Israeli Forces Detaining 14-Year-Old Palestinian Boy for 4 Months
This is the youngest Palestinian child placed under an administrative detention order since DCIP began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008.
From Defense for Children International - Palestine:
Israeli forces have detained a 14-year-old Palestinian boy pursuant to an administrative detention order in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces detained 14-year-old Muin Ghassan Fahed Salahat from his home in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during a pre-dawn raid on February 19 and issued a four-month administrative detention order against him on March 2, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. This is the youngest Palestinian child placed under an administrative detention order since DCIP began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008.
"Administrative detention violates fundamental due process rights, yet Israeli forces are now expanding this draconian policy to detain Palestinian children indefinitely without charge or trial," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. "Muin’s case sets a dangerous precedent, showing that no Palestinian child, regardless of age, is safe from arbitrary imprisonment under Israel’s military rule."
Muin, a ninth-grade student and the only child in his family, has been placed under administrative detention, a practice in which Israeli authorities detain Palestinians, including children, without charge or trial, based on ‘secret evidence’ that neither the detainee nor their lawyer can review.
Israeli soldiers forcibly entered Muin’s home at 3:40 a.m. on February 19. Muin’s father was immediately detained, blindfolded, and restrained with his hands behind his back. When Muin awoke and went to find his father, Israeli soldiers seized him and began searching the house. The family was not given an arrest warrant and were told not to move, while soldiers damaged their belongings and confiscated phones and a computer. The soldiers attempted to blindfold Muin and tie his hands behind his back as they took him away. Afterward, a soldier warned Muin’s father not to move for at least ten minutes.
Muin’s detention is set from March 2 to June 18, 2025, and will be reviewed by an Israeli military court within 12 days, a significant shift from the policy prior to October 7, 2023, when such reviews were conducted within four days. A detention order can be issued several days after the child’s arrest, delaying any procedural review for even longer.
Israeli forces are holding 112 Palestinian children in administrative detention as of December 31, 2024, according to information shared by the Israel Prison Service, the highest number of child detainees since DCIP began monitoring this number in 2008.
Israel’s routine use of administrative detention against Palestinians, including children, constitutes arbitrary detention and violates international human rights law. Additionally, the Fourth Geneva Convention strictly prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or unlawfully imprisoning protected persons, making Israel’s practice a clear breach of its legal obligations.
Arbitrarily depriving Palestinian children of their right to liberty through the use of administrative detention, which is the imprisonment of individuals for prolonged periods without charge or trial, often is based on secret evidence amounting to arbitrary detention.
Israeli authorities have imposed severe restrictions on lawyers attempting to counsel or visit Palestinian detainees, including children, held in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023. Legal representatives often face denial of access, arbitrary delays, and bureaucratic obstacles, making it nearly impossible to provide adequate defense. Additionally, Israeli military courts routinely rely on this ‘secret evidence’ that neither the detainee nor their lawyer can review, effectively stripping Palestinian prisoners of their right to a fair trial. In many cases, Palestinian children held in administrative detention go weeks without seeing a lawyer, deepening the cycle of arbitrary imprisonment and impunity.
Administrative detention orders are issued by the Israeli military commander of the area, or a military officer delegated by the military commander, and can last up to six months, but there is no limit to the number of times an administrative detention order can be renewed. The orders are approved by military court judges giving the illusion of independent legal oversight, yet, Israeli military courts fail to meet international standards for independence and impartiality because military court judges are active duty or reserve officers in the Israeli military.
In October 2015, following a three-year suspension of the practice, Israeli authorities began arresting and imprisoning Palestinian children without charge pursuant to administrative detention orders.
Administrative detention is permitted in strictly limited circumstances in only the most exceptional cases for “imperative reasons of security” when there is no other alternative. The practice should never be used as an alternative to filing charges or as a general deterrent for future activity.
International juvenile justice standards, which Israel has obliged itself to implement by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and must not be unlawfully or arbitrarily detained.
Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year, while systematically stripping away the fundamental right to a fair trial right.
10-year-old Palestinian boy fatally shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces in Tulkarem