A/HRC/40/39 2019. In February 2018, Palestinian administrative detainees started a boycott of Israeli courts to protest their detention and the involvement of Israeli courts in exacerbating this policy. The boycott was provisionally suspended in September 2018, following negotiations with the Israeli intelligence service to place limits on the length of administrative detention orders and their renewal. Administrative detention without charge or trial based on undisclosed evidence for indefinite periods, without an opportunity to meaningfully challenge the detention, raises serious concerns of arbitrary detention. Echoing concerns raised by the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture, the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have repeatedly called upon Israel to end the practice of administrative detention and to ensure that all administrative detainees are promptly charged or released.38 33. The treatment by Israel of children during arrest and detention remained of particular concern.39 According to accounts collected by the NGO Military Court Watch, of 80 children detained by Israeli security forces in 2017, 65 per cent were arrested in night raids, 94 per cent were hand-tied upon arrest, 78 per cent were blindfolded or hooded following arrest, 65 per cent were subjected to physical abuse, 66 per cent were stripsearched and 81 per cent were denied access to a lawyer prior to questioning.40 34. On 19 December 2017, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi was arrested by Israeli security forces in Nabi Saleh, in the West Bank, following an incident on 15 December 2017 during which she was filmed slapping and kicking two Israeli soldiers in the front yard of her family’s house. The girl was arrested in the middle of the night and interrogated without the presence of her parents or lawyer. According to her lawyer, she was subjected to illtreatment and threats during interrogation, and requests by the lawyer to release her on bail before and during the proceedings were refused. Following closed hearings, she accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to eight months of imprisonment. She was released on 29 July 2018 after completing her sentence. Children should be detained only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time, and with their best interests as the primary consideration.41 35. Ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, both adults and children, in Israeli detention continued to be of concern. During the reporting period, Israeli civil society received allegations of ill-treatment from 194 Palestinians, including 17 women, 10 children and 1 person with Down’s syndrome. 42 According to one NGO, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, out of 120 complaints of alleged ill-treatment and torture it submitted to the Israel Security Agency over five years, 85 per cent of the cases involved sleep deprivation, 58 per cent included threats to hurt or arrest family members, 36 per cent involved stress positions, 27 per cent implied harsh physical violence, 12 per cent involved sexual humiliation and assault, and 8.3 per cent involved refusal of access to toilets, especially during interrogation.43 36. During a night raid in Silwan on 2 July 2018, Israeli security forces arrested a 15year-old boy along with his adult brother. The child was blindfolded, handcuffed and kicked several times during transport. During the interrogation, he was shackled to a chair and blindfolded by the interrogator, pushed to the floor and kicked in different parts of his body. Both the child and his brother were released the same day without charges. 37. There were reports of medical negligence and inadequate medical care for Palestinian detainees, 44 as in the case of an 18-year-old from Dayr Nizam, arrested by 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 8 A/HRC/37/42, para. 18. See also A/HRC/34/38 and A/HRC/37/42. See www.militarycourtwatch.org/files/server/BRIEFING%20PAPER%20-%20FEB%202018.pdf. In accordance with articles 3 (1) and 37 (b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. See also www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22590&LangID=E. Information provided by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. See http://stoptorture.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SitRep2018.pdf. As at mid-2018, a total of 61 Palestinians had died in Israeli custody since 1967 due to medical negligence. See www.addameer.org/publications/joint-report-occupation-forces-arrested-3500palestinians-during-first-half-2018.