[Friday December 27, 2013] The Census Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainee published its annual report stating that Israeli soldiers kidnapped, this year,3874 Palestinians, including 931 children. Four detainees died in 2013.The Census Department said that 1975 of the kidnapped are between the ages of 18 and 30 (%51 of the total number of kidnapped Palestinians), and that 931 children (%24) below the age of 18 have also been kidnapped by the soldiers, this year.
Head of the Census Department, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, said that Israel deliberately targets young Palestinians, including children, because they are the core of the society, and its moving factor.
The former political prisoner added that Israel fears the Palestinian youths for their steadfastness and their persistence to achieve liberation and independence.
“This is why it escalates the arrests against them”, he said, “They are imprisoned, tortured, abused and intimated”.
He added that the 931 kidnapped children were taken prisoner from different parts of the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, and that the number indicates a %5.7 increase in the number of children kidnapped by the soldiers in 2012, and a %37.5 increase compared to 2011.
“The most serious violation is the fact that kidnapped children are beaten and tortured during interrogation”, Farawna stated, “They were humiliated, subjected to physical and emotional torture”.
He said that the suffering of all kidnapped Palestinians, especially the children, starts at the moment of their arrest, as dozens of heavily armed soldiers violently invade their homes, beat and kick them in front of their families. The violations also include assaulting family members.
“They are then cuffed, blindfolded and placed into military jeeps where they are often beaten again, before they are dragged to interrogation facilities in military camps or settlements”, Farawna added. “Under interrogation, they face the most cruel methods of torture and abuse, physical and emotional, while being verbally threatened, amidst threats to harm their families unless they provide information”.
There are currently 1,400 Palestinian detainees suffering with various health conditions, including 150 suffering with cancer, diabetes and other serious health conditions, and are not provided with urgently needed specialized medical attention and treatment.
This year alone, four Palestinian detainees died in Israeli prisons, with one dying shortly after his release, due to serious illness he suffered while in prison, and never being granted urgently needed medical attention.
The number of detainees who died in prison, either due to torture or to being shot by soldiers during and after their arrest, since 1967, currently stands at 204.
The latest casualties among the detainees are Maisara Abu Hamdiyya, 63, who died on April 2nd, 2013, and Arafat Jaradat, 20, who died on February 22, 2013.
Abu Hamdiyya had been suffering from a brain tumor, in addition to a fourth stage carcinoma in his lung, as well as lymphatic, liver, spine and throat cancer, which extended to his vocal cords.
Despite the seriousness of his condition, the Israeli Prison Administration did not grant Mr. Hamdiyya the urgently needed and specialized medical treatment until it was too late.
Detainee Arafat Jaradat died at the Mejeddo Israeli prison, seven days after his arrest; he was a healthy young man from Sa’ir town, in Hebron, and was tortured to death by Israeli interrogators.
Israel is currently holding captive 5,200 Palestinians in 17 prisons, detention camps and interrogation facilities across the region.
The number includes 250 children and 13 women, in addition to 13 democratically elected legislators.
