Young Palestinians relate brutal experience of Israeli detention

The brutal experiences of young Palestinians, including children, detained by Israel have emerged, Safa News Agency has reported. A lawyer for the PLO’s Prisoners’ and Freed Prisoners’ Committee, Lo’ai Al-Okka, said that the treatment of young Palestinians detained by Israel is “inhumane” and amounts to “violations of international law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Mahmoud Naser Zeid, 17, from Al-Jalazoun Refugee Camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah, told Al-Okka that he was arrested on 14 August. He said that the Israeli occupation forces raided his house at 3am, forced him outside and beat him and punched him on the face before taking him on foot to the illegal Israeli Jewish settlement of Beit El, a couple of kilometres from Ramallah.

On the way to the settlement, the minor said, the Israeli forces continued to beat him and push him to the ground while he was blindfolded and handcuffed. He was in the settlement for a couple of hours before being taken to Benyamin Detention Centre for interrogation.

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Meanwhile, Yousef Dar Al-Sheikh, 18, from Bado on the outskirts of Jerusalem, told Al-Okka that he was arrested on 23 August when the Israeli occupation forces raided his house at 5am. The property was searched and damaged, scaring his family, before he was taken to Ofer Detention Centre.

While he was inside the personnel carrier en route to the prison, said Al-Sheikh, the soldiers beat and kicked him all over his body.