Detention figures
End of December 2023:

Security Prisoners

Adults: 8,171
Children: 137
Total: 8,308

Percentage held in Israel:

Adults: 74%
Children: 49%

Administrative Detention

Adults: 3,239
Children: 49
Total: 3,288

 
Bookmark and Share
  change font size تصغير الخط تكبير الخط print
Home » Newsletter »

Newsletter - April 2023

Detention figures – According to data issued quarterly by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 March 2023, there were 4,747 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 151 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was a 1 percent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 11 percent compared with 2022. Ten children were held in administrative detention without charge or trial. According to the IPS, 70 percent of child detainees were transferred to prisons inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. More statistics             

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

Evidence update: right to silence - Under Israeli military law a child has the right to silence and must be informed of this right prior to interrogation. Due to a general lack of compliance with this legal requirement, UNICEF recommended in 2013 that: "At the commencement of each interrogation session, the child should be formally notified of his or her rights in Arabic, and in particular, informed of the privilege against self-incrimination." During the intervening 10 years, MCW has collected 1,041 testimonies from children held in Israeli military detention - currently just 4 percent of these children are being informed of their right to silence prior to interrogation - confirming that these children continue to be systematically denied their basic legal rights. Read more

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

A mother's testimony - On 29 October 2022, Israeli soldiers entered a home in Azzun, in the occupied West Bank, at 4:00 a.m. and arrested a 17-year-old minor. The soldiers remained in the house for 2 hours assaulting family members and damaging property. The boy's mother Rima, describes being assaulted and how their belongings were thrown on the floor.  Rima estimates that her home has been raided dozens of times in 10 years resulting in trauma to her family. According to the UN, Israeli soldiers conduct 2,800 night-time operations in the West Bank each year, or nearly 8 operations every night. According to evidence collected by MCW, 95 percent of children arrested in the West Bank live within a few kilometers of an illegal Israeli settlement or related infrastructure. Read more

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

A child's testimony - On 14 February 2023, a 15-year-old minor from Beit Sira, in the occupied West Bank, was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 2:30 a.m. He describes how the soldiers broke open their front door before they had time to open it and how his younger brothers, aged 4 and 9, were terrified. The boy was taken away without his parents being given any information, written or verbal. The boy describes being zip tied and blindfolded before being transferred on the metal floor of a jeep to an interrogation center inside an illegal Israeli settlement. He reports being kicked and slapped in the head on the way. The boy was not informed of his legal rights under Israeli military law before being interrogated. He was released 16 days later. Read more

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

1,041 Testimonies                   MCW Annual Report (2022)                        Two Kids a Day (Trailer)