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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces on Monday detained a 15-year-old Palestinian near the town of al-Lubban al-Sharqiya south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank for throwing rocks at Israeli settlers’ cars, according to Israeli police.

Israeli Police Spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that a number of Palestinian minors were throwing rocks at Israeli cars on Route 60 opposite of the town, and that Israeli forces chased the youth and “were able to detain one.”

The identity of the teenager who was detained remained unknown.

Israel detains hundreds of Palestinians for alleged stone throwing every year, with Israeli rights group B'Tselem reporting that from 2005 to 2010, "93 percent of the minors convicted of stone throwing were given a prison sentence, its length ranging from a few days to 20 months."

Israeli authorities have also dramatically escalated their crackdown on Palestinian youth who are caught throwing rocks, with Israel passing a law last year setting sentences up to 20 years in prison for stone throwing if intent to harm could be proven, and a minimum prison sentence of three years for throwing a stone at an Israeli.

In September, Israeli courts sentenced four Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem, including two minors, to prison for throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Last month, Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr in Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, after soldiers claimed he was among a group of youths throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers,

Palestinians have claimed that rock throwing by teenagers is a natural reaction to frustrations caused by the nearly half century Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which has been shaped by everyday forms of violence, such as nightly military raids into Palestinian communities, arbitrary detentions, home demolitions, and frequent killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

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