Faizel Patel, 2016-04-24
Israel has released a 12-year-old Palestinian girl after having spent two and a half months in prison, making her the youngest Palestinian female detainee.
The girl whose name has not been mentioned, was arrested in February near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur, just north of her hometown of Halhul.
According to Israeli military court documents she approached the settlement with a knife hidden under her school uniform.
Now out on early parole, she has served more than half of her sentence of four and a half months in an Israeli prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter and illegal possession of a knife.
Her family had appealed her detention citing international legal norms, and Israeli law, which prohibits the imprisonment of children younger than 14 for the country’s citizens.
The girl is the first child in her family, which includes six girls and three boys, to see the insides of a prison cell.
Her father, 54-year-old Ismael al-Wawi, had been working in Israel for more than 25 years before Israeli authorities revoked his permit on the day she was arrested.
According to the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Prisoners Affairs Commission There are currently 7,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons which include 70 women, 750 in administrative detention, 700 sick detainees, and 30 who have been imprisoned for more than 20 years.
At the same the Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI), a Ramallah-based rights group claim the figures also include 440 Palestinian children, between 12 and 15 who are held in Israeli detention for “security” offences.
– Al Jazeera
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