Rights group: Israeli soldiers detain two Gaza teens

Ma'an
Israeli soldiers detained two Palestinian teenagers on Sunday after entering the ruins of the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, a human rights group said.

The Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza said the soldiers detained Mahmoud Jamil Hasan Al-Yazeji, 16, and Mohammad Hatem Qasem Al-Kafarneh, 17 and took them across the border into Israel. Al-Kafarneh was later released, and Al-Yazeji held.

Attorneys from the organization said in a statement that the Israeli military was interrogating Al-Yazeji in a prison in the city of Ashkelon. A court ordered that he be detained until Friday, the lawyers added.

A field investigation carried out by the center found that the teens were working in ruins of the industrial area, breaking apart rubble from destroyed buildings in order to sell the material to brick factories. This practice arose as a result of Israel’s ban on construction materials entering Gaza.

...On 18 November Israeli forces also arrested eight Palestinian workers from the industrial area, one of them a child, and took them into Israel. They were released the same day.

The Israeli-controlled joint industrial zone was abandoned by Israel in 2005 and the area was later bombarded by the Israeli military, including in last winter’s war in Gaza. Full story