Ramallah, August 27, 2024—Israeli authorities are unlawfully detaining Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank by holding them without charge or trial and subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment.
“Israeli forces arrested me after blindfolding and handcuffing me,” 16-year-old Jamal told Defense for Children International - Palestine. “They transferred me in a military vehicle to the military tower at the entrance to Arroub camp and forced me to lie on the ground for an hour, during which one of the soldiers stepped on my back the entire time.”
Israeli forces detained Jamal after entering and damaging his home in Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, at 3 a.m. on July 16. Jamal has an injury in his knee with an exit wound caused by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces and he was scheduled to undergo surgery for this injury on the date of his arrest.
“The soldiers exploited my injury, forcing me to sit and kneel on my wounded knee for five hours. I was severely beaten if I moved due to the pain,” Jamal said.
Regardless of the reason for detention, detained children are protected by several fundamental guarantees in international human rights and humanitarian law, ensuring their right to life, freedom from arrest, and protection against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment..
“The soldiers transferred me to the Gush Etzion interrogation center and forced me once again to sit on my injured knee for six to seven hours, which caused the wound to reopen and bleed,” the child said. “The torture and beating did not stop during this time and I was deprived of food, water, and sanitation.”
Gush Etzion interrogation center is located inside the illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion in the southern occupied West Bank. The act of forcibly transferring children from their homes can result in severe physical, psychological, and emotional harm. The trauma of being separated from family, and placed in a hyper militarized environment can have a lasting impact on the development and well-being of the children.
“They put headphones on my ears and played songs at a loud and annoying volume for an hour and a half, knowing that I suffer from weak hearing in my right ear, and this caused me pain in my left ear and head,” Jamal continued. He was transferred to an unknown hospital to stop the bleeding and asked to see a doctor, but his request was refused.
The interrogator questioned Jamal for approximately four hours, accusing him of throwing Molotov cocktails and coercing him to confess, occasionally offering him cigarettes in exchange for a confession. Jamal was compelled to sign a document in Hebrew without an Arabic translation and was then transferred to Ofer prison, located near Ramallah.
“The food is poor quality, uncooked, and insufficient for us as children. It causes me difficulties because I suffer from stomach problems,” Jamal said, describing the situation inside Ofer prison. “There is little comfort in the cell, as there are not enough beds for everyone. Some of us are forced to sleep on the floor in shifts.”
Ill treatment and torture of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces used blindfolds and hand ties on almost all the children interviewed by DCIP. Children frequently report they signed documents during interrogation drafted in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
The rise in the number of Palestinian children subjected to administrative detention coincides with the alarming conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. The situation of Palestinian prisoners has become increasingly worse, with children reporting very harsh conditions since October 7.
Israeli forces are holding 75 Palestinian children in administrative detention as of June 30, according to the latest information shared by the Israel Prison Service. This is a record number since DCIP began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008. The majority of these children were detained after October 7, 2023, as Israeli forces escalated military operations throughout the occupied West Bank.
Around one in three Palestinian child detainees are held under administrative detention orders, according to the Israel Prison Service. At the end of June, Israeli forces were detaining 226 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.
“Israeli forces forced me to sit on the ground next to a garbage container,” 16-year-old Rami, from Ain Al-Sultan refugee camp, northwest of Jericho in the central occupied West Bank told DCIP. “They beat me several times on my leg, which had been injured by a bullet that had not yet been removed.”
Israeli forces detained Rami in the early morning on April 1, after threatening his father to hand him over. Rami was tortured to sit under the sun for six to seven hours in the military camp, during which the interrogator questioned him, accusing him of manufacturing explosive devices. Rami denied the charges, and whenever he denied, the interrogator told him to call him if he wanted to confess. Then he forced the child to sign a paper in Hebrew without translation.
“I was transferred to the Ma’ale Adumim interrogation center. Before entering the interrogation room, I asked a soldier for water, but he refused and beat me violently,” Rami said. “Then, he brought me some water and forced me to drink, but when I refused, he poured it on my face.”
Ma’ale Adumim interrogation center is also located inside an illegal Israeli settlement, near Jerusalem.
Rami was transferred to Ofer prison after being interrogated for three hours in the Ma’ale Adumim interrogation center. He described the bad conditions of children inside the prison, “I started suffering from skin diseases, fungus and rash due to the lack of sanitation, because they prevented us from showering regularly and being exposed to sunlight for sufficient periods. Most of the time, we were deprived of our hour of freedom in the prison yard.”
Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without charge or trial regularly used by Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians, including children. Palestinian children held under administrative detention orders are not presented with charges, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is neither disclosed to the child nor their attorney, preventing them from preparing a legal challenge to the detention and its alleged basis, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Arbitrarily depriving Palestinian children of their right to liberty through the use of administrative detention, which is the imprisonment of individuals for prolonged periods without charge or trial, often based on secret evidence amounting to an arbitrary detention.
Administrative detention orders are issued by the Israeli military commander of the area, or a military officer delegated by the military commander, and can last up to six months, but there is no limit to the number of times an administrative detention order can be renewed. The orders are approved by military court judges giving the illusion of independent legal oversight, yet Israeli military courts fail to meet international standards for independence and impartiality because military court judges are active duty or reserve officers in the Israeli military.
In October 2015, following a three-year suspension of the practice, Israeli authorities began arresting and imprisoning Palestinian children without charge pursuant to administrative detention orders.
Administrative detention is permitted in strictly limited circumstances in only the most exceptional cases for “imperative reasons of security” when there is no other alternative. The practice should never be used as an alternative to filing charges or as a general deterrent for future activity.
International juvenile justice standards, which Israel has obliged itself to implement by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and must not be unlawfully or arbitrarily detained.
Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year that lack fundamental fair trial rights.
An estimated 3,432 Palestinian prisoners are currently detained pursuant to administrative detention orders, according to Addameer.
*Jamal and Rami are pseudonyms to protect the children's privacy and safety.
