31 dec 2014
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For many observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2014 will be remembered for the images it broadcast to the world from the Gaza Strip. These images depicted children fleeing from heavy bombing and shelling by Israeli forces, taking shelter with their families in crowded UN schools, or convalescing in Gaza’s overstretched hospitals. Among the most tragic were those that showed the bodies of four young boys, aged between 7 and 11, killed by a projectile fired by the Israeli navy, as they played on a Gaza beach during the offensive.
But the suffering of Palestinian children was not limited to the 50-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, nor was it limited to the geographical confines of the 25 square mile coastal enclave. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, it was Palestinian children who continued to pay the heaviest price for the ongoing Israeli military occupation. Wholesale violations of children’s rights across the Occupied Palestinian Territory led to numerous fatalities and injuries, as well as psychological trauma resulting from collective punishment policies that affected children, such as house raids and demolitions. Here are the five factors that most affected Palestinian children in 2014, as observed by DCI-Palestine. Violence in Gaza According to DCI-Palestine’s research, at least 480 children lost their lives in the 50-day military offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, that saw vast swathes of the Gaza Strip flattened. The children who died made up a fifth of the 2,205 Palestinians who were killed during the conflict. Many more thousands of children were wounded, with approximately 1,000 sustaining permanent disabilities. The high number of child and civilian fatalities raised critical questions about the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military, and the illegal targeting of locations protected under international law such as schools, hospitals and shelters. Top UN human rights official Navi Pillay stated publicly that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli forces. DCI-Palestine documentation also uncovered one instance in which the Israeli military used a Palestinian child as a human shield. This case involved a 16-year-old boy who was detained for five days, physically assaulted, and made to search for tunnels inside the Gaza Strip. Though the media focused on the violence throughout the conflict, fatalities and injuries were being recorded even before the start of Operation Protective Edge. Before the conflict began, three children lost their lives as a result of Israeli gunfire or airstrikes, while at least 43 were injured in similar circumstances. Since the end of the offensive reconstruction has been limited, despite the easing of the blockade being a key factor in reaching a ceasefire agreement. Children displaced during the conflict have remained in shelters into the winter season, which brought with it widespread flooding across the Strip. Military detention, solitary confinement Military detention is a reality for hundreds of Palestinian children each year, exposing them to physical and psychological violence, interrupting education, contributing to mental health issues, and placing large numbers of families under stress. This continued to be the case in 2014. |
This year, the average number of children held in Israeli military detention stood at 197 per month, largely unchanged from the 2013 figure of 199 per month. This stable figure, however, masks the undercurrent of change taking place within the system, with a clampdown on Palestinian youth becoming apparent in the second half of 2014.
In September, a new military order, involving the interrogation of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, appeared to safeguard children’s rights. On closer inspection, however, it became clear that children arrested for throwing stones - that is, the majority of children entangled in the Israeli military court system - would not be protected by the new law.
In November, the Israeli cabinet approved a bill extending the maximum penalty for those found guilty of throwing stones to 20 years, equivalent to the longest possible sentence for manslaughter. This bill also applied to children.
As a backdrop to these developments, the use of solitary confinement as a means of coercing confessions, and the arbitrary use of house arrest, continued to prevent Palestinian children from enjoying their rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Settler violence
Settlers - Israelis who live in the West Bank in settlements that are deemed illegal under international law - have long been attacking Palestinians, including children. In June, DCI-Palestine published a report detailing incidents of settler attacks that took place in 2013, including attacks on children as they made their way to school and on school buildings during classes.
The report noted the implicit cooperation of soldiers in settler attacks, including cases in which soldiers either ignored overt attacks or even participated in the violence.
Documenting settler violence, DCI-Palestine found that 129 instances of settler attacks against children were recorded between 2008 and 2012. The announcement in October of a further 1,000 new settler homes across East Jerusalem will likely expose Palestinian children to further violence, as the number of Israeli settlers living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory continues to swell.
Live ammunition and deaths across the West Bank
At least 11 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, lost their lives in 2014 after being shot with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers. Fatalities increased in the aftermath of the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in June and the subsequent revenge killing of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who was murdered in early July. This, as well as the conflict in Gaza during July and August, led to a rise in protests and a clampdown on Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem by the Israeli military.
Israeli forces stationed in East Jerusalem and the West Bank routinely used excessive force to disperse crowds, including using live ammunition, resulting in injuries and fatalities to children. Live ammunition, according to the Israeli military’s own regulations, must only be used in circumstances in which a direct, mortal threat is posed to a soldier. DCI-Palestine, to date, has found no evidence that suggests that the children killed in 2014 were posing such a threat at the time of their shooting.
In May, two teenagers, Nadeem Nawara and Mohammad Salameh Abu Daher, were fatally shot with live ammunition as they protested outside Ofer military prison in the West Bank town of Beitunia.
In September, a new military order, involving the interrogation of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, appeared to safeguard children’s rights. On closer inspection, however, it became clear that children arrested for throwing stones - that is, the majority of children entangled in the Israeli military court system - would not be protected by the new law.
In November, the Israeli cabinet approved a bill extending the maximum penalty for those found guilty of throwing stones to 20 years, equivalent to the longest possible sentence for manslaughter. This bill also applied to children.
As a backdrop to these developments, the use of solitary confinement as a means of coercing confessions, and the arbitrary use of house arrest, continued to prevent Palestinian children from enjoying their rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Settler violence
Settlers - Israelis who live in the West Bank in settlements that are deemed illegal under international law - have long been attacking Palestinians, including children. In June, DCI-Palestine published a report detailing incidents of settler attacks that took place in 2013, including attacks on children as they made their way to school and on school buildings during classes.
The report noted the implicit cooperation of soldiers in settler attacks, including cases in which soldiers either ignored overt attacks or even participated in the violence.
Documenting settler violence, DCI-Palestine found that 129 instances of settler attacks against children were recorded between 2008 and 2012. The announcement in October of a further 1,000 new settler homes across East Jerusalem will likely expose Palestinian children to further violence, as the number of Israeli settlers living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory continues to swell.
Live ammunition and deaths across the West Bank
At least 11 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, lost their lives in 2014 after being shot with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers. Fatalities increased in the aftermath of the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in June and the subsequent revenge killing of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who was murdered in early July. This, as well as the conflict in Gaza during July and August, led to a rise in protests and a clampdown on Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem by the Israeli military.
Israeli forces stationed in East Jerusalem and the West Bank routinely used excessive force to disperse crowds, including using live ammunition, resulting in injuries and fatalities to children. Live ammunition, according to the Israeli military’s own regulations, must only be used in circumstances in which a direct, mortal threat is posed to a soldier. DCI-Palestine, to date, has found no evidence that suggests that the children killed in 2014 were posing such a threat at the time of their shooting.
In May, two teenagers, Nadeem Nawara and Mohammad Salameh Abu Daher, were fatally shot with live ammunition as they protested outside Ofer military prison in the West Bank town of Beitunia.
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CCTV and news footage of the event clearly indicated that both boys were unarmed at the moment that they were shot during a lull in the protest. In the aftermath, Israeli officials first disputed the legitimacy of the video evidence, and then categorically denied that live fire was used during the protest: weeks later, it was proven that both teens were killed by live bullets.
In an unusual move by Israeli authorities, a border policeman has been charged with manslaughter for the killing of Nadeem. For the other children who died in 2014, however, justice remains unlikely: no soldiers or border policemen have been charged with their deaths. Collective punishment Israeli policies designed to collectively punish the civilian population, including children, continued apace across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. During Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza, the overwhelming majority of children were killed when their homes were bombed by Israeli missiles. In one case, 18 children from the same extended family, aged between 4 months and 14 years old, died when their home was bombed in an Israeli airstrike, which, authorities claimed, was targeting a Hamas member visiting the building at the time. In the West Bank, Israeli authorities regularly approved the demolition of houses of those suspected, but not convicted, of crimes. The demolition of homes in which children are living contributes to psychological trauma, the interruption of education, and significant distress, and have been condemned by human rights groups in recent years. |
25 dec 2014
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A five-year-old Palestinian child on Wednesday afternoon suffered a serious eye injury when Israeli soldiers fired indiscriminately rubber bullets in Issawiya district.
According to local sources, the child, Mohamed Obeid, was getting off his school bus outside his parents' house when a rubber bullet hit his right eye. The kid was rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in the holy city and underwent emergency surgery. The Palestinian information center (PIC) was told that Israeli border |
guard troops stormed Issawiya district and embarked on randomly firing rubber bullets as well as stun and tear gas grenades.
Last Ramadan, another child from Issawiya had suffered a similar eye injury during an Israeli violent raid.
Senior citizens from Issawiya held last night an urgent meeting and agreed on the need to seek help from international and local human rights groups to curb such Israeli violations.
They also called for necessarily conducting an impartial investigation into the shooting incident that caused a serious eye injury to the little child.
Last Ramadan, another child from Issawiya had suffered a similar eye injury during an Israeli violent raid.
Senior citizens from Issawiya held last night an urgent meeting and agreed on the need to seek help from international and local human rights groups to curb such Israeli violations.
They also called for necessarily conducting an impartial investigation into the shooting incident that caused a serious eye injury to the little child.
24 dec 2014
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Tuesday afternoon kidnapped a wounded Palestinian youth after he was bitten and mauled by police dogs unleashed during the clashes that burst out in Beit Ummar, north of the West Bank city of al-Khalil.
Mohamed Awad, media spokesperson for the Popular Committee against Settlement in Beit Ummar, told the WAFA News Agency that the 16-year-old minor Hamza Ahmad Khalil Abu Hashem sustained moderate injuries after he was attacked by two police dogs unleashed by two masked Israeli soldiers on a group of Palestinian unarmed youngsters during the confrontations.
The dogs attacked the boy and pounced on him moments before the Israeli occupation soldiers apprehended the bleeding child and dragged him to the Karmi Tsur settlement, Awad added.
The IOF discharged heavy barrages of tear gas on the boy’s family after the latter protested at such an arbitrary arrest.
A number of Hamza’s family members and civilians were treated for breathing disorders in the process due to heavy gas inhalation.
The Israeli occupation soldiers attacked activist Awad in an attempt to rob him of his cameras after he captured live snapshots and videos of an IOF soldier pitching an ambush to trap Palestinian young men.
Mohamed Awad, media spokesperson for the Popular Committee against Settlement in Beit Ummar, told the WAFA News Agency that the 16-year-old minor Hamza Ahmad Khalil Abu Hashem sustained moderate injuries after he was attacked by two police dogs unleashed by two masked Israeli soldiers on a group of Palestinian unarmed youngsters during the confrontations.
The dogs attacked the boy and pounced on him moments before the Israeli occupation soldiers apprehended the bleeding child and dragged him to the Karmi Tsur settlement, Awad added.
The IOF discharged heavy barrages of tear gas on the boy’s family after the latter protested at such an arbitrary arrest.
A number of Hamza’s family members and civilians were treated for breathing disorders in the process due to heavy gas inhalation.
The Israeli occupation soldiers attacked activist Awad in an attempt to rob him of his cameras after he captured live snapshots and videos of an IOF soldier pitching an ambush to trap Palestinian young men.
20 dec 2014
Diyaa, 16, remembers being thrown into a windowless cell, where he spent 15 days.
By Samer Badawi
"I won't move until I say goodbye to my mother."
For speaking these words, Diyaa was knocked to the floor of his family home, kicked, and beaten by Israeli soldiers who, two weeks earlier, had done the same to his two friends. It was 3 am, and Diyaa's parents could only watch as their 16-year-old son was dragged to an army jeep, blindfolded, and—like thousands of Palestinian children before him—forced into a military detention center in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
What happened next, according to affidavits given by Diyaa and his friends, fits a pattern of Israeli abuse designed to coerce confessions from Palestinian children. Among the most troubling of their experiences were prolonged periods of solitary confinement, a correctional tactic usually reserved for adult prisoners—and, even then, only after they are convicted.
"Although it’s true that, in the United States, children and juvenile offenders are sometimes held in solitary confinement—either as a disciplinary measure or to separate them from adult populations—in Israeli military detention, Palestinian children are held in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes," said Brad Parker, international advocacy officer and attorney for DCI-Palestine.
That, says Parker, "amounts to torture under international law."
Isolation, interrogation, and beatings
On the day of his detention, 16-year-old Diyaa remembers being thrown into a windowless cell, where he was to spend the next 15 days. During that time, he emerged only to be escorted to an interrogation room. He estimates that he was interrogated 15 times, for two hours each—all with his feet and hands bound to "a low metal chair."
The interrogator accused Diyaa of throwing stones, an offense that, according to a November 2009 Israeli military order, [PDF] could carry a sentence of up to 20 years. "I kept saying I wanted to see a lawyer," Diyaa recalls.
"He asked me when I threw stones and with whom, but I did not answer. He interrogated me for about two hours. He did the same the following five days."
On the fifth day, Diyaa relented. "I had to confess to throwing stones because of my horrible detention conditions in the cell. I also thought they would transfer me to a regular prison if I confessed." But even after his "confession," Diyaa was thrown back into his cell. His isolation was to last another 10 days, punctuated by more interrogations and, this time, beatings.
"One of the jailers used to beat me whenever I knocked on the door to ask for something," Diyaa told DCI-Palestine. "He would come to the cell with another jailer, tie my hands and feet, and kick me hard while I was on the floor, and punch me on my stomach and head without any mercy."
Forced confessions
The aim, it turned out, was to extract another confession—for a specific stone-throwing incident to which Diyaa's friend had, according to the interrogator, already admitted.
But in sworn testimony to DCI-Palestine, Diyaa denied any involvement in the incident:
"The interrogator said that my friend Thabet accused me in his statement of throwing stones with him at a settler car, that the car overturned and the passengers were injured. I told him that was not true, and that I was at the local supermarket when I heard about the incident."
Diyaa's friend Thabet, it turns out, had just admitted to stoning a car carrying residents of an illegal settlement near his hometown of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But the 16-year-old's "confession" came after four days of solitary confinement and abuse, culminating in a threat so terrifying that Thabet immediately agreed to whatever charges had been leveled against him.
According to Thabet, an Israeli interrogator told him: "If you don't confess, I'll have both of your parents arrested, brought here to this room, and killed."
By Samer Badawi
"I won't move until I say goodbye to my mother."
For speaking these words, Diyaa was knocked to the floor of his family home, kicked, and beaten by Israeli soldiers who, two weeks earlier, had done the same to his two friends. It was 3 am, and Diyaa's parents could only watch as their 16-year-old son was dragged to an army jeep, blindfolded, and—like thousands of Palestinian children before him—forced into a military detention center in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
What happened next, according to affidavits given by Diyaa and his friends, fits a pattern of Israeli abuse designed to coerce confessions from Palestinian children. Among the most troubling of their experiences were prolonged periods of solitary confinement, a correctional tactic usually reserved for adult prisoners—and, even then, only after they are convicted.
"Although it’s true that, in the United States, children and juvenile offenders are sometimes held in solitary confinement—either as a disciplinary measure or to separate them from adult populations—in Israeli military detention, Palestinian children are held in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes," said Brad Parker, international advocacy officer and attorney for DCI-Palestine.
That, says Parker, "amounts to torture under international law."
Isolation, interrogation, and beatings
On the day of his detention, 16-year-old Diyaa remembers being thrown into a windowless cell, where he was to spend the next 15 days. During that time, he emerged only to be escorted to an interrogation room. He estimates that he was interrogated 15 times, for two hours each—all with his feet and hands bound to "a low metal chair."
The interrogator accused Diyaa of throwing stones, an offense that, according to a November 2009 Israeli military order, [PDF] could carry a sentence of up to 20 years. "I kept saying I wanted to see a lawyer," Diyaa recalls.
"He asked me when I threw stones and with whom, but I did not answer. He interrogated me for about two hours. He did the same the following five days."
On the fifth day, Diyaa relented. "I had to confess to throwing stones because of my horrible detention conditions in the cell. I also thought they would transfer me to a regular prison if I confessed." But even after his "confession," Diyaa was thrown back into his cell. His isolation was to last another 10 days, punctuated by more interrogations and, this time, beatings.
"One of the jailers used to beat me whenever I knocked on the door to ask for something," Diyaa told DCI-Palestine. "He would come to the cell with another jailer, tie my hands and feet, and kick me hard while I was on the floor, and punch me on my stomach and head without any mercy."
Forced confessions
The aim, it turned out, was to extract another confession—for a specific stone-throwing incident to which Diyaa's friend had, according to the interrogator, already admitted.
But in sworn testimony to DCI-Palestine, Diyaa denied any involvement in the incident:
"The interrogator said that my friend Thabet accused me in his statement of throwing stones with him at a settler car, that the car overturned and the passengers were injured. I told him that was not true, and that I was at the local supermarket when I heard about the incident."
Diyaa's friend Thabet, it turns out, had just admitted to stoning a car carrying residents of an illegal settlement near his hometown of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But the 16-year-old's "confession" came after four days of solitary confinement and abuse, culminating in a threat so terrifying that Thabet immediately agreed to whatever charges had been leveled against him.
According to Thabet, an Israeli interrogator told him: "If you don't confess, I'll have both of your parents arrested, brought here to this room, and killed."
An Israeli interrogator threatened Thabet with killing his mother, Amira, and father, Abed.
"I was scared they would actually do what they said they would do about arresting and killing my parents," Thabet told DCI-Palestine. "So I confessed. I confessed to throwing stones several times at a settler car, and the stones hit the car and overturned it, and that the passengers were injured, as I [recall]."
Fending for themselves
Until their "confessions," Diyaa, Thabet, and a third friend—17-year-old Bashar, also accused of stone-throwing—were left to fend for themselves, deprived of family visits and legal counsel. Parker says this, too, is part of a pattern of Israeli abuse:
"[Child detainees] are often denied access to an attorney until after being subjected to several days of prolonged interrogation and isolation," according to Parker. "The apparent goal," he says, "is to obtain a confession" at all costs.
Between the three of them, Diyaa, Thabet, and Bashar spent a combined total of 62 days in solitary confinement. In 40 similar cases documented by DCI-Palestine between 2012 and 2013, the average time an individual child spent in solitary confinement was 10 days. The longest period of confinement documented in a single case was 29 total days in 2012 while, in 2013, another child was held in isolation for 28 total days.
"This pattern of abuse by Israel is grave," said Richard Falk, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Falk, who is also a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, called Israel’s use of solitary confinement against children "inhumane, cruel, degrading, and unlawful; and, most worryingly, it is likely to adversely affect the mental and physical health of underage detainees."
An October 2013 report by The New York Times on the use of interrogations among teenagers held in US prisons concluded that the detainees were "too young to know better," often incriminating themselves without understanding their legal rights.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, child detainees have no such rights. Between 2008 and 2013, DCI-Palestine documented 80 cases of Palestinian children held in solitary confinement prior to being charged with any offense.
Torture
"Using solitary confinement in this way is conduct that amounts to torture under international law," says Parker. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has explicitly found that solitary confinement, when "used intentionally during pretrial detention as a technique for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession" amounts to torture [PDF] or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
In more than 97 percent of cases documented by DCI-Palestine between 2012 and 2013, "children held in solitary confinement were not properly informed of their right to silence, were denied access to legal counsel and did not have a family member present during interrogation," according to a May 2014 report [PDF] prepared by the organization. In the same time period, more than three-quarters of child detainees were strip searched, subject to physical abuse, and denied access to food and water.
In some cases, Israeli authorities use solitary confinement to punish children already detained as political prisoners. In April of this year, a 15-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who had been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for stone-throwing, was subject to 25 days of isolation for refusing food—a desperate measure that, he says, was intended to protest the harsh conditions in which he was being held. Obaida, whose last name was withheld at his family's request, told DCI-Palestine that his jailers threatened to tie him to his bed and force-feed him if he did not end his hunger strike.
Widespread abuse
According to the cases DCI-Palestine documented in 2012 and 2013, some 20 percent of Palestinian child detainees were subjected to solitary confinement during their interrogations. Any "confessions" extracted by this practice are suspect, say legal experts. Yet, like older political detainees, Palestinian children stand little chance of defending themselves in Israeli military courts, which function under a set of directives designed explicitly to "administer" Israel’s occupation.
"Israeli military court judges rarely exclude confessions or other evidence extracted from coercive interrogations," says Parker. "Palestinian child detainees are denied access to counsel, ill-treated and tortured, and then find themselves before a military court process that falls drastically short of international juvenile justice standards."
As of September, DCI-Palestine recorded 182 Palestinian children in Israeli detention. Since 2000, an estimated 8,000 Palestinian children [PDF] have been detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.
As for Diyaa, Thabet, and Bashar, the three friends have since appeared before a military judge to face charges for stone-throwing. The three have been removed from solitary confinement, but they face an uncertain fate in a court system that is not their own. Meanwhile, the three continue to be haunted by the memory of their arrest and interrogation.
"I was very scared of them," Thabet said of his interrogators. "There were five of them, and they were huge compared to me."
"I was scared they would actually do what they said they would do about arresting and killing my parents," Thabet told DCI-Palestine. "So I confessed. I confessed to throwing stones several times at a settler car, and the stones hit the car and overturned it, and that the passengers were injured, as I [recall]."
Fending for themselves
Until their "confessions," Diyaa, Thabet, and a third friend—17-year-old Bashar, also accused of stone-throwing—were left to fend for themselves, deprived of family visits and legal counsel. Parker says this, too, is part of a pattern of Israeli abuse:
"[Child detainees] are often denied access to an attorney until after being subjected to several days of prolonged interrogation and isolation," according to Parker. "The apparent goal," he says, "is to obtain a confession" at all costs.
Between the three of them, Diyaa, Thabet, and Bashar spent a combined total of 62 days in solitary confinement. In 40 similar cases documented by DCI-Palestine between 2012 and 2013, the average time an individual child spent in solitary confinement was 10 days. The longest period of confinement documented in a single case was 29 total days in 2012 while, in 2013, another child was held in isolation for 28 total days.
"This pattern of abuse by Israel is grave," said Richard Falk, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Falk, who is also a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, called Israel’s use of solitary confinement against children "inhumane, cruel, degrading, and unlawful; and, most worryingly, it is likely to adversely affect the mental and physical health of underage detainees."
An October 2013 report by The New York Times on the use of interrogations among teenagers held in US prisons concluded that the detainees were "too young to know better," often incriminating themselves without understanding their legal rights.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, child detainees have no such rights. Between 2008 and 2013, DCI-Palestine documented 80 cases of Palestinian children held in solitary confinement prior to being charged with any offense.
Torture
"Using solitary confinement in this way is conduct that amounts to torture under international law," says Parker. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has explicitly found that solitary confinement, when "used intentionally during pretrial detention as a technique for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession" amounts to torture [PDF] or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
In more than 97 percent of cases documented by DCI-Palestine between 2012 and 2013, "children held in solitary confinement were not properly informed of their right to silence, were denied access to legal counsel and did not have a family member present during interrogation," according to a May 2014 report [PDF] prepared by the organization. In the same time period, more than three-quarters of child detainees were strip searched, subject to physical abuse, and denied access to food and water.
In some cases, Israeli authorities use solitary confinement to punish children already detained as political prisoners. In April of this year, a 15-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who had been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for stone-throwing, was subject to 25 days of isolation for refusing food—a desperate measure that, he says, was intended to protest the harsh conditions in which he was being held. Obaida, whose last name was withheld at his family's request, told DCI-Palestine that his jailers threatened to tie him to his bed and force-feed him if he did not end his hunger strike.
Widespread abuse
According to the cases DCI-Palestine documented in 2012 and 2013, some 20 percent of Palestinian child detainees were subjected to solitary confinement during their interrogations. Any "confessions" extracted by this practice are suspect, say legal experts. Yet, like older political detainees, Palestinian children stand little chance of defending themselves in Israeli military courts, which function under a set of directives designed explicitly to "administer" Israel’s occupation.
"Israeli military court judges rarely exclude confessions or other evidence extracted from coercive interrogations," says Parker. "Palestinian child detainees are denied access to counsel, ill-treated and tortured, and then find themselves before a military court process that falls drastically short of international juvenile justice standards."
As of September, DCI-Palestine recorded 182 Palestinian children in Israeli detention. Since 2000, an estimated 8,000 Palestinian children [PDF] have been detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.
As for Diyaa, Thabet, and Bashar, the three friends have since appeared before a military judge to face charges for stone-throwing. The three have been removed from solitary confinement, but they face an uncertain fate in a court system that is not their own. Meanwhile, the three continue to be haunted by the memory of their arrest and interrogation.
"I was very scared of them," Thabet said of his interrogators. "There were five of them, and they were huge compared to me."
18 dec 2014
Soldier abducting child (image from video by CPT)
The Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron videotaped an incident on Wednesday morning in which two small children are grabbed and held by soldiers. As the boys begin to cry and shake, multiple relatives attempt to intervene, but the soldiers end up abducting the children in an unmarked van.
The mother of one of the boys is eventually allowed to go with them in the van, but another older male relative breaks down in tears after his intervention fails to free the young boys.
The soldiers accused the two boys of throwing stones, but provided no evidence to back this accusation. Mohammed Nabil Taha and Akram Zayed Al-Jamal were visibly shaking and crying while the Israeli border police held them by their collars for thirty minutes at Qitoun checkpoint 209 in Hebron, before pushing them into a white van and taking them away to an unknown location.
According to the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers, "The two boys were hidden from view in a corner behind the military checkpoint. When the Israeli military vehicle came to take the children to the police station, the border police roughly grabbed the boys' collars as the parents attempted to prevent the children from being taken away. One boy’s mother was eventually able to accompany them to the police station and support her son during this traumatic experience."
Israeli troops frequently target young children for abduction and interrogation, despite international law forbidding this practice. A recent report by the Euro-Mid Center for Human Rights documented a widespread practice of punishments, illegal detentions, and violations of international agreements against Palestinian children by Israeli forces.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, 221 Palestinian children are currently in Israeli prisons — with 100 in Ofer Prison, 43 in HaSharon Prison and 78 in Megiddo Prison — amid harsh interrogation and detention conditions. Most of them were subjected to physical abuse during interrogation, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
You can view the video taken by the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers.
The Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron videotaped an incident on Wednesday morning in which two small children are grabbed and held by soldiers. As the boys begin to cry and shake, multiple relatives attempt to intervene, but the soldiers end up abducting the children in an unmarked van.
The mother of one of the boys is eventually allowed to go with them in the van, but another older male relative breaks down in tears after his intervention fails to free the young boys.
The soldiers accused the two boys of throwing stones, but provided no evidence to back this accusation. Mohammed Nabil Taha and Akram Zayed Al-Jamal were visibly shaking and crying while the Israeli border police held them by their collars for thirty minutes at Qitoun checkpoint 209 in Hebron, before pushing them into a white van and taking them away to an unknown location.
According to the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers, "The two boys were hidden from view in a corner behind the military checkpoint. When the Israeli military vehicle came to take the children to the police station, the border police roughly grabbed the boys' collars as the parents attempted to prevent the children from being taken away. One boy’s mother was eventually able to accompany them to the police station and support her son during this traumatic experience."
Israeli troops frequently target young children for abduction and interrogation, despite international law forbidding this practice. A recent report by the Euro-Mid Center for Human Rights documented a widespread practice of punishments, illegal detentions, and violations of international agreements against Palestinian children by Israeli forces.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, 221 Palestinian children are currently in Israeli prisons — with 100 in Ofer Prison, 43 in HaSharon Prison and 78 in Megiddo Prison — amid harsh interrogation and detention conditions. Most of them were subjected to physical abuse during interrogation, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
You can view the video taken by the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers.
15 dec 2014
Heba Masalha, a lawyer working for the Palestinian Detainees Committee, managed to visit two Palestinian teens, held by Israel, who testified to her of horrific abuse and torture by the soldiers and the interrogators.
On December 13, Masalha visited detainee Mahmoud Ahmad Hadra, 17 years of age, from the at-Tour town, in occupied East Jerusalem, held at the HaSharon Israeli prison.
Hadra told Masalha that when the soldiers broke into his family home to kidnap him, on July 21 2014, undercover officers assaulted him, and a soldier fired a rubber-coated metal bullet, wounding him in his leg, and causing serious bleeding.
He added that the soldiers, and undercover officers, then attacked him, and started kicking, beating and punching him, in addition to striking him with their rifles, causing injuries to various parts of his body, especially to his head.
The wounded teen was moved to the al-Maskobiyya detention center, where he remained under interrogation, torture and abuse for 30 days.
On his part, detainee Mahmoud Jamil Gheith, 17, from Silwan town in Jerusalem, and currently held at the HaSharon prison, said he was kidnapped on October 26 2014, at around 10 at night.
He was standing in front of his family home when a number of undercover soldiers assaulted him, and started kicking and beating him all over his body.
Gheith said the soldiers were punching him, kicking him, striking him on the head and back with their rifles, before they threw him onto the ground and dragged him for more than 200 meters while he was bleeding from several parts of his body, including his nose and mouth.
He was then placed in a military vehicle, where he was beaten again all the way to the al-Maskobiyya, while the soldiers were laughing and making fun of him.
Gheith was interrogated for 23 consecutive days; he was tortured, physically and emotionally, and was held in a very small, bug-infested cell.
On December 13, Masalha visited detainee Mahmoud Ahmad Hadra, 17 years of age, from the at-Tour town, in occupied East Jerusalem, held at the HaSharon Israeli prison.
Hadra told Masalha that when the soldiers broke into his family home to kidnap him, on July 21 2014, undercover officers assaulted him, and a soldier fired a rubber-coated metal bullet, wounding him in his leg, and causing serious bleeding.
He added that the soldiers, and undercover officers, then attacked him, and started kicking, beating and punching him, in addition to striking him with their rifles, causing injuries to various parts of his body, especially to his head.
The wounded teen was moved to the al-Maskobiyya detention center, where he remained under interrogation, torture and abuse for 30 days.
On his part, detainee Mahmoud Jamil Gheith, 17, from Silwan town in Jerusalem, and currently held at the HaSharon prison, said he was kidnapped on October 26 2014, at around 10 at night.
He was standing in front of his family home when a number of undercover soldiers assaulted him, and started kicking and beating him all over his body.
Gheith said the soldiers were punching him, kicking him, striking him on the head and back with their rifles, before they threw him onto the ground and dragged him for more than 200 meters while he was bleeding from several parts of his body, including his nose and mouth.
He was then placed in a military vehicle, where he was beaten again all the way to the al-Maskobiyya, while the soldiers were laughing and making fun of him.
Gheith was interrogated for 23 consecutive days; he was tortured, physically and emotionally, and was held in a very small, bug-infested cell.
11 dec 2014
Othman, 15, has been under house arrest for the past 11 months on suspicion of throwing stones.
Othman, 15, is sitting at the top of a narrow staircase in the front porch of his family’s home in the Old City, in Jerusalem. He almost never smiles or laughs, and he doesn't speak much. He has been under house arrest for the past 11 months, during which time he was only able to leave the house occasionally with his mother or father. Recently, he has been allowed to go to school accompanied by a parent. “That helps. A little bit,” he says.
Othman was arrested when he was 14, along with his then 16-year-old brother, Obaid, on November 25, 2013. Israeli soldiers came to the family’s house at dawn and took both boys to the Mascobiyya detention center, where they were interrogated. Obaid remains in detention; the boys have not seen each other since their arrest.
The boys’ father says that he hadn't realized how traumatic the interrogation had been for his younger son. “He didn't speak about it at first, so we didn't know. It was only a few months later that we found out that the interrogators were physically violent, and threatened to rape him. He was by himself, so no one knew how bad it was.”
Othman is not alone in this experience. According to the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer, a spate of interrogations followed by house arrests were recorded over the summer, all involving children from East Jerusalem and the Old City. Between June and September 2014, at least 26 children were ordered to remain under house arrest for periods ranging between one and three weeks. Most were in their mid-teens, but the youngest child was just 12 years old.
While most house arrests last for a relatively short time, some, like Othman’s, continue for months. When a child is under house arrest, their family is subjected to twice-daily visits from Israeli soldiers, at any time of the day, to verify that the child is present in the house. This situation can impact severely on a child’s mental health.
“The longer the house arrest lasts, the greater the psychological impact,” says Hassan Faraj, a psychologist working with the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. “The family must play the role of prison warden and parents at the same time. It creates a very difficult situation.” As well as this, Faraj says, “the child and his family are in a permanent state of alert because they don’t know when police will arrive in the house.”
In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the use of house arrest is not connected to serving a sentence of any kind: children have not officially been charged with an offense. Instead, they are released from detention on the condition that they agree to remain under house arrest before attending a trial. This also has ramifications for a child’s education. “Often, house arrest leads to a child dropping out of school, either because of the shock sustained during interrogation, or because of a loss of concentration or strong feelings of anxiety linked to the period of house arrest,” says Faraj.
Othman’s case was typical: Israeli authorities first arrested and interrogated him on suspicion of stone-throwing, detaining him for one month before he appeared in a magistrate’s court. There, he was released on the condition that he remained under house arrest while further charges against him were determined.
The interrogators were physically violent, and threatened to rape Othman, his father told DCI-Palestine. These house arrests have occurred within the context of an intense clampdown on Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem by Israeli forces following the murder of three Israeli settler teens in June, and the subsequent revenge murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Khdeir. In September, Haaretz reported that hundreds of children from East Jerusalem had been arrested in the preceding three months, with many detained in prisons for long periods on minor charges.
Confrontations between residents of East Jerusalem and Israeli forces further increased during Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip during the months of July and August. The offensive killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians, including 480 children, according to DCI-Palestine figures.
Though a ceasefire was reached on August 26, the atmosphere in East Jerusalem has remained tense, exacerbated by a perceived rise in the presence and heavy-handedness of Israeli forces.
Residents of East Jerusalem also accuse Israeli forces of seeking out conflict. On September 24, 2014, the Aytam School in the Old City was attacked by Israeli soldiers, who claimed that students were throwing stones from school windows: a charge vehemently denied by the school’s principal, Munther al-Natsheh. “The windows, through which the Israeli police forces claim students throw stones, are actually closed by wooden screens, and you can’t throw anything from there,” he says.
Al-Natsheh also states that, upon receiving a warning from Israeli forces, students were moved from these classrooms to prevent any potential clashes. Three boys in the 10th and 11th grades sustained injuries from sponge-tipped canisters in the attack.
Violence of this kind, alongside cases like Othman's, highlights an institutionalized disregard for children’s rights within the Israeli military, as well as a flouting of international juvenile justice standards. International law requires that in all actions concerning children the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. International juvenile justice standards also demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
By signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, Israel obligated itself to implement these internationally-recognized standards. While conditional house arrest is preferable to custodial pretrial detention under international law, it may still result in violations of a child’s right to education and be against a child’s best interests.
The tactics of Israeli forces in using extended house arrests to restrict a child’s movements have directly impacted on the lives of boys like Othman, who remains under house arrest awaiting his trial. Asked what might be the outcome of the trial, he remains silent.
Othman, 15, is sitting at the top of a narrow staircase in the front porch of his family’s home in the Old City, in Jerusalem. He almost never smiles or laughs, and he doesn't speak much. He has been under house arrest for the past 11 months, during which time he was only able to leave the house occasionally with his mother or father. Recently, he has been allowed to go to school accompanied by a parent. “That helps. A little bit,” he says.
Othman was arrested when he was 14, along with his then 16-year-old brother, Obaid, on November 25, 2013. Israeli soldiers came to the family’s house at dawn and took both boys to the Mascobiyya detention center, where they were interrogated. Obaid remains in detention; the boys have not seen each other since their arrest.
The boys’ father says that he hadn't realized how traumatic the interrogation had been for his younger son. “He didn't speak about it at first, so we didn't know. It was only a few months later that we found out that the interrogators were physically violent, and threatened to rape him. He was by himself, so no one knew how bad it was.”
Othman is not alone in this experience. According to the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer, a spate of interrogations followed by house arrests were recorded over the summer, all involving children from East Jerusalem and the Old City. Between June and September 2014, at least 26 children were ordered to remain under house arrest for periods ranging between one and three weeks. Most were in their mid-teens, but the youngest child was just 12 years old.
While most house arrests last for a relatively short time, some, like Othman’s, continue for months. When a child is under house arrest, their family is subjected to twice-daily visits from Israeli soldiers, at any time of the day, to verify that the child is present in the house. This situation can impact severely on a child’s mental health.
“The longer the house arrest lasts, the greater the psychological impact,” says Hassan Faraj, a psychologist working with the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. “The family must play the role of prison warden and parents at the same time. It creates a very difficult situation.” As well as this, Faraj says, “the child and his family are in a permanent state of alert because they don’t know when police will arrive in the house.”
In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the use of house arrest is not connected to serving a sentence of any kind: children have not officially been charged with an offense. Instead, they are released from detention on the condition that they agree to remain under house arrest before attending a trial. This also has ramifications for a child’s education. “Often, house arrest leads to a child dropping out of school, either because of the shock sustained during interrogation, or because of a loss of concentration or strong feelings of anxiety linked to the period of house arrest,” says Faraj.
Othman’s case was typical: Israeli authorities first arrested and interrogated him on suspicion of stone-throwing, detaining him for one month before he appeared in a magistrate’s court. There, he was released on the condition that he remained under house arrest while further charges against him were determined.
The interrogators were physically violent, and threatened to rape Othman, his father told DCI-Palestine. These house arrests have occurred within the context of an intense clampdown on Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem by Israeli forces following the murder of three Israeli settler teens in June, and the subsequent revenge murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Khdeir. In September, Haaretz reported that hundreds of children from East Jerusalem had been arrested in the preceding three months, with many detained in prisons for long periods on minor charges.
Confrontations between residents of East Jerusalem and Israeli forces further increased during Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip during the months of July and August. The offensive killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians, including 480 children, according to DCI-Palestine figures.
Though a ceasefire was reached on August 26, the atmosphere in East Jerusalem has remained tense, exacerbated by a perceived rise in the presence and heavy-handedness of Israeli forces.
Residents of East Jerusalem also accuse Israeli forces of seeking out conflict. On September 24, 2014, the Aytam School in the Old City was attacked by Israeli soldiers, who claimed that students were throwing stones from school windows: a charge vehemently denied by the school’s principal, Munther al-Natsheh. “The windows, through which the Israeli police forces claim students throw stones, are actually closed by wooden screens, and you can’t throw anything from there,” he says.
Al-Natsheh also states that, upon receiving a warning from Israeli forces, students were moved from these classrooms to prevent any potential clashes. Three boys in the 10th and 11th grades sustained injuries from sponge-tipped canisters in the attack.
Violence of this kind, alongside cases like Othman's, highlights an institutionalized disregard for children’s rights within the Israeli military, as well as a flouting of international juvenile justice standards. International law requires that in all actions concerning children the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. International juvenile justice standards also demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
By signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, Israel obligated itself to implement these internationally-recognized standards. While conditional house arrest is preferable to custodial pretrial detention under international law, it may still result in violations of a child’s right to education and be against a child’s best interests.
The tactics of Israeli forces in using extended house arrests to restrict a child’s movements have directly impacted on the lives of boys like Othman, who remains under house arrest awaiting his trial. Asked what might be the outcome of the trial, he remains silent.
4 dec 2014
10-year-old child Mahmoud Salah lost his right eye and 90% of his left eyesight after an Israeli bullet hit his face on his way to a nearby supermarket to buy pepper for his mother.
Talking exclusively to the Palestinian Information Center, Salah said: “I was on my way back home from school early in the morning. I could not attend class because the IOF (Israeli occupation forces) sealed off all entrances to al-Issawiya town. My mother asked me to get some pepper for the afternoon meal.”
“But on my way back home from the market, an Israeli occupation soldier caught sight of me as I walked downtown, and he fired at my face from a very close distance. I blacked out for a couple of days,” Salah added.
“I lost my right eye just a month later. Only 10% of my left eye-sight capacity has remained now,” he proceeded.
“The attack changed my entire life. It affected my academic career the way nothing else had ever done before. I miss my classes. I used to be one of the school’s laureates. Today this is no longer the case,” Salah lamented as he harked back to his schooldays and as his eyes shed the tear of nostalgia.
“I used to learn and play with my friends. I am very fond of hand-crafts. Just one day before I was wounded, I partook in a donors’ campaign for the victims of caner,” he recalled.
“Now my life has fallen apart. Consulting doctors, ophthalmologists and psychiatrists is all I wake up for every day,” he added.
Salah’s father resumed as his son wept bitterly: “I received the tragic piece of news at noontime when one of the members of the ambulance personnel who rushed Salah to al-Makasid hospital phoned me.”
“You’ve no idea about the kind of mess into which I fell as soon as medics reported to me Salah’s serious wounds. I’ve been told that his brain and eyes kept bleeding for hours and that he caught serious skull fractures.”
Salah has been transferred to Ein Karem hospital where he has undergone blood transfusion and two eye surgeries. He was placed for a couple weeks in intensive care until the doctors decided that he should go through an emergency operation to remove his right eye.”
Salah’s mother, who could not help her tears as she talked to the PIC said: “My son Salah wakes up every morning panic-stricken. He stays up late night for most of the time. My son cannot even have the lie-downs quite normally needed at his young age.”
“My son is very active. He loves socializing and has taken part in many shows. My child’s smile has gone forever now. These Israeli terrorists took away the happiness of my little child once and for all,” the mother bewailed.
Talking exclusively to the Palestinian Information Center, Salah said: “I was on my way back home from school early in the morning. I could not attend class because the IOF (Israeli occupation forces) sealed off all entrances to al-Issawiya town. My mother asked me to get some pepper for the afternoon meal.”
“But on my way back home from the market, an Israeli occupation soldier caught sight of me as I walked downtown, and he fired at my face from a very close distance. I blacked out for a couple of days,” Salah added.
“I lost my right eye just a month later. Only 10% of my left eye-sight capacity has remained now,” he proceeded.
“The attack changed my entire life. It affected my academic career the way nothing else had ever done before. I miss my classes. I used to be one of the school’s laureates. Today this is no longer the case,” Salah lamented as he harked back to his schooldays and as his eyes shed the tear of nostalgia.
“I used to learn and play with my friends. I am very fond of hand-crafts. Just one day before I was wounded, I partook in a donors’ campaign for the victims of caner,” he recalled.
“Now my life has fallen apart. Consulting doctors, ophthalmologists and psychiatrists is all I wake up for every day,” he added.
Salah’s father resumed as his son wept bitterly: “I received the tragic piece of news at noontime when one of the members of the ambulance personnel who rushed Salah to al-Makasid hospital phoned me.”
“You’ve no idea about the kind of mess into which I fell as soon as medics reported to me Salah’s serious wounds. I’ve been told that his brain and eyes kept bleeding for hours and that he caught serious skull fractures.”
Salah has been transferred to Ein Karem hospital where he has undergone blood transfusion and two eye surgeries. He was placed for a couple weeks in intensive care until the doctors decided that he should go through an emergency operation to remove his right eye.”
Salah’s mother, who could not help her tears as she talked to the PIC said: “My son Salah wakes up every morning panic-stricken. He stays up late night for most of the time. My son cannot even have the lie-downs quite normally needed at his young age.”
“My son is very active. He loves socializing and has taken part in many shows. My child’s smile has gone forever now. These Israeli terrorists took away the happiness of my little child once and for all,” the mother bewailed.
28 nov 2014
11-month-old Balqis Ghawadra became the youngest prisoner in the world, after visiting her father in Eshel Israeli prison, occupied Beer Sheva.
Nihal Ghannam Ghawadra from Bir Al-Basha village, near Jenin, waited passionately for the permission to visit her husband, Mu'ammar, only to be separated from her two little children, and to see her entire family become prisoners, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights reports.
According to the PNN, Nihal headed to the prison on Wednesday, with her daughter Balqis, 11 months, and son Baraa', age 2. As soon as she arrived, the three were separated.
Nihal was imprisoned, along with her two children, under the pretext of sneaking a mobile phone to her husband. The entire family has now been imprisoned, as a result.
Muammar's mother told Ahrar that her daughter in law called to inform her that Israeli authorities had imprisoned her and her children, and began calling on people to help release them from the prison.
Director of the center Fu'ad al-Khuffash declared the move by prison officials a flagrant violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, calling on local and international human rights organizations, as well as Palestinian authorities, for a speedy intervention.
Mu'ammar Ghawadra was released in 2011, under the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian resistance, after serving 8 years of a life sentence (+ 20 years) in Israeli prisons.
Muammar was imprisoned again, a few months ago, without charge.
Furthermore, according to Director al-Khuffash, 63 of the Palestinian prisoners released in the Shalit agreement were also re-imprisoned without charge, for the purpose of using them as hostages, in order to damage resistance in any future prisoner exchange agreement.
Nihal Ghannam Ghawadra from Bir Al-Basha village, near Jenin, waited passionately for the permission to visit her husband, Mu'ammar, only to be separated from her two little children, and to see her entire family become prisoners, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights reports.
According to the PNN, Nihal headed to the prison on Wednesday, with her daughter Balqis, 11 months, and son Baraa', age 2. As soon as she arrived, the three were separated.
Nihal was imprisoned, along with her two children, under the pretext of sneaking a mobile phone to her husband. The entire family has now been imprisoned, as a result.
Muammar's mother told Ahrar that her daughter in law called to inform her that Israeli authorities had imprisoned her and her children, and began calling on people to help release them from the prison.
Director of the center Fu'ad al-Khuffash declared the move by prison officials a flagrant violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, calling on local and international human rights organizations, as well as Palestinian authorities, for a speedy intervention.
Mu'ammar Ghawadra was released in 2011, under the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian resistance, after serving 8 years of a life sentence (+ 20 years) in Israeli prisons.
Muammar was imprisoned again, a few months ago, without charge.
Furthermore, according to Director al-Khuffash, 63 of the Palestinian prisoners released in the Shalit agreement were also re-imprisoned without charge, for the purpose of using them as hostages, in order to damage resistance in any future prisoner exchange agreement.
15 nov 2014
The 11-year old Saleh Samer Mahmoud is being treated in the intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital after he was injured with a rubber bullet during clashes that broke out in the village of Esawyeh.
The child’s father explained that his son underwent two surgeries (one in the eye and the other in the skull and nose) that lasted from 6 p.m Thursday until 5 a.m. Friday.
The father said that his son lost sight in his right eye and check-ups are still being done on the left eye; note that he responded to the strobe effects.
Saleh’s father denied the news that talked about removing his eye and added that his son suffered fractures in his skull and his nose.
He pointed out that his son is currently being treated in the intensive care unit at the hospital.
The child’s father explained that his son underwent two surgeries (one in the eye and the other in the skull and nose) that lasted from 6 p.m Thursday until 5 a.m. Friday.
The father said that his son lost sight in his right eye and check-ups are still being done on the left eye; note that he responded to the strobe effects.
Saleh’s father denied the news that talked about removing his eye and added that his son suffered fractures in his skull and his nose.
He pointed out that his son is currently being treated in the intensive care unit at the hospital.
11 nov 2014
A Jerusalemite citizen said that an Israeli police force broke into his family home to arrest his two-year-old nephew on Monday.
Bassam Zeidani said that the police force said they had orders to arrest Hamza Zeidani, but when they saw that he was a child they took away his uncle Mohammed Zeidani.
Commenting on the incident, the head of the Palestinian prisoner association Qaddoura Fares said that the Israeli security apparatuses were blinded with security concerns to the extent of ordering the arrest of a baby.
He warned against persistence in such practices that only expose the Israeli occupation authority’s savagery that does not differentiate between children and adults
http://english.palinfo
Bassam Zeidani said that the police force said they had orders to arrest Hamza Zeidani, but when they saw that he was a child they took away his uncle Mohammed Zeidani.
Commenting on the incident, the head of the Palestinian prisoner association Qaddoura Fares said that the Israeli security apparatuses were blinded with security concerns to the extent of ordering the arrest of a baby.
He warned against persistence in such practices that only expose the Israeli occupation authority’s savagery that does not differentiate between children and adults
http://english.palinfo
1 nov 2014
The two-year-old child Mimati
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Friday evening a Palestinian journalist while covering clashes in Silwad town, north of Ramallah.
Eyewitnesses said that Palestine TV channel reporter Ali Dar Ali was arrested in Ramallah and taken to an unknown destination while covering the violent clashes that broke out between Israeli forces and local youths in Silwad.
Three youths were injured with rubber bullets during the confrontation, while an elderly man suffered breathing problems due to the heavy tear gas bombs fired by Israeli forces, the sources added.
The clashes erupted at the western entrance to the town when Israeli forces heavily fired a barrage of tear gas bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinian youths who responded by throwing stones and empty bottles.
On the other hand, IOF soldiers stormed a Palestinian home in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem and tried to arrest a two-year-old child and his 9-year-old cousin.
Wadi al-Hilweh Information Center confirmed that a large Israeli force broke into the home, claiming that the two children were stoning the soldiers from the rooftop.
Family sources told the center that the child Mimati Yasini, aged just two, had apparently thrown a stone while playing on the rooftop of the home.
"Raise your children not to throw stones! We are here to protect all of you", the Israeli officer claimed, addressing the child’s grandfather.
Israeli forces searched the home and tried to arrest the child for having “colored stones” in his pocket, which turned out be to be "candy".
http://english.palinfo
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Friday evening a Palestinian journalist while covering clashes in Silwad town, north of Ramallah.
Eyewitnesses said that Palestine TV channel reporter Ali Dar Ali was arrested in Ramallah and taken to an unknown destination while covering the violent clashes that broke out between Israeli forces and local youths in Silwad.
Three youths were injured with rubber bullets during the confrontation, while an elderly man suffered breathing problems due to the heavy tear gas bombs fired by Israeli forces, the sources added.
The clashes erupted at the western entrance to the town when Israeli forces heavily fired a barrage of tear gas bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinian youths who responded by throwing stones and empty bottles.
On the other hand, IOF soldiers stormed a Palestinian home in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem and tried to arrest a two-year-old child and his 9-year-old cousin.
Wadi al-Hilweh Information Center confirmed that a large Israeli force broke into the home, claiming that the two children were stoning the soldiers from the rooftop.
Family sources told the center that the child Mimati Yasini, aged just two, had apparently thrown a stone while playing on the rooftop of the home.
"Raise your children not to throw stones! We are here to protect all of you", the Israeli officer claimed, addressing the child’s grandfather.
Israeli forces searched the home and tried to arrest the child for having “colored stones” in his pocket, which turned out be to be "candy".
http://english.palinfo
