Children among Palestinians Arrested by Israeli Forces in West Bank
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli forces detained several Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including minors, during a series of raids.
According to the Wafa news agency, at least three individuals were arrested in Bethlehem, including two young brothers.
In a dawn raid on the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, Israeli forces arrested two 15-year-old boys after storming their family homes.
Three more Palestinians were arrested at dawn in Qaffin, near the besieged city of Tulkarem.
In Hebron (Al-Khalil), Israeli forces detained a freed Palestinian in Qalqas and raided additional homes in the eastern part of the city. Another arrest was reported south of Hebron.
Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces carried out a series of raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank throughout the morning. Troops stormed the Jalazone refugee camp at dawn, while soldiers surrounded a home during a raid on Qaffin, near Tulkarem. In Bethlehem, freed prisoner Ali Khaled Zawahra was arrested following a raid on his home, and Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces also entered the Shu'fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli troops also stormed the Shu'fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa TV reported that Palestinian Authority security forces arrested Fida Abu Amireh, a young man from the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, at dawn.
Israeli forces also arrested two Palestinian boys — seven-year-old Ibrahim and 13-year-old Omar — in the occupied West Bank. The boys were detained for 12 hours under harsh conditions.
Stripped to their underwear, beaten, and left bruised, they were interrogated before being released. Upon returning to the Jenin refugee camp, they discovered their grandmother had been killed by an Israeli sniper during the raid.
The boys have since struggled to cope with the trauma. Their experience reflects a wider trend: more than 350 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli prisons, with hundreds facing prosecution annually.
Samah Jabr, a psychiatrist and former head of mental health at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, highlighted the severe psychological impact such incidents have on children.
“There are short-term consequences for this kind of violence and long-term consequences,” Jabr said from Nablus.
“I see many adults who have psychological suffering because of experiences of political violence that they lived [through] when they were children. Because of detentions, home demolitions, home raids [and] detention of family members,” she added.
“These experiences leave scars immediately, and also for generations to come… And it’s very important to provide psychosocial support for affected children as soon as possible following a traumatic event like this, whether physical violence or psychological humiliation, which is commonplace in Palestine,” Jabr said.
“It leaves a big scar on the child. And if they don’t deal with it immediately, they will integrate a sense of worthlessness and inferiority.”
