Report: Israel has detained 3,000 Palestinian children since 2010

Israeli forces arrested nearly 3,000 Palestinian children from the beginning of 2010 to mid-2014, the majority of them between the ages of 12 and 15 years old, Addustour newspaper published a new report saying yesterday.

The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights' report documented dozens of video recorded testimonies of children arrested during the first months of 2014, pointing out that 75 per cent of the detained children are subjected to physical torture and 25 per cent faced military trials.

The report revealed details of the children's suffering, starting with the arbitrary arrests which are in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel ratified in 1991. The report listed a series of violations practiced by Israeli forces against children during the arrest process itself, where the Israeli forces raid the children's homes after midnight as they sleep using actions that terrorise the child and his family, without clear justification or an actual security need.

The Geneva-based watchdog said: "The majority of the detained children were subjected to threats and physical torture including beatings during the investigation. The Israeli authorities responsible for the investigation often use 'isolation' against one in every five detained children, as a means of pressure during the investigations which may extend to 10 days on average and up to 30 days in some cases."

During the "isolation", the report points out, the investigating authorities place the child alone in "narrow cells" and do not allow anyone to meet him, including in some cases his lawyer.

The organisation called on international bodies and human rights organisations to stop Israeli violations against Palestinian children and stressed on the need for Israeli authorities to hold the children's trials in the occupied Palestinian territories to give their families and lawyers the opportunity to meet them and accompany them during the interrogations and to ensure that they are not subjected to torture, and to provide them with fair compensation in case it is demonstrated that their detention was arbitrary.

It called on all parties who have signed the Geneva Convention and related international institutions to "practice the largest possible pressure against Israel, including denying it from financial agreements and aid to immediately stop its human rights violations".

Euro-Mid researcher Sandra Owen said that at least 1,406 Palestinian children have been killed since 2000, including 263 children under the age of eight and 450 children under the age of 15.

Over the past three weeks, the Israeli army raid more than 1,500 Palestinian homes and places of business and arrested more than 600 Palestinians following the apparent disappearance of three settlers in Hebron.

Source : https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/12500-report-israel-detains-3000-palestinian-children-annually

Arrest warrant for 13 years old Palestinian teenager

Death and destruction in Gaza

Israel bombs and destroys Gaza

Attack On Gaza 

 After 50 days of the Gaza conflict, more than 2,100 Palestinian people werekilled, most of them civilians, including about 500 children.

Gaza counts cost of war as more than 360 factories destroyed or damaged

Mohammed Al Tebani inside his factory in Gaza, which made ice cream among other sweets, and was destroyed by targeted shelling. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Gaza's economy will take years to recover from the devastating impact of the war, in which more than 360 factories have been destroyed or badly damaged and thousands of acres of farmland ruined by tanks, shelling and air strikes, according to analysts.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza have resumed since a temporary ceasefire brokedown on Tuesday after rockets were fired from Gaza. The Israeli Defence Force said it launched air stikes on 20 sites on Friday morning and Gaza health officials said two Palestinians were killed in an attack on a farm.

Almost 10% of Gaza's factories have been put out of action, said the Palestinian Federation of Industries. Most other industrial plants have halted production during the conflict, causing losses estimated at more than $70m (£42m), said the union of Palestinian industries. The UN's food and agriculture organisation (FAO) said about 42,000 acres of croplands had sustained substantial direct damage and half of Gaza's poultry stock has been lost due to direct hits or lack of care as access to farmlands along the border with Israel became impossible.

More than 9% of the annual fishing catch was lost between 9 July and 10 August, it added.

"The initial indications are that economic damage caused by the war is three times that of the 2008-9 conflict," said Gaza-based economist Omar Shaban, referring to the Israeli military operation, codenamed Cast Lead. "It's huge."

Unemployment would increase from the prewar rate of 40%, a result of factory destruction, he said. "Recovery will depend on the terms of the ceasefire agreement – whether the siege is lifted, and how quickly. But it will take a minimum of two to three years even if it is lifted."

The ruins of al-Awdah food factory, which was destroyed after days of air strikes and shelling. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

Gaza's biggest factory, al Awda in Deir al-Balah, which made biscuits, juice and ice-cream, was destroyed after days of air strikes and shelling last month, which caused a massive fire. Its entire stock of raw ingredients was lost and valuable hi-tech machinery damaged beyond repair. The factory employed 450 people.

"This is a war on our economy," said owner Mohammed al-Telbani. "I started at ground zero, spent 45 years building this business and now it's gone."

Manal Hassan, the factory's manager, estimated the losses at $30m. "We kept a very large stock because of the difficulties of getting raw materials and spare parts into Gaza, so we had enough to keep production going for a year," she said. "This was a factory for making biscuits and ice-cream, not guns. There were no rockets fired in this area."

Dead cow and rotting vegetables at the roadside. Livestock and vegetable farming has been decimated. Photo Sean Smith for the Guardian

At the Nadi family farm in Beit Hanoun, Mahmoud Nadi said almost half the stock of 370 dairy cows had been killed in shelling from tanks positioned inside the border and air strikes. The family, which has farmed in the area for 15 years, fled to UN shelters in Jabaliya when the Israeli ground invasion started.

"When we came back, there were dead cows everywhere. We could hardly reach them because of the smell," he said. The milk yield from the remaining stock had plummeted due to the animals' trauma, he added.

In Beit Lahiya, camel farmer Zaid Hamad Ermelat returned to his land last week to find 20 animals – worth $2,800 a head – had been shot by ground forces. Their decomposing carcasses remained on the ground amid spent bullet casings from M16 rifles.

"This is our only income, supporting 17 members of the family," said the 71-year-old Bedouin, who came to Gaza as a refugee during the 1948 war. Asked what he would do to earn a living, he shrugged he would try to find work as a farm labourer.

Zaid Hamed Ermelat 71 whose camels were killled, and upon which his livelihood depends. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

In a nearby field, peppers were shrivelled on plants as farmers have been unable to harvest crops during the war.

At a cluster of farms in Juha Deek, nearly a mile from the border, almost every house, store and animal pen was wrecked, fruit and olive trees snapped or uprooted and cattle, sheep and goats killed by shrapnel, bullets or starvation as families fled for safety.

"How do I feel? Look at this," said Ahmed Abu Sayed, 22, gesturing at a view of destroyed buildings and tank-churned land. "This tells you how I feel."

The FAO said it would distribute enough fodder to feed 55,000 sheep and goats for 45 days once a permanent ceasefire had been established.

Source : http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/gaza-economic-cost-war-factories-destroyed

Israel confiscates 1,000 acres of Palestinian land south of Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday announced the confiscation of around 4,000 dunums (1,000 acres) of private Palestinian land south of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.

Palestinian owners of the land were given 45 days to submit formal objections to the announcement in Israeli courts, otherwise all confiscated lands would automatically become Israeli government property.

Mayor of the nearby Palestinian town of Surif Muhammad Ghuneimat told Ma'an that Israeli forces posted signs in private olive tree orchards in the area warning that they have been confiscated by the Israeli government.

Ghuneimat added that the confiscated fields belonged to Palestinians from the towns of Surif, Husan, al-Jabaa and Bethlehem.

The announcement reportedly came as a response by Israeli political authorities in response to the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the area near Gush Etzion settlement bloc in June.

Israel has named three Palestinians from the southern West Bank city of Hebron as being behind the murders, without providing evidence.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now expressed alarm at the move.

"As far as we know, this declaration is unprecedented in its scope since the 1980s and can dramatically change the reality in the Gush Etzion and the Bethlehem areas," it said in a statement.

"Peace Now views this declaration as proof that Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu does not aspire for a new 'Diplomatic Horizon,' but rather he continues to put obstacles to the two-state vision and promote a one-state solution.

"By declaring another 4,000 dunams as state land, the Israeli government stabs (Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas) and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violence delivers Israeli concessions while non-violence results in settlement expansion," it said.

Peace Now official Hagit Ofran told AFP that the legal basis for such land confiscation was an 1858 ruling by the region's Ottoman rulers.

Part of the lands being confiscated are already home to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gvaot, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Local settlers moved into the area and took over Palestinian land with military support more than a decade ago, but have been living in an area technically unrecognized by Israeli authorities despite their armed protection.

The Etzion settlements council welcomed Sunday's announcement, saying in a statement that it "paves the way for the new city of Gevaot."

"The goal of the murderers of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right to the land," it said. "Our response is to strengthen settlement."

Since mid-June, Israeli authorities have announced more than 1,472 new settlement homes, slated to house around 6,000 Jewish settlers, across the West Bank, including around Bethlehem.

Israeli settlements are generally built on the hills in and around Palestinian towns and villages, and critics charge they are strategically located so as to encircle them and make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.



AFP contributed to this report.