In a dangerous precedent, the occupation authorities have issued an arbitrary administrative detention order against 14-year-old Ammar Sobhi Mohammed Abdul Kareem from the town of Abwein in the Ramallah district. Occupation forces raided his home after midnight on August 21, 2024, after blowing up the doors. They searched the house, assaulted him with beatings, and restrained him before holding him alone in one of the rooms. He was then transferred to Ofer Prison, where he remains detained till today.
Ammar is one of more than 250 children inside the occupation's prisons and one of forty children subjected to arbitrary administrative detention. He is the youngest among them. For years, the occupation authorities have used arbitrary administrative detention against all Palestinian society as a tool of repression and control, with even children not spared from this oppressive policy. The occupation issues administrative detention orders against children without filing charges against them, claiming the existence of secret files. This policy steals their childhood, placing them in cells that kill all meaning of life and childhood, depriving them of their right to education and their right to a safe life.
The occupation authorities have intensified the use of arbitrary administrative detention against the Palestinian people since the early days of the ongoing occupation's aggression and genocidal war, as part of continuous arrest campaigns. Today, more than 3,500 administrative detainees are held in the occupation's prisons, as part of a policy of revenge and collective punishment practiced against the Palestinian people.
Palestinian children are not enjoying the rights guaranteed to them under all international agreements and treaties, particularly the "Convention on the Rights of the Child," which the occupying state ratified in 1991. This convention ensured children's rights to freedom and childhood away from all these violations. However, the occupation's use of arbitrary administrative detention against Palestinian children continuously prevents the protection of children and the assurance of their rights.