RAMALLAH, West Bank — Young Tariq Abu Khdeir, 15, from the Shuafat camp in the Jerusalem district, returned to Palestine for his annual summer vacation. Instead, he was severely beaten and detained by Israel soldiers, while his cousin Mohammed Abu Khdeir was burned alive by three Israelis, two of whom were settlers, on July 2.

The crimes against the two Abu Khdeir children shed light on attacks against Palestinian children. Statistics from the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip indicate that 40% of the martyrs of the war launched by Israel on the Strip beginning July 8, 2014, have been children, who are frequently targeted and killed.

Mufeed al-Hajj, a lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners Club who defended Tariq, told Al-Monitor, “Occupation soldiers severely beat him on all parts of his body until he passed out. They then held him in a detention center [al-Nabi Yacoub Center] in Jerusalem, without offering him any medical treatment for hours.”

In news statements, the boy's father said, “The occupation police moved Tariq to Hadassah Hospital after the intervention of the US consulate, which was informed of the matter. [This was done] because of the fact that he holds a US passport, not because of his poor health status.”