NOVANEWS
saudigazette.com.sa
The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees on Monday said that two Palestinian children tried to commit suicide in an Israeli prison.
Hiba Masalha, the ministry’s lawyer, said that the two prisoners tried to commit suicide in the Hasharon (Telmond) and the Ofek Juvenile prisons, both in central Israel.
Masalha identified the two as 17-year-old No’man al-Rajabi from the West Bank city of Hebron and 15-year old Mohammed Abu Romouz from occupied Jerusalem.
She added that al-Rajabi is suffering from psychological disorders due to torture by Israeli security forces since his arrest in 2008. She added that the prisoner hang himself with a robe but his comrades saved his life in the last moment.
The lawyer said that Abu Romouz tried to commit suicide after the Israeli Prison Service rejected his demand to be transferred from the section of civil prisoners to the security one.
According to recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 234 Palestinian children in its 23 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank.
The ministry said that “holding Palestinian children in Israeli prisons violates the Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring the population it is occupying to its own territory.”
It added that “incarcerating minors, especially holding them without charge in administrative detention, violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
The Israeli army’s operations against Palestinian children have been the target of complaints for a long time.
In 2011, following sharp criticism by human rights groups over the arrest, interrogation and trial of Palestinian minors, the Israeli army raised the age of minority for Palestinians by amending the relevant military legislation. Until two years ago, only Palestinians under 15 were considered minors, in contrast to 18 within Israel. Since this change, suspects under 18 are tried as minors before military judges who have received training as juvenile judges.
On September, the ministry said that the Israeli forces arrested 10,000 Palestinian since the outbreak of second intifada in September 2000. The Second Intifada, also known as the al-Aqsa Intifada, broke out in September 28, 2000 following a visit by Israel’s then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
