The number of young children detained between the ages of 14 and 15 was 23, one more child than the previous month. There were no children detained in the Israeli military court system under 14 years old.

Azzun’s kidnapped youth

DCI-Palestine highlighted the situation of Palestinian children living in Azzun, a central West Bank town bordered by the illegal Israeli settlements of Ma’ale Shomron and Karnei Shomron. Israeli forces regularly erect pop-up checkpoints and road closures in the town, and youth are targeted for arrest. Following the abduction of three Israeli settler teens in June, all the entrances to Azzun were sealed off.

Like nearly every Palestinian town across the occupied West Bank, Azzun's children were paying the price. Families living near the entrances of Azzun report frequent house raids and arrests. Heavily armed Israeli soldiers subject children to ill-treatment during arrest and interrogation, while parents rarely know where their children have been taken.

The father of one 17-year-old imprisoned boy held in Megiddo prison inside Israel told DCI-Palestine that he has been unable to visit his son since his arrest. “Every house on my street has a child in prison,” he said. To read the full story, click here.

» Read the Detention Bulletin: Issue 54 - July/August 2014