Israeli forces abducted a 14-year-old boy from the occupied West Bank last month and are imprisoning him without charges, making him the youngest Palestinian child on record to be placed under an Israeli administrative detention order, a rights group says.
Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) reports that Israeli forces seized Muin Ghassan Fahed Salahat from his home in the West Bank town of Beit Fajjar in the middle of the night on February 19.
The ninth grade boy has been issued a four-month order for administrative detention, a practice in which Israeli forces hold Palestinians without charges or trial based on “secret” evidence not provided to the detainee or their lawyer.
Israeli soldiers forcibly entered the boy’s home at 3:40 am, DCIP reported, and detained his father, blindfolding him and tying his hands behind his back. Soldiers similarly detained Muin when the young boy awoke and went to look for his father. The soldiers ransacked their belongings, the report says, and confiscated their phones and computer.
Soldiers then took the boy away and ordered his father not to move for 10 minutes, according to DCIP. The family was not given a warrant for the raid.
“Administrative detention violates fundamental due process rights, yet Israeli forces are now expanding this draconian policy to detain Palestinian children indefinitely without charge or trial,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director for DCIP. “Muin’s case sets a dangerous precedent, showing that no Palestinian child, regardless of age, is safe from arbitrary imprisonment under Israel’s military rule.”
Muin is one of 112 Palestinian children held in administrative detention by Israel, according to information provided by the Israeli Prison Service.
This is the highest number of children held in administrative detention on record since DCIP began monitoring the practice in 2008, the group has reported. This figure has rapidly increased as Israel’s genocide in Gaza has continued; as of April of last year, for instance, Israel was holding 61 Palestinian children in administrative detention, DCIP recorded, which was also a record high at the time.
The group says that Israel’s continued use of administrative detention against Palestinians is a violation of human rights.
“Israel’s routine use of administrative detention against Palestinians, including children, constitutes arbitrary detention and violates international human rights law. Additionally, the Fourth Geneva Convention strictly prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or unlawfully imprisoning protected persons, making Israel’s practice a clear breach of its legal obligations,” the group said.
Israel’s practices regarding Palestinian prisoners have only gotten more strict amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with Israel making it even harder for detainees to access legal representation; many children in administrative detention go weeks without being granted access to a lawyer, DCIP said.
The group added that Israel is unique in its harsh prosecution of Palestinian children.
“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, while systematically stripping away the fundamental right to a fair trial right,” DCIP said.
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