At least 23 Palestinian children prisoners were released by Israel as part of the ceasefire agreement, which highlights systematic prosecution by Israel against Palestinian children before the military courts.
At least 290 Palestinian prisoners have been released into two lots since the cease-fire entry into force between Hamas and Israel on January 19, ending 15 months of incessant Israeli bombing on Gaza.
According to the Association Adameer to support prisoners and human rights, a group for the defense of rights based in occupied West Bank, 320 children were detained in Israeli prisons before the last exchanges of prisoners.
So what do we know about Palestinian children prisoners and why are they judged by military courts?
What do we know about Palestinian children prisoners in Israel?
In 2016, Israel introduced a new law authorizing the criminal hold of children aged 12 to 14, which means that they can be judged as adults and sentenced to prison terms. Previously, only people aged 14 or older could be sentenced to prison. However, prison sentences cannot start before the child reaches the age of 14 (PDF).
This new law, voted on August 2, 2016 by the Israeli Knesset, allows the Israeli authorities “to imprison a minor found guilty of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter, even if he is under 14” . According to a press release from the Knesset when the law was introduced.
This change was made after the arrest of Ahmed Manasra in 2015 in occupied East Jerusalem at the age of 13. He was accused of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison after the new law entered into force and, above all, after his 14th anniversary. . Later, his sentence was commissioned at nine years on appeal.
According to the NGO Save the Children, around 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by the Israeli army in the past 20 years.
The reasons for the arrest of children range from stones to participate in a gathering of only 10 people without a license, on any question “which could be interpreted as political”.
Under what law are children held by Israel?
Controversially, Palestinian prisoners are tried and sentenced by military courts rather than civilians.
International law authorizes Israel to use military courts in the territory it occupies.
There is a double legal system in Palestine, in which Israeli settlers living in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to Israeli civil law while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law before courts led by soldiers and officers Israeli Israeli officers .
This means that a large number of Palestinians are imprisoned without a regular basic procedure.
“However, the Israeli authorities regularly stop Palestinian children during night raids, question them without the presence of a tutor, hold them for longer periods before presenting them to a judge and maintain those who are only 12 years old In prolonged pre -trial detention, “said Omar Shakir, head of Israel. And director for Palestine at Human Rights Watch, wrote in November 2023.
Almost three -quarters of Palestinian children in occupied West Bank were kept in detention until the end of the procedure, against less than 20 % for Israeli children, according to the report of the 2017 civil rights association in Israel.
Hamoked, a human rights NGO that helps Palestinians subject to human rights violations under Israeli occupation, said minors detained in the prisons were allowed to call their family for 10 minutes once every two weeks in 2020.
How many Palestinian prisoners released so far as part of the Israel-Hamas agreement are children?
Israel released on Saturday 200 Palestinian prisoners, of which 120 serving perpetuity sentences, as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Two of them were both 15 years old. The oldest prisoner, Muhammad Al-Tous, was 69 years old. He had spent 39 years in prison, after being arrested for the first time in 1985 when he was fighting Israeli forces.
The exchange on Saturday was the second since the entry into force of a ceasefire on January 19. Three Israeli captives and 90 Palestinian prisoners (69 women and 21 children) were released during the first exchange.
Only eight of the 90 prisoners were arrested before October 7, 2023, when Palestinian groups led by Hamas carried out attacks in southern Israel. The attacks killed more than 1,100 people, made around 250 prisoners and sparked the devastating war of Israel against Gaza.
Some Palestinian prisoners have been detained in Israeli prisons for more than three decades.
The eminent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti-co-founder of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, also known as Fatah, the party that governs the West Bank-has been in prison for 22 years.
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Institute of Higher Studies of Doha, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the release of Palestinian prisoners is an “immense relief” for families, even if it occurs within the framework of “horrible realities of the occupation (Israeli) ”.
“These prisoners should have been released within the framework of a more important agreement which would end the conflict, which would bring peace through negotiations and by the end of the occupation, but the harsh reality in Palestine is that A moment we are talking about, the occupation continues, “Qarmout told Tel Aviv Tribune.
How many Palestinians are in Israeli prisons? Have they been victims of ill-treatment during their detention?
On Sunday, around 10,400 Palestinians from Gaza and West Bank were in Israeli captivity, according to Addameer estimates.
In the occupied Palestinian territory, one in five Palestinians was arrested and charged at some point. This rate is twice as high for Palestinian men than for women: two out of five men have been arrested and charged.
There are 19 prisons in Israel and one in occupied West Bank which hold Palestinian prisoners. Israel has ceased to authorize independent humanitarian organizations to visit Israeli prisons in October. It is therefore difficult to know the number and conditions of detention of the people who are detained there.
The released Palestinian prisoners said they were beaten, tortured and humiliated before and after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7.
How many Palestinian prisoners are detained without indictment?
About 3,376 Palestinians detained in Israel are in administrative detention, according to Addameer. An administrative detainee is a person owned in prison without charges or trials.
Neither administrative detainees, including women and children, nor their lawyers are authorized to see the “secret evidence” which, according to Israeli forces, constitute the basis of their arrests. This practice has been in place against Palestinian prisoners since the creation of Israel in 1948.
These people were arrested by the army for renewable periods, which means that the duration of the arrest is indefinite and could last for many years.
Among the administrative detainees are 41 children and 12 women, according to Addameer.
What is the next step?
Twenty-six other prisoners should be released during the first phase of six weeks of the ceasefire, as well as hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange will take place next Saturday.
Many hope that the next phase will end the war which has moved the vast majority of the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza and left hundreds of thousands of people threatened with famine. The talks start on February 3.