Israel arrests Palestinian child as he leaves school

Israeli occupation forces yesterday arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian child as he left school in Al-Khader neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Safa news agency reported.

Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Al-Khader, Ahmad Salah, said that Israeli occupation forces arrested the Yousef Ghonim while he was leaving his school.

He said that the Israeli occupation forces surrounded the school when the students left, arrested the boy and led him to an unknown location.

Amnesty International recently condemned Israeli authorities and armed forces for carrying out extrajudicial executions, torturing Palestinian prisoners and targeting human rights defenders.

Israeli authorities also “continued to substitute administrative detention for criminal prosecution”, says Amnesty, “holding hundreds of Palestinians, including children, civil society leaders and NGO workers, without charge or trial under renewable orders, based on information withheld from detainees and their lawyers.”

Furthermore, “Israeli soldiers and police and Israel Security Agency [Shin Bet] officers subjected Palestinian detainees, including children, to torture and other ill-treatment with impunity, particularly during arrest and interrogation.”

Read: Israel arrested 520 Palestinians in January