PALESTINE (IslamOnline) - The Defense for Children International (DCI) has accused Israeli authorities of torturing Palestinian children arrested in the current Intifada, uprising, using inhumane practices and detaining them under life-threatening conditions.
In a report released Tuesday, the DCI said it documented 40 cases where children were arrested in Jerusalem and neighboring villages in a manner that keeps the real number of imprisoned Palestinian children unclear.
The organization sent a fact-finding team of lawyers to prisons in Al-Masquibiah and Telmond, who met imprisoned children and found that Israeli investigators were using brutal methods to torture the children in hopes of obtaining confessions from them that they participated in stone-throwing protests against the Israeli military.
The team reported that children were severely beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with the use electric shock and firearms.
All such acts contradict the international Convention On The Rights Of The Child, which prevents the use of force against children.
The organization said it was concerned about the separation of children from Jerusalem from the rest of the detained, treating them as criminals, and placing them with Jewish criminals.
Situations for children in custody are so severe that one Palestinian child was led to initiate a hunger strike and burn his bed. Israeli authorities within the prison have not offered aid or provided the child with food or replacement bedding.
