The Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.
With the exchange of those held by Israel and Hamas and the ceasefire, we are getting a picture of the injustices carried out by Israeli authorities against Palestinians it has held in prisons for years.
Israel is holding over 1,200 detainees — nearly all of them Palestinians — without charge or trial, the highest number in over three decades, an Israeli human rights group reported just last July.
The current exchange represents only a small fraction of those they have been holding without charges or trials.
The number of detainees includes large numbers of children.
Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said Palestinian children are the only ones in the world to experience systematic prosecution in military courts.
There is a marked increase in the number of former child detainees who suffer nightmares and insomnia and have difficulty returning to their normal life, with many reporting a decrease in hope for their futures.
The study said 86 percent of the 228 former child detainees surveyed were beaten in detention, and 69 percent were strip-searched, adding that 42 percent were injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones.
They were also interrogated at unknown locations without the presence of a guardian or caregiver and are often deprived of food, water and sleep, the report says.
In addition, they were often refused access to legal counsel, according to the research.
Save the Children said the former child detainees surveyed were from across the occupied West Bank and had been detained for one month to 18 months. (Al Jazeera)
In the prisoner swap none of the children were from Gaza. None were associated with Hamas. Most had been held for the crime of throwing stones at Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank and Israel.
Of the 39 Palestinians released by Israel, 17 are minors.
They are:
Yousef Mohammad Mustafa Ata from Ramallah
Qusai Hani Ali Ahmad from Bethlehem
Jibreel Ghassan Ismail Jibreel from Qalqilya
Mohammad Ahmad Suleiman Abu Rajab from al-Khalil
Ahmad Nu’man Ahmad Abu Na’im from Ramallah
Baraa Bilal Mahmoud Rabee from al-Khalil
Aban Iyad Mohammad Said Hammad from Qalqilya
Moataz Hatem Moussa Abu Aram from al-Khalil
Iyad Abdul Qader Mohammad Khateeb from Jerusalem
Hazma Laith Khalil Othman Othman from Ramallah
Mohammad Mahmoud Ayoub Dar Darwish from Ramallah
Jamal Khalil Jamal Barahmeh from Areeha
Jamal Yousef Jamal Abu Hamdan from Nablus
Mohammad Anis Saleem Tarabi from Nablus
Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahman Suleiman Rizq from Jerusalem
Zeina Raed Abdou from Jerusalem
Noor Mohammad Hafez al-Tahir from Nablus
Zeina and Noor are girls, the others are boys.