The number of children prisoned in the central West Bank by Israeli authorities has doubled this month, marking a systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian minors, according to a report released by the Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP). "Excessive force and misuse of crowd control weapons has once again proved to be the norm for Israeli forces when quashing protests," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the Accountability Program director at the DCIP.
"Israeli forces seemingly disregard their own open-fire regulations and international law, and enjoy near complete impunity for their unlawful conduct. This lack of justice and accountability results in a high toll paid by Palestinian minors subjected to serious injury or even death."
At least 345 Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territories were injured by Israeli forces between Dec. 5 and Dec. 18, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over a third of those injured during clashes in the Gaza Strip were shot with live ammunition, the OCHA reported.
A Palestinian minor has recalled his detention and humiliation by Israeli soldiers during protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Fawzi al-Juneidi, 16, was detained in the West Bank city of Hebron last week and dragged away blindfolded by a dozen heavily armed Israeli soldiers.
Lawyer Maamoun al-Hashim, quoting the child, said he was assaulted by dozens of soldiers, who kept hitting and insulting him when he was on the ground, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoners Society Saturday.
"I was tied up with plastic bandages and dragged away blindfolded," the statement quoted the child as saying, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).
He said he was kept inside a dark room, where he was beaten.
"I felt I was going to fall unconscious as a result of torture," the child was quoted as saying.
The Palestinian lawyer said al-Juneidi had been interrogated while being handcuffed.
"He has been denied access to his lawyer or family visits," he said.
The spike in serious injuries came as the U.N. reported that eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces between Dec. 5 and Dec. 18 after the U.S. announced it would move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Israeli forces also carried out 160 arrest raids in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, detaining at least 63 children, according to the OCHA.
In 590 cases documented by the DCIP between 2012 and 2016, 72 percent of Palestinian child detainees reported physical violence and 66 percent faced verbal abuse and humiliation, according to the report.
After being arrested from her home in a pre-dawn raid, an Israeli court is extending the detention of a Palestinian teen who is being celebrated as a hero and symbol of a new generation by Palestinians.
Three days after the confrontation with Israeli soldiers, Ahed al-Tamimi, the 16-year-old girl from the village of Nebi Saleh, now faces charges of attacking soldiers."Life will end up in the prison cell" for Tamimi, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.
Tamimi has made headlines in the past, including in 2015 when she bit the hand of a masked Israeli soldier who was holding her now 14-year-old brother Mohammed in a chokehold during an attempted arrest.
In 2012, Tamimi was awarded the Hanzala Courage Award by the Başakşehir Municipality in Istanbul for challenging Israeli soldiers, who had arrested her brother. At the time, then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife had met the Palestinian girl.
