Israel forces arrest 13-year-old Palestinian in the middle of the night

Israeli occupation forces detained a 13-year-old Palestinian child in the middle of the night, according to human rights group B’Tselem.

Adam Abu Ryalah’s family home in Issawiyah, occupied East Jerusalem, was raided by eight Israeli Border Police officers at 4am on Sunday, 10 February, while 20 more officers waited outside.

As recounted by B’Tselem, the Israeli forces ordered Adam’s parents to wake their son and bring him to the living room, after which an officer then returned Adam to his room with his mother and ordered him to get dressed. Adam was arrested, and taken to a police station.

When Adam’s parents went to the police station, they were “told their son was not there”. After waiting for hours, it was only by chance – at around 12.30pm – that they saw their son “when an officer escorted him to the bathroom”.

Adam was held at the police station for nine hours and interrogated alone – “with no parent or lawyer present”. He was finally released, after 11 hours in detention, to house arrest for four days.

B’Tselem noted that “this case is not unusual”, but is “part of a consistent policy pursued by the Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem, which does not treat Palestinian minors as entitled to special protections. Instead, arrest is almost always the measure of first, rather than last, resort and the rights of the minors are systematically violated throughout the process”.

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