WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime is keeping hundreds of prisoners, including children, in detention centers, and the minor detainees are subjected to various forms of torture, a leader of the Palestinian Fatah resistance movement says.
Ayman al-Raqab, who is also a professor of political science at Quds University, denounced the Zionist regime’s gross mistreatment of Palestinian children and flagrant violation of their rights, stating that the condition of the regime’s detention centers and relevant policies contradict international principles and regulations.
Raqab noted that the regime officials have subjected a number of jailed Palestinian children, including teenage girls, to brutal forms of torture, and treat them as serious criminals even though they are not of legal age.
Earlier this month, a Palestinian prisoners advocacy group said Zionist troops arrested more than 750 Palestinian children during arrest campaign across the occupied West Bank and East Al-Quds since the beginning of the current year
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said in a statement on November 19 that 160 children are still being held behind bars in the regime’s detention centers, stating that some of the minors were first shot and injured before they were detained.
Among the detainees are three girls, of whom two are 16 years old and the third is 17, and five others, who are held in the so-called administrative detention.
The ‘administrative detainees’ are arrested on “secret evidence”, unaware of the accusations against them, and are not allowed to defend themselves in court. They are usually held for renewable six-month periods, often leading to years in detention.
Zionist regime authorities use torturous techniques even after transferring Palestinian detainees for interrogation and then to detention centers. Advocacy groups have also recorded various injuries endured by Palestinian detainees, some of whom were shot by the Israeli military.