Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of Palestinian children imprisoned in (a) Palestine and (b) Israel in 2015.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold information on this issue. However, according to the Israeli Non-Government Office (NGO) Military Court Watch, 422 Palestinian children were held in Israeli military detention as of 31 December, 2015. According to figures provided by the Israeli Prison Service, 148 children are being held inside detention facilities inside of Israel and 274 children are being held in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. According to the Palestinian human rights NGO, Addameer, there are no children being detained as Palestinian prisoners.

We are concerned about the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. We funded an independent report on Children in Military Custody.