An Israeli military court decided to extend the detentions of 13-year-old Jabir Rebhi Badawi and 14 year-old Ayham Muhammad Adawi from the al-Arrub refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank Hebron district until January 15 “to continue interrogation.”
Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) lawyer Munther Abu Ahmad said that Israeli forces detained Badawi and Adawi on January 11 while the two were returning back home from school.
It remained unclear why the two children were detained, and what they were being interrogated about.
An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into reports.
Israeli forces regularly detain minors for undisclosed reasons across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the majority during overnight detention raids.
According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 7,000 Palestinians, including 400 minors, were held in Israeli prisons as of October 2016.
In the same context, an Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced two 13-year-old Palestinian boys from occupied East Jerusalem to two years in an Israeli juvenile detention center on Wednesday, January 4 after the two were charged with attempted murder and possession of knives.
Muhammad Mahmoud, a lawyer for the defense, told Ma’an that Shadi Anwar Farah and Ahmad Raed Zatari were sentenced to two years of imprisonment in an Israeli juvenile facility.
