800 children arrested since intifada

Over 2,000 Palestinians, including 800 children and 60 women, have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) since the advent of the ongoing anti-occupation Intifada, in early October, a rights group reported.

Media spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies, Riad al-Ashqar, said in a press statement that the arbitrary abduction campaign launched by the IOF since early October affected all social and age categories, including children, women, patients, injured civilians, MPs, university students, and academics.

Occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem') and al-Khalil have hit a record high of, respectively, 600 and 500 in the number of arrest cases.  

150 Palestinians were arrested in 1948 Occupied Palestine; 250 were arrested in Ramallah and al-Bireh while 100 others were arrested in Bethlehem.

MPs Hassan Youssef and Abdul Jabeur Foukaha were also arrested in the campaign.

Al-Ashqar added that most of the kidnapped children were aged 10 or below.

Children as young as seven have also been affected by the arbitrary abductions. Seven-year-old Mohamed Abdullah Shweiki and the two brothers Mo’atassem, to name just a few, are among the youngest victims of the Israeli sweep.

Several children, including 12-year-old Ali Ihab Alkam, were kidnapped right after they were shot and injured by the Israeli occupation troops on allegations of involvement in anti-occupation stabbing attacks.

60 among the arrested children have been crammed into the newly-opened Jafon lock-up, where hygienic conditions have been very poor, to say the least.

The center further documented 235 new or renewed administrative prison-terms. 12 children and two 19-year-old girls have been transferred to administrative detention, with neither charge nor trial. 30 Quds residents were also affected by this type of sentences, bringing the overall number of administrative detainees during the month of October to over 500.