RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The international organization for the defense of children has said that the Israeli occupation soldiers savagely beat up a Palestinian child after breaking both his legs.

The organization quoted the 16-year-old boy Mahmoud Qatna as saying that he was heading to an area near the separation wall in his village Beit Sorik along with a number of his friends when the soldiers surprised them.

He said that the soldiers arrested him along with two of his friends, threw him on his stomach on the ground and started beating him savagely, adding that before that he was hit with a rubber bullet in his left leg fired by those soldiers. Read more

Amid the humanitarian crises facing the people of the Gaza strip there exists a less well known or talked about crisis, that of mental health. Israel’s tightening of the illegal closure of Gaza in 2006, and its 2008-2009 offensive, has meant that, for Gaza’s 1.7 million civilians, reality is a mix of isolation and violence. This mixture has contributed to a sense of vulnerability, hopelessness, imprisonment and loss of control amongst Gaza’s residents.

Mental health outcomes have, predictably, dramatically worsened over the last number of years. Medicine San Frontiers stated in 2010 that over half of children under the age of 12 in Gaza were in need of mental health intervention, and that one third of these cases are severe. According to Husam El Nounou, Public Relations Director at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, the overwhelming cause of the worsening mental health situation is the political and human rights circumstances facing Gaza’s population, specifically the closure of Gaza and continuing Israeli attacks. Read more

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A large number of Israeli special forces broke into the home of a Palestinian family in Aisawiye village in occupied Jerusalem and arrested a 13-year-old minor.
Local sources said that the family members were surprised with the big number who came to arrest a child and that the father tried to prevent them and told them he would bring his child to the police station but they refused.
They said that the forces brutally pushed the father who fell on his two-year-old child then took him outside the house at gunpoint and beat him up.
The sources said that the forces even beat the wife and her daughter Rula, 15, her son Qusay, 11, before taking away her other son Uday, 13.

Message from The voice of Palestine

Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights commented on a number of facts about the violations committed by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian “minors” being detained and extracting confessions under pressure, in Israeli police stations

Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights (Euro-Mid Observer) commented on a leaked video showing Israeli interrogators grabbing confessions from a Palestinian minor by imposing physical and psychological pressure on the minor. An official in the Euro-Mid observer stated that the Euro-mid observer collected and documented testimonies of a number of Palestinian minors, who have undergone cruel and inhumane methods of investigations after being arrested in the areas of West Bank and Jerusalem. Read more

A new line was crossed by the Israeli occupying forces in East Jerusalem this week when they harassed, blindfolded and detained a six-year-old boy, with a serious illness, for seven hours. The arbitrary detention of children is a common feature of Israel’s regime in the occupied Palestinian territory; hundreds of incidents similar to those described below were documented in 2011.

On 3 January at around 4:00 pm, Israeli forces arrested and blindfolded six-year-old Muhammad as he was walking back from his dentist’s office to his home in al-‘Isawiya (Jerusalem governorate).

According to an eye-witness, who wished to remain unidentified for fear of recriminations from Israeli soldiers, three members of the Israeli Special Forces, hiding behind Muhammad’s house, ran towards Muhammad when he arrived home. They tripped him, grabbed him by the arm and forced him inside a car, which then drove to an unknown location. Read more

The streets of Beit Ommar are lined with posters of Palestinian boys and men, martyrs and prisoners of the Israeli occupation. One house is plastered with more posters than the others: the house of the Awad family, whose two sons were, until recently, being held in Ofer prison on the charge of throwing stones.

Mohammad Awad, 16, and his brother Ahmad, 19, were released from Ofer prison near Ramallah in the second phase of the prisoner swap deal in December. For Mohammad Awad, it is a particular relief to be free — his time in prison had an almost fatal effect on his health. Read more

According to Defense Children International, in October and November 2011, at least four Palestinian children were held in solitary confinement by the Israeli occupation army for between 3 and 24 days.

To read the story of Rasheed J. who was held in solitary confinement, go here:

http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/voices-occupation-rasheed-j-detention

On 18 October 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture called for an end to the practice of solitary confinement as well as a complete ban on its use for juveniles.

“Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause,” Mr. Méndez warned, “it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pretrial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged
period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.” (See report to
the General Assembly http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement)

Read more on the website of Al Awda

On 4 November 2011, a 16-year-old boy from Haris village, in the occupied West Bank, is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre for 13 days.

Two days before his arrest, Israeli soldiers came to Rasheed’s house when he was out. The soldiers told Rasheed’s father that his son must go to Zufin settlement on 4 November for questioning. On 4 November, Rasheed went to Zufin settlement as ordered. ‘Four soldiers immediately tied my hands behind my back with one set of plastic cords and tightened them up,” recalls Rasheed. “They also blindfolded me […] The soldiers put me in a military jeep and forced me to sit on the floor.” Rasheed reports that he remained on the floor of the vehicle inside the settlement for about five hours.

Approximately five hours later, Rasheed was transferred to another vehicle which transferred him to the Al Jalame interrogation and detention centre inside Israel. Rasheed’s hands and feet were shackled during the two hour journey. On arrival at Al Jalame, Rasheed reports being strip searched before being given a prison uniform and taken for interrogation. “I was forced to sit in a small low chair and my hands were tied to the chair,” recalls Rasheed. “An intelligence officer named ‘Jolan’ came to the room and started asking me general questions about me and my family. The interrogator said that I should cooperate and not try to deny anything because that would harm me. I kept sitting in the low chair for about two hours. They did not bring me any food or water, but they allowed me to use the bathroom,” says Rasheed.

About two hours later, Rasheed recalls being taken to Cell No. 36. “It was a very small cell and had a smelly mattress on the floor. It had two concrete chairs and a toilet with a nasty smell. There was a sink next to the toilet. There were two sources of artificial light in the ceiling; one of them was out of order and the other one was green. The walls were gray and rough. The cell had no windows, just gaps to let air in and out. They passed me food through a gap in the door. I was detained in Cell No. 36 for 13 days […] I was detained at Al Jalame for 19 days; 13 of which was in isolation in Cell No. 36,” says Rasheed.

Rasheed recalls being interrogated every day except Fridays and Saturdays. During these interrogations he was tied to a small chair. The interrogations lasted for about three to four hours. “The three interrogators asked me about preparing home-made grenades, but I never confessed. I confessed only to throwing stones because they interrogated me for long hours, during which time they kept shouting at me and threatening me. ‘You Arabs like to fuck camels and donkeys and go to brothels to fuck whores,’ one of them said to me. ‘You have no honour because your mother’s a whore,’ he said. They would shout at me and spat on me so I would confess, but I never confessed except to throwing stones.”After 19 days at Al Jalame, Rasheed was transferred to Megiddo prison, also inside Israel, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits transfers out of occupied territory.

On 18 October 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture called for an end to the practice of solitary confinement as well as a complete ban on its use for juveniles. “Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause,” Mr. Méndez warned, “it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pretrial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.”

28 November 2011

On 13 December 2011, a 13-year-old boy from Gaza is shot in the shoulder whilst collecting scrap metal, about 400 metres from the border with Israel.

Thirteen-year-old Nedal describes his family’s financial situation as “very harsh”. “I was very weak at school,” says Nedal, “and had to drop out last year after only finishing the fifth grade because I failed three times. I dropped out and tried to learn a trade to help me support my family and myself, but I failed.”

Between 26 March 2010 and 13 December 2011, DCI-Palestine has documented 29 cases of children shot whilst collecting building material or working near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Read more on the website of DCI-palestine