Rise in Palestinian children held by Israel ‘alarming’
Between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted in Israel’s military courts each year, says rights group.
A jabbing pain in his shoulder and thigh roused Obada from his sleep
at 3am. In the half-light, the 15-year-old could make out eight masked
men surrounding his bed, their rifles pointed at him.
“I felt terrified,” he said of the experience of being arrested in
February from his home in the village of al-Araqa, near Jenin in the
northern West Bank.
Obada is one of more than 100 Palestinian children who, in recent
months, have found themselves dragged from bed at gunpoint in the middle
of the night by Israeli soldiers, according to children’s right groups.
Testimonies like Obada’s feature in a new report,
No Way to Treat a Child, compiled by Defence for Children International
– Palestine (DCIP), a group monitoring Israeli violations of
Palestinian children’s rights.
The 440 children currently in military detention are the highest total since the Israeli army started issuing figures in 2008 – and more than double the number detained this time last year.
The rights group says that, despite promises two years ago from the
Israeli army to phase out night raids following international
condemnation, in practice they are used as routinely as ever.
During his arrest, Obada said he was hit with a rifle butt,
blindfolded and his hands tied with a plastic cord that cut into his
flesh. “The soldiers dragged me out of the house without allowing me to
say goodbye to my family and without telling me why and where they were
taking me,” he said.
Over the next fortnight, according to Obada, he was repeatedly
beaten. Indignities included being locked overnight in a small toilet
cubicle and assaulted with a taser when he protested.
For 12 days, his only break from solitary confinement was to be taken
from his cell to an interrogation room where he was tied tightly to a
chair, slapped and threatened.
He was repeatedly questioned about his ties to two school friends, Nihad and Fuad Waked, who had been killed a few days earlier during an attack on soldiers.
