Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Israeli security forces on early Sunday arrested five Palestinian teenagers in occupied Jerusalem for stone-throwing. Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli forces raided the Old City and the neighborhood of Al-Issawiya at 2 am and ordered the teenagers to get dressed and then were taken to detention facilities for questioning. The sources identified the five as Ramadan al-Masri, Mohammed Dari, Yazan Obeid, Yousef Obaid and Hamza Malhas. The Israeli army spokesman's office said that the five were wanted for Israeli security forces and were taken in for questioning. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said recently that Israel violates the rights of Palestinian minors charged with stone-throwing. The organization said that 93 percent of the teens and youths convicted of hurling stones were sentenced to prison terms, including 19 children under the age of 14. Israeli law does in fact forbid the imprisonment of children of that age, but military law allows it, B'Tselem said. The Palestinian Prisoners Club (Nadi Al-Asir) said that Israel is still holding 215 Palestinian children in its jails under “difficult and painful circumstances”.
The club said that “the Palestinian children are staying in very difficult circumstances in the Israeli jails, are being violated during their arrests, during their interrogations and during their court proceedings.” According to the club, the Israeli Prison Service “put them under psychological pressure and some jailers molested some of the children.” Qaddoura Faris, head of Palestinian Prisoners Club, said that “holding Palestinian children in Israeli prisons violates the Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring the population it is occupying to its own territory.” Faris added that “incarcerating minors, especially holding them without charge in administrative detention, violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The official said that the Palestinian children still prosecuted at military courts that lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards.
