Israel Sentences 14-Year-Old To 1.5 Years In prison

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The Israeli central court on Wednesday sentenced a 14-year-old Palestinian teen from Jerusalem to 18 months in prison for throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at an illegal Israeli settlement outpost, the teenager’s lawyer told Ma’an.

Muhammad Mahmoud said 14-year-old Jihad al-Jaabari would also have to pay a 5,000 shekel ($1,286) compensation fee to an Israeli settler.

The boy’s lawyer said he plans to appeal the case in Israeli court.

Mahmoud added that al-Jaabari was detained in November.

Under Israeli law, minors as young as 14 years of age can be sentenced to time in adult prison.

Though al-Jaabari was sentenced under Israel’s civil courts, according to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, around 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts.

Addameer found that the most common charge levied against Palestinian children is stone throwing, a crime that is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

After a wave of upheaval swept through the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel at the start of October, Israeli forces began increasing their detention of children.

According to Addameer, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention nearly doubled — with 307 children detained at the end of October, compared with 155 at the end of August.

As of February, there were approximately 450 Palestinian children detained in Israeli jails.

Maan

Launched in 2005, Ma'an News Agency (MNA) publishes news around the clock in Arabic and English, and is among the most browsed websites in the Palestinian territories, with over 3 million visits per month.

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