Official pushes Israel on jailed Palestinian kids

A U.N. official urged Israel to consider rehabilitating Palestinian children it holds in prisons. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. special envoy for children and armed conflicts, toured Israel this week and visited some of the nearly 400 Palestinian minors held in Israeli jails. “I think children are getting very hard and bitter through this experience,” she said. “My sense is this kind of detention practice is feeding the cycle of violence.” She met with four children, including a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old jailed for throwing firebombs.