Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Israeli forces on early Saturday arrested five Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, to the south of Bethlehem. Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli forces raided the village at 2 a.m. and ordered them to get dressed and then were taken to an Israeli army detention facility. The sources identified the five as Khaled Tariq Taqatqa, Farhan Qawasmeh, Mohammed Nasim Taqatqa, Mohammed Jihad Taqatqa and Nuruddin Thawabteh. The sources said that clashes erupted between the residents and the Israeli forces during the arrest campaign. It added that the Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters to disperse the rioters. No injuries were reported. The Israeli army spokesman's office said that the five were wanted for Israeli security forces and were taken in for questioning by agents of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal intelligence. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said recently that Israel violates the rights of Palestinian minors charged with stone-throwing. The organization said that 93 percent of the teens and youths convicted of hurling stones were sentenced to prison terms, including 19 children under the age of 14. Israeli law does in fact forbid the imprisonment of children of that age, but military law allows it, B'Tselem said. For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners Club (Nadi Al-Asir) said that Israel still is holding 215 Palestinian children in its jails under “difficult and painful circumstances”. The club said that “the Palestinian children are staying in very difficult circumstances in the Israeli jails, are being violated during their arrests, during their interrogations and during their court proceedings.” According to the club, the Israeli Prison Service “put them under psychological pressure and some jailers molested some of the children.” Qaddoura Faris, head of Palestinian Prisoners Club, 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.” Faris added that “incarcerating minors, especially holding them without charge in administrative detention, violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The official said that the Palestinian children still prosecuted at military courts that lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards.
