House arrest in Palestine: Looking at life through a window

The Israeli occupation authorities use a variety of tactics to limit Palestinians' freedom and their rights to life. The ongoing genocide against Gazans in particular and Palestinians in general has revealed many crimes committed by the inhumane occupation. One of them is house arrest of Palestinians, especially children who have done nothing but be born Palestinians. 

House arrest, according to the US Department of Justice, is “a sentence in which offenders are ordered by the court to remain confined in their residences, usually allowed to leave only for medical and employment reasons. In at least 20 States, electronic bracelets are used to detect house-arrest violations.”

The Israeli occupation has assassinated the childhoods of Palestinian kids, especially those in Jerusalem, by forcing them to remain at home or at a relative's residence. Mothers and fathers become jail wardens when they are forced to sign a pledge promising to watch over and stop their own child from leaving the house, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) reported. 

The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that Israeli courts placed more than 600 Palestinian children under house arrest in 2022. Because the occupation’s laws forbid Palestinian children under the age of 14 from being imprisoned, Israeli soldiers “punish” Palestinian youngsters by placing them under house arrest. As a result, the court grants them permission to be detained in their homes for a predetermined amount of time while it reviews the detainee's file and awaits a decision.

During the house arrest, the child's everyday activities—including exercising fundamental rights like attending school, getting medical attention, or even smelling fresh air—are severely hindered, because disobeying the Israeli court order leads to heavy fines. The child must wear an electronic tracking bracelet, according to the New Arab. 

From January 2018 to March 2022, the Israeli occupation issued around 2,200 house arrest orders, 114 of which were for children under the age of 12, according to the Committee for Prisoners' Families in Jerusalem. It was also reported that in the first six months of 2023, Israel imprisoned 340 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 18, in addition to 25 Palestinian children under the age of 12.

A child confined at home suffers tremendous psychological effects, including mental harm and the breakdown of his social network. Some tend to rebel against their relatives. A few have even gone so far as to attempt suicide, while others have abused their parents. They start acting hostile and lonely, according to the Palestine Chronicle.

A MIFTAH factsheet showed that 85% of children in occupied Jerusalem experienced mental health issues following their detention or placement under house arrest. 

Furthermore, when Palestinian children are sentenced to house arrest, Israeli courts frequently do not indicate how long the order will last. Therefore, even though they received a sentence of two months in actual jail, some children end up spending years under house arrest without being able to go outside or breathe fresh air.