ISRAEL ARRESTED 10,000 PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SINCE 2,000

        Ramallah, 24 Dzulqa’idah 1434/ 30 September 2013 (MINA) – The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees on Saturday said that the Israeli forces arrested 10,000 Palestinian since the outbreak of second Intifada in September 2000.

       The ministry said in a report on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, that Israel is holding 250 children in prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank.

       The Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in Sept. 28, 2000, following a visit by Israel’s then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Al Aqsa Mosque, International Islamic News Agency (IINA) quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

       The ministry said that 90 percent of the children were arrested from their homes during arrest campaigns that the Israeli army usually carries after midnight.

       The ministry added that the majority of them were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew. According to the ministry, “the Palestinian children are staying in very difficult circumstances in Israeli jails, are being violated during their arrests, during their interrogations and during their court proceedings.”
       It added that the Israeli Prison Service “put them under psychological pressure and some jailers molested some of the children.” The ministry said that “holding Palestinian children in Israeli prisons violates the Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring the population it is occupying to its own territory.”

       It added that “incarcerating minors, especially holding them without charge in administrative detention, violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The official said that the Palestinian children still prosecuted at military courts that lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards.
        According to recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 5,100 Palestinian prisoners in its in 17 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank of whom 234 children, 15 females, 14 members of Palestine Legislative Council, 135 in administrative detention without trial and hundreds suffer from medical negligence.

       Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that prisoners must be freed in line with to the peace agreements reached with Israel. On July, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met for the sixth round of talks since negotiations were restarted in Washington in an attempt to solve the final status issues; Jerusalem, refugees, boundaries, settlements and security.

       The parties, led by chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, made the talks under a complete media blackout, with the Israeli side not saying where or when they will take place, or even confirming their existence.

       Top Palestinian and Israeli officials lowered expectations from the re-launched peace talks. (T/P08/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)