Report: Israel arrested 204 Palestinian minors in 2011

[ 05/04/2011 - 12:26 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces have arrested 204 children since the onset of this year, a Palestinian rights group reported. Most of them were beaten or abused during the arrests. The report was issued on Monday, marking Palestinian child day. The report shows that 400 Palestinian minors were arrested in the West Bank last year, with 350 of them still behind bars. It says that 218 Palestinian children sustained injuries that year as IOF soldiers and settlers used bullets and tear gas grenades to attack them. The report expounds that 20 children have been killed by the IOF and Jewish settlers in 2010. It says 1,500 have been killed and at least 5,000 wounded since the Aqsa Mosque intifada. The same year, some 1,000 Palestinians between the ages of 15 and 17 were arrested, with Jerusalem posing as the primary target for arrests, as 500 were taken into custody. Al-Khalil also neared the top the list. Most of those arrested were accused of throwing rocks at Jewish settlers. The vast majority of 95 per cent of all children arrested reported abuse, assaults, torture and humiliation during investigations that had taken place in Israeli settlements. Many said they were pressured and tortured to confess and sign papers in the Hebrew language unreadable to them, and were subsequently prosecuted on this basis. The report says a total of 65 children were placed on house arrest that year in Jerusalem for one to six months after being released from Israeli custody. They were also given hefty fines, and some were banned from attending school or receiving medical services under sentences issued by the Israeli Magistrates Court. Other children were banished from their native home in the Jerusalem district of Silwan and forced to live in other parts of the West Bank. This was the case for 20 children, while others were placed behind bars until their families were able to find suitable homes in other parts of the West Bank to move them to. According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Israel had arrested 140 children in Al-Khalil in 2011 and 50 since the beginning of this year.