Minister pledges support to boy under Israeli house arrest
Reageer (0)1-10-2010
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe was received on Friday by the family of a 13-year-old Hebron boy on Friday, days after the child's release from Israeli prison.
Karem Khaled Da’na, from the Wad Al-Bustan neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron, was taken from his family home by Israeli forces on 22 September, who said he had thrown stones at settlers on his way home from school.
The minister pledged to support the family in any way possible, as part of the ministry's ongoing efforts to secure the release of the 280 children under the age of 18 currently in Israeli prisons. Since 2000, Quraqe said, 8,000 minors were detained by Israeli forces.
According to lawyers and testimony from Karem, he was tortured and kept for six days in Israel's Ofer detention center, and later released on 3,000 shekels ($824) bail under house arrest for a period of five months without exception including going to school.
"Any state who detains young children is a state that is afraid of the future," Qaraqe told the family during the visit, accusing Israel of breaking international law and UN charters guaranteeing the rights of children when boys as young as Karem are taken from their parents' care.
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