year-old boy, identified as Majd Baida, was detained on Sunday in the village of Jayyus, close to Qalqilya city in the occupied West Bank, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources.
The Israeli occupation forces claimed that the unidentified youth tried to stab an Israeli settler who was waiting at a bus stop near the illegal settlement and fled the scene, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
The Hebrew-language Maariv daily quoted a military source as saying that the regime forces chased the young man and detained him in the village of Salem near the occupied northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Every year, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children aged between 12-17 are arrested and tried in Israeli military courts, the Defense for Children International says.
Nearly three out of four Palestinian children detained by the Israeli forces experience some form of physical violence, according to documentation collected by the NGO.
Israel holds more than 7,000 Palestinians in its jails. Most of the prisoners are being held without any charge, indictment or trial, under a controversial policy known as "administrative detention."
Many Palestinians have sustained injuries or lost their lives in similar incidents due to allegations that they attempted stabbing or car-ramming attacks.
Israeli troops have on numerous occasions been caught on camera brutally killing Palestinians, with the videos going viral online and sparking international condemnation.
Tel Aviv has been criticized for its extensive use of lethal force and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians who do not pose an immediate threat to the occupation forces or to the Israeli illegal settlers.
Israel has built more than 230 illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 that have come to house some 600,000 settlers.
According to B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, Israel has clearly allowed its settlers to assault Palestinians for years and inflict damage on their property as one of its policies.
This has included provision of military protection for the attackers, and in some cases soldiers’ active participation in the assault.