Children in the Israeli military detention system face inhumane treatment such as beatings, strip searches, psychological abuse, weeks in solitary confinement, and being denied access to a lawyer during interrogations,
new research by Save the Children found.
Save the Children consulted more than 470 children from across the West Bank who have been detained over the past ten years. The organisation found that the majority of children were taken from their homes at night, blindfolded, with their hands painfully bound behind their backs. Many of the respondents said were not told why they were being arrested or where they were going.
“They destroyed the front door, entered my room, covered my face with a bag and took me away…They told my father that I would return the next day. I returned after 12 months”, said Abdullah*, who was detained six times as a child.
Every year, hundreds of Palestinian children are detained by Israeli authorities. They are the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted through a military, rather than civilian, justice system.[1] The most common charge is throwing a stone - for which the maximum sentence is 20 years in prison