Ocotber 21, 2007

GAZA, (PIC)-- The prisoners' studies center has confirmed that the IOA is detaining 360 Palestinian children below 18 years of age in its jails, pointing out that most of them are imprisoned in the juvenile section at the Israeli Hasharon prison.

"The policy pursued by Israel against the Palestinian children detained in its jails is completely incompatible with the international law which stipulates the protection of juveniles deprived of their liberty, as the Israeli laws in the occupied Palestinian lands deny the Palestinian children any special treatment," the prisoners' center stated in a report received by the PIC.

The legal center urged the families of detained children to file a lawsuit against the IOA with the international court of justice, calling on all international legal institutions to support the families of detained children by issuing a decision ending their suffering and condemning the Israeli practices against the freedom of children.

In another context, more than 40 PLC MPs imprisoned in the Israeli Ofer prison, most of them affiliated with the Hamas parliamentary bloc, strongly denounced the alleged keenness of the international community to achieve peace in the region while it does not exert any effort to get them released even though they were democratically elected by the Palestinian people.

In a statement received by the PIC, the imprisoned MPs also complained about the disregard being demonstrated by the local, Arab and international media outlets towards their issue, calling on them to cast more light on the issue of prisoners in general, especially in light of preparations for the autumn conference.

They also called on human rights organizations and law-oriented institutions to form an ad hoc committee to organize popular, official and media campaigns in solidarity with the MPs from all political affiliations imprisoned in Israeli jails.

In an unrelated development, the IOF troops stormed amid intensified gunfire at dawn Sunday the Balata and Ein refugee camps and the village of Kafr Kalil in the Nablus city and clashed with the Palestinian resistance fighters in the camp of Ein Beit Al-Ma, according to Palestinian local sources.

The sources added that the Palestinian resistance fighters traded fire with the invading troops and detonated an explosive device near an Israeli military jeep in the area around the Ein camp.