Description

Photo:
Palestinian Committe of Prison Affairs head, Issa Qaraqe.
(File) Published by Maan News
_____

RAMALLAH ( Ma’an) -- Palestinian Committee of Prisoners' Affairs head Issa Qaraqe said on Sunday that eight Palestinian children were being held in closed Israeli facilities upon orders by Israeli military courts until they reached the age of 14.

Under Israeli law, Palestinian children can be handed down prison sentences upon turning 14, leading many to claim that some trials of minors were deliberately postponed to allow for such sentencing.
Qaraqe identified the children as Shadi Farah, Ahmad Al- ZItri, Adam Subh Laban, Muhammad Abd al-Razaq, Muhammad Hushieh, Ahmad Abu Khalifeh and Burhan Abu al-Shukr.

Qaraqe said that the time these children spent in these juvenile detentions centers was not officially counted as imprisonment by Israel, meaning that it could not be deducted from later sentences handed down by Israeli courts.

Qaraqe said that Palestinian children from occupied East Jerusalem had been increasingly targeted by Israeli forces in 2015 and 2016 compared to previous years, highlighting that 20 children from East Jerusalem were currently subjected to house arrest until their trials, turning "the parents into jailers of their own children."

According to prisoners rights group Addameer, 400 Palestinian minors were held in Israeli custody as of October.

The Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said in a September report that at least 1,000 Palestinian minors between the ages of 11 and 18 had been detained by Israel since January, a number of whom reported being abused and tortured while in detention.