Israeli Press
Israel nearly doubles Palestinian minors held without charge to 191
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Israel now holds 191 Palestinian minors in administrative detention, up from 103 a year ago, according to data reported Thursday by the Times of Israel — an 85 percent rise in children imprisoned without charge or trial.
Administrative detention lets Israel's military hold Palestinians on secret evidence for renewable six-month terms. Neither the detainee nor a lawyer sees the material behind the order, and renewal can continue indefinitely; the paper's report noted the practice's sharp expansion among minors specifically.
The figure lands on top of a record the rights group Defense for Children International–Palestine has been documenting all year. The group reported earlier that child administrative detainees had reached an all-time high, and that Israeli forces issued such an order against the youngest Palestinian child on record.
The trajectory has climbed throughout the war. More than 17,000 administrative detention orders have been issued against Palestinians since October 2023, the Palestinian Information Center reported in January, none of them ending in indictment or conviction.
That an Israeli paper is carrying the minors' figure gives the number standing inside Israel's own debate. The 191 children it counts remain in cells today, none of them told what they are accused of.
