« In total, 440 children under 18 are currently held in military detention » in Israel
At the end of December 2015, 116 Palestinian children between 12 and 15 years old were held in Israeli military detention, an eleven-fold increase from the previous year.
In total, 440 children under 18 are currently held in military detention, which is the highest number since the Israeli army began sharing data in 2008, and almost two-and-half times the number imprisoned a year ago.
According to Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCIP), no other country in the world systematically prosecutes hundreds of children in military courts each year.
“Most children are arrested on suspicion, without arrest warrants. There is little to no independent oversight over arrests,” the report adds.
Abed, who was 14 at the time of his arrest, recalls that he was chained to a wall with his feet barely touching the ground, as the soldiers delivered blows to his body: “It reached a point where all I felt was pain.”