By Awad al-Rujoub
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA): More than 9,300 Palestinian minors have been detained by Israel since 2015, according to a local NGO on Saturday.
In a statement marking World Children’s Day, the Palestinian Prisoners Society NGO said Israeli forces rounded up 750 minors in 2022.
“Around 160 children are still in Israeli custody,” the statement said. Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians were injured in Israeli settlers attacks in Hebron Staurday.
According to the NGO, eight minors, including three girls, are held by Israeli’s policy of administrative detention, which allows the arrest of Palestinians without charge or trial.
“Children are subject to all forms of systematic abuses, including torture,” the statement said.
There was no comment from Israeli authorities on the statement.
In 1990, the United Nations set November 20 to celebrate World Children’s Day to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959.
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians were injured in Israeli settlers attacks in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, according to a local activist.
On Friday, the Israeli army banned Palestinians from entering the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron for two days to allow Jewish settlers celebrate the Jewish Sabbath holiday.
Palestinian activist Aref Jaber said thousands of settlers, led by far-wing Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked Palestinians in Hebron’s Old City.
“Dozens of Palestinians bruises after being assaulted by settlers and soldiers,” Jaber told Anadolu Agency.
A number of Palestinians were reportedly detained by Israeli forces.
According to an Anadolu Agency reporter, the Israeli army set up a number of roadblocks and iron mounds and deployed extra forces in Hebron’s Old City.
Ben-Gvir holds far-right views on the Palestinians. He had previously called for the displacement of Palestinians. He also caused a wave of escalation in occupied East Jerusalem after setting up an office in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Ben-Gvir has repeatedly joined Israeli settlers in storming the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.
Last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a leaked audio that “the whole world is worried” about the far-right views of Ben-Gvir, who is expected to become a minister in the upcoming government.
Revered by both Muslims and Jews, Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque complex is believed to be the burial site of the prophets Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
After the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshipers inside the mosque by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, during fajr prayers in Ramadan, the Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshipers.
UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided in July 2017 to include the Ibrahimi Mosque and the old city of Hebron on its World Heritage List.
Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 500 illegal Jewish settlers. The latter live in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report.
[Photo Relatives of Felle Abdulaziz al-Musalama, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Hebron, occupied West Bank mourn her death during her funeral on November 15, 2022. Photojournalist :Mamoun Wazwaz/AA]
