Israeli court sentences two Palestinian teenagers to 11 years in jail each

Rasa - An Israeli court has sentenced two Palestinian teenage boys to nearly a dozen years in prison each amid ongoing repression against Palestinians.

News ID: 424886

Date: 08 November 2016 - 18:23

RNA - Lawyer Mufeed al-Haj, a member of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), said the Jerusalem al-Quds District Court handed down 11-year jail terms to both 15-year-old Mondher Khalil Abu Mayaleh and Mohamed Taha, 16, on Monday.

The two were accused of having conducted an attempted stabbing attack near the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds earlier this year.

The court also ordered each of the teenagers, who have been held in Israeli custody since January 30, to pay 50,000 Israeli shekels ($13,110) in “compensation.”

Earlier on Monday, the same court had sentenced 14-year-old Ahmad Saleh Manasra to 12 years in jail on the charge of attempting to murder a 20-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy in the illegal Israeli settlement of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem al-Quds on October 12, 2015.

Manasra was also ordered to pay 80,000 shekels ($21,000) in compensation to the Israeli man and 100,000 shekels ($26,260) to the Israeli boy.

The Palestinian teenager was accused of carrying out the assault along with his 15-year-old cousin Hassan, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces.

Video footage released on social media networks in the wake of the attack showed Manasra bleeding heavily on the ground as some Israeli bystanders shouted a mixed of Arabic and Hebrew obscenities at him.

Qadura Faris, the director of the PPS, censured the court rulings against Manasra as “a pre-planned crime.”

The PPS head further called upon the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UNICEF to adopt effective and practical measures to stop Israeli crimes against Palestinian children.

The occupied territories have witnessed increased tensions ever since Israeli forces imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

Nearly 250 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.

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