Ma’an reported that Israeli forces detained seven teenagers in arrests raids across the West Bank overnight Sunday, locals and Israel’s army said.
Witnesses told Ma’an that over 10 Israeli military vehicles raided the al-Jabal al-Shamali, Khilleh al-Amoud, and al-Maajeen neighborhoods of Nablus and detained Bara Ghassan Thawqan, 18, Asem Mustafa al-Shinar, 16, and Yazan Zameer al-Nouri, 18.
In Tuqu village, southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli forces detained Moath Ibrahim al-Oumour, 18, Baha Aref al-Oumour, 18, Omar Sulaiman al-Oumour, 18, and Ahmad Mohammad al-Oumour, 18, locals said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said 13 people were detained across the West Bank for engaging in “illegal activities.”
Four were detained in Tuqu, six in Ramallah, one in Nablus, one in Tulkarem and one in Jenin, she added.
In March, a report by the UN Children’s Fund described mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons as “widespread.”
UNICEF’s March report, entitled “Children in Israeli Military Detention,” said Israel was the only country in the world where children were systematically tried in military courts and gave evidence of practices it said were “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
“Ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized,” it concluded, outlining 38 recommendations.
Over the past decade, Israeli forces have arrested, interrogated and prosecuted around 7,000 children between 12 and 17, mostly boys, UNICEF found, noting the rate was equivalent to “an average of two children each day.”
