Bethlehem – Ma’an – An Israeli judge has announced the establishment of a new military court dealing solely with the sentencing of Palestinian children.

Ma’ariv, the daily Hebrew-language newspaper, wrote that “from now on, Palestinian children will be brought in front of military judges under the new structure of a special military court to sentence children under the legal age of majority to avoid the recent situation where children have been brought to normal military courts.”

The sentencing of children under the legal age of majority in regular military courts constitutes a contravention of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which Israel ratified in 1991.

The establishment of the court was announced by Israeli judge Lieutenant Colonel Aharon Mishnayot.

An inauguration ceremony for the new children’s military court was held on Sunday at Ofer Prison in the West Bank, Ma’ariv said.

According to the Palestine branch of the organization Defense for Children International (DCI), an average of 9,000 Palestinians are prosecuted in two Israeli military courts in the West Bank each year, among them an average of 700 children, some of them as young as 12.