Israeli Policies and Practices In mass arrest campaigns in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian children (between 12-17 years old) are often the first to be arrested.240 An estimated 8,500 children have been arrested and prosecuted in Israeli military courts since 2000.241 In 2014, the number of children arrested was 861.242 The latest statistics from April 2016 showed that there were 414 children from the oPt in military prisons,243 12 of whom were girls244, and 112 of whom were between 12-15 years old.245 An additional 13 children were being held in administrative detention.246 Israel has an obligation to respect the aforementioned rights in conformity with international law and as a signatory of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the CAT. However, investigations by the UN, Defense for Children International, B’Tselem, Addameer, and others, have all shown that Israel systematically violates the rights of Palestinian children. For example, information gathered by the Defense for Children International Palestine reveals a disturbing trend in the frequency of the violation of children’s rights, based on 429 sworn testimonies collected between January 2012 and December 2015.247 240 Addameer, Imprisonment of Children, February 2016. Available at: http://www.addameer.org/the_ prisoners/children 241 DCI Palestine and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Detention and Use of Excessive Force by Israeli Forces, Alternative Report to the Fifth Periodic Report of Israel on its Compliance with the Convention against Torture, 57th Session of the Committee Against Torture, 27 March 2016, page 3. Available at: http:// tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/ISR/INT_CAT_NGO_ISR_23473_E.pdf 242 Ibid.; It should be noted that these numbers are provided by the Israeli military and the Israeli Prison Service, which tend to understate the numbers of detained children and generally do not include the substantial numbers of children detained for periods shorter than a day 243 DCI Palestine, Number of Palestinian Children (12-17) in Israeli Military Detention, last update: April 2016. Available at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_detention 244 DCI Palestine, Number of Palestinian Girls in Israeli Military Detention, last update: April 2016. Available at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/palestinian_girls_in_israeli_detention 245 DCI Palestine, Number of Young (12-15) Palestinians in Israeli Military Detention, last update: April 2016. Available at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/young_palestinians_in_israeli_detention 246 DCI Palestine, Number of Palestinian Children (12-17) in Israeli Administrative Detention, last update: April 2016. Available at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_administrative_detention 247 DCI Palestine, No Way to Treat a Child: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System, April 2016, page 22. Available at: http://www.dci-palestine.org/palestinian_children_in_the_israeli_ military_detention_system 67