News / Palestine

Israel puts two more Palestinian minors into administrative detention

Monday, 29 March 2021 6:09 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 29 March 2021 6:09 PM ]

Israeli police detain a Palestinian child outside the Lions Gate, a main entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds, July 17, 2017. (File photo by AFP)

Israel has detained two more Palestinians under the age of 18 in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said on Monday that Amal Nakhleh, from the Jalazoun refugee camp, and Faisal al-Arouj, from the city of Bethlehem, were taken away from their homes.

The 17-year-old duo is being held in the Megiddo detention center without charge or trial.

Last year, the two young Palestinians spent several months in Israeli jails under the so-called administrative detention, a sort of imprisonment without trial.

Nakhleh suffers from a chronic disease and has been denied access to medication.

The PPS in November 2020 highlighted rights violations committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian child prisoners. The youths are often abducted from homes in the middle of the night, detained for hours without food or drink, and verbally abused. Israeli prison authorities also force the children into confession by threatening to torture them. Interrogations are done without the presence of a parent or a lawyer.

In May 2020, a study found that Israel had arrested up to 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in late 2000.

‘Israel has arrested 16,500 Palestinian minors since 2000’

Among the detained children, several have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms, some of which reach up to 10 years.

Since 2015, several shootings have also been documented showing that Israeli authorities deliberately target Palestinian kids.

In March 2020, UNICEF said about 40 children had been killed in one year of anti-occupation protests along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip from the occupied territories.

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