Why are there so many Palestinian children in Israeli prisons?

In response to the ceasefire agreement, Israel released at least 23 Palestinian children who were in danger of being prosecuted in military courts.

Since the Hamas-Israel ceasefire ended 15 months of nonstop Israeli bombardment of Gaza on January 19, there have been at least 290 Palestinian prisoners released in two batches.

Before the most recent prisoner exchanges, 320 children were being held in Israeli prisons, according to the rights organization Adameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

What are Palestinian child prisoners known to us, and why are they being tried in military courts?

What are the Israeli-born Palestinian children’s prisoners known to us?

A new law was passed in Israel in 2016 that would allow children between the ages of 12 and 14 to be held legally responsible, giving them the option of being tried as adults and facing prison sentences. Previously, only those 14 or older could be sentenced to prison. Prison sentences cannot begin until the child reaches the age of 14, however]PDF].

According to a Knesset statement from the time the new law was passed, Israeli authorities can imprison a minor who has been found guilty of a serious crime, such as murder, attempted murder, or manslaughter, even if they are under the age of 14, according to a Knesset statement.

Ahmed Manasra, 13, was detained in occupied East Jerusalem in 2015 and his arrest resulted in this change. After the new law became lawful and, crucially, after his 14th birthday, he was charged with attempted murder and given a 12-year prison sentence. Later, his sentence was commuted to nine years on appeal.

According to the Save the Children NGO, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by the Israeli military for the past 20 years.

Any reason a child’s arrest could involve anything from stone-throwing to taking part in a gathering of just 10 people without a permit on a “topic that could be interpreted as political”

What statute does Israel have for children?

Controversially, Palestinian prisoners are tried and sentenced in military rather than civil courts.

Israel is permitted to use military courts in the territory it resides under international law.

Israeli settlers who reside in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to Israeli civil law, while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law in courts run by Israeli soldiers and officers.

This leaves many Palestinians without basic legal protection imprisoned.

“Israeli authorities, however, regularly arrest Palestinian children during nighttime raids, interrogate them without a guardian present, hold them for longer periods before bringing them before a judge and hold those as young as 12 in lengthy pretrial detention”, Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, wrote in November 2023.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s 2017 report, nearly three-quarters of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank were kept in custody until the end of the proceedings, compared to less than 20% for Israeli children.

Palestinians who have been subjected to human rights violations under the Israeli occupation were given the opportunity to speak with their families once every two weeks by the human rights organization HaMoked once every two weeks in 2020.

How many of the Palestinian prisoners who have been freed so far under the Israel-Hamas deal are minors?

Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners, 120 of them serving life sentences, from its jails on Saturday as part of the ceasefire deal.

Two of them were children, both 15 years old. The oldest prisoner, Muhammad al-Tous, was 69. He had spent 39 years in jail, having first been arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces.

The swap on Saturday was the second one since January 19 when a ceasefire was in effect. Three Israeli captives and 90 Palestinian prisoners (69 women and 21 children) were released in the first swap.

Prior to Hamas-led Palestinian groups’ attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, only eight of the 90 prisoners had been detained. The attacks killed more than 1, 100 people, saw about 250 taken captive and triggered Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.

For more than three decades, some Palestinian prisoners have been imprisoned in Israeli prisons.

Marwan Barghouti, the prominent leader of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and the party that controls the West Bank, has been imprisoned for 22 years.

Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the release of Palestinian prisoners is a “huge relief” for families, although it is happening under the “horrible realities of]the Israeli] occupation”.

“These prisoners should have been released through a bigger deal that ends the conflict, that brings peace through negotiations, through ending occupation, but the harsh reality in Palestine is that as we talk, occupation continues”, Qarmout told Al Jazeera.

In how many Israeli prisons are there Palestinians? Have they faced abuse while in custody?

As of Sunday, about 10, 400 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank were in Israeli captivity, according to estimates from Addameer.

One in five Palestinians have been detained and charged at some point in the occupied Palestinian territory. Two out of every five men have been arrested and charged, which is twice as high for Palestinian men as it is for women.

Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated in 19 prisons in Israel, including one in the occupied West Bank. It’s difficult to find out how many people are being held in Israeli prisons since Israel stopped allowing independent humanitarian organizations to travel there in October.

Before and after the start of the conflict in Gaza on October 7, Palestinian prisoners who were released have reported being tortured, beaten, and humiliated.

How many unarmed Palestinians are currently detained?

About 3, 376 Palestinians being held in Israel are under administrative detention, according to Addameer. A person who is imprisoned without a charge or trial is known as an administrative detainee.

Neither the administrative detainees, who include women and children, nor their lawyers are allowed to see the “secret evidence” that Israeli forces say forms the basis for their arrests. Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, this policy has been in place against Palestinian prisoners.

The military has been making these people for longer periods of time, which means they could be in jail for many years.

The administrative detainees include 41 children and 12 women, according to Addameer.

What’s next?

Twenty-six other captives should be released in the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, along with hundreds more Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange is next Saturday.

Source: Aljazeera