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

 
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Newsletter - July 2019

Detention figures – According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 July 2019 there were 4,929 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 210 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was no change in the number compared with the previous month and an annual decrease of 23% compared with 2018. No children are currently held in administrative detention. According to the IPS, 54% of child detainees were forcibly transferred and/or unlawfully detained in Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention in July. More statistics 

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Physical abuse: update – 56 percent of children detained by the Israeli military in the West Bank in 2019 report being subjected to various forms of physical abuse during arrest, transfer and/or interrogation. This compares with 60 percent at the time UNICEF issued its report in 2013. The types of reported abuse include: beaten with a rifleslappedpunchedkicked; and pushed to the floor of military vehicles. The reported abuse generally occurs within a wider context of painful restraintsblindfoldsthreatsverbal abuse and the denial of basic legal rights. In May 2013, Israel’s military legal adviser notified UNICEF that all army units in the West Bank had been reminded in writing of the military's standard operating procedures prohibiting ill-treatment.

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UK response to forcible transfer of children from the West Bank – In 2015 MCW wrote to the British Consulate-General in Jerusalem concerning Israel’s policy of transferring Palestinian child detainees from the West Bank to prisons in Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In July 2019 the Consulate-General responded stating, inter alia, “We share these concerns, and continue to raise them in our engagement with the Israeli authorities.” In February 2019, the UK’s Foreign Minister joined with nine European and Canadian foreign ministers to re-affirm the importance of the “international rules-based order” to collective security and the necessity for consequences in cases where international law is disregarded, such as in Russia's annexation of Crimea and the forcible transfer of Ukrainian detainees (targeted sactions applied). MCW has also received replies from: USNorwayCanadaAustraliaNetherlands and the EU.

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Annexation is flagrant violation of international law, says UN human rights expert - Recent statements by senior Israeli political leaders and US diplomats in support of the annexation of parts or all of the occupied West Bank by Israel fly in the face of the absolute prohibition against the annexation of occupied territories. “International law is very clear: annexation and territorial conquest are forbidden by the Charter of the United Nations,” said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. “The Security Council, beginning with Resolution 242 in November 1967, has expressly affirmed the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war or force. Read more

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A child’s testimony: On 2 July 2019, a 16-year-old minor from Jayyus was arrested by Israeli soldiers at 2:30 a.m. He reports not being informed of his right to silence or his right to consult with a lawyer prior to his questioning. “My friend woke me up with a text message to say Israeli soldiers were in our neighbourhood. It was around 2:30 a.m. I looked out the window and saw a group of soldiers on the street. The commander saw me and asked me for my name and then told me to come down because I was under arrest. I went inside, took a shower and put some clothes on while the soldiers waited for me in the stairwell; they did not enter our home. I was then taken outside by the soldiers who did not tell me the reason for my arrest.” Read more

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A soldier’s video testimony: “We wrote to the girls on Facebook” – In this testimony a former Israeli soldier provides a video testimony to Breaking the Silence describing the daily routine of raiding Palestinian homes even in circumstances where there was no particular intelligence against the family. The soldier describes how they would round up the family and then go from room to room, opening all the drawers, taking all the contents out of the closets and checking under every mattress. In one raid on a family home, the soldier describes how some of the soldiers opened a computer in the home that belonged to one of the Palestinian children and wrote to them on Facebook. Video

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707 Testimonies                                             Annual Report (2019)                                            Videos