WEST BANK: Over four-hundred Palestinian children from West Bank are suffering mistreatment in Israeli prisons, and violations of rights.

14-years-old Palestinian Layth Ghalib Bedwan was arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities on 28 August 2006. Since then, his family has waited anxiously for him to return home.

"His mother is crying all the time. I contacted all the children’s rights organizations in the hope that they can do something to accelerate the release of my son, but all my efforts were in vain," said Ghalib Bedwan, 36, Layth’s father.

On 9 September, an Israeli military court accused Layth of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, sentencing him to three months in prison, and imposing a US$400 fine on him.

"The occupation force stormed into our house at 2am in the morning on 28 August,” his father said. “They were shouting and threatening to use their guns. They asked me to get my son Layth, and soon after they tied his hands, covered his eyes and put him in a military vehicle and drove away."

Activists say the manner of the arrest and detention of children like Layth contravenes international laws protecting children.

Iyad Misk is a lawyer for the NGO Defence for Children International (DCI) in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). He said international law allows for the detention of children or adolescents under 18, but under specific conditions.

“A specialised interrogator for children should interrogate them. The interrogation should be filmed and the parents should attend to be sure that the child was not subject to psychological pressure or abuse,” Misk said.

He added that minors should appear before a special tribunal for children and only be detained in facilities dedicated exclusively for them, never with adults.

“All these conditions are not provided to Palestinian children detained by the Israeli authorities, although they do provide it for Israeli child prisoners," Misk said, adding that Israeli authorities try Palestinian children in military courts - another contravention of international law.

Misk said Article 37 of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child states that detaining children should be a measure of last resort, and must be for the shortest possible period of time. Israel signed this pact in 1990 but the NGO’s lawyers say that it is only being applied to Israeli children.