* Seven years ago, 13-year-old Palestinian Ahmad Manasra was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after participating in a double stabbing with his cousin in a disputed neighborhood in Jerusalem. His 15 year-old cousin was shot dead while Ahmad was hit by a car while trying to flee the scene, leaving him with a skull fracture and brain injury. Ahmad Manasra’s case prompted the Knesset to reduce the age of criminal responsibility to 12, as it is under military law in the West Bank, and brought international attention to the detention of minors on both sides of the Green Line. In the West Bank, the age of criminal responsibility is 12. As his case dragged through the long legal process, Manasra turned 14 and became eligible for a sentence, if convicted, that could include imprisonment. Manasra pleaded not guilty to the charges, and forensic examination of his knife found no evidence of blood on it. Manasra was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison. Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi, an attorney working for Adalah Organization said that the organization has found severe violations of the rights of many of the arrested minors, including intimidation tactics and cruel practices used by Israeli security forces in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank. This also includes arresting minors in the middle of the night and conducting interrogations without the presence of a lawyer or parent. Israel has detained more than 3,000 children each year in the West Bank and that 3,000 to 5,000 minors are detained annually in Israel, including east Jerusalem.

* Kamal Al-Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic movement in the occupied Palestine confirmed that the occupation’s plans to expel Palestinian protestors in Al-Aqsa will not succeed due to the will of the Palestinian youth. This came during a stand in front of the occupation court in Nazareth in solidarity with the imprisoned Ibrahim Khalil. Al-Khatib explained that Palestinian youth are subjected political persecution by the occupation forces.

* The Middle East Eye published a report exploring the current conditions in Palestine a year after the Haifa Uprisings. Efforts to organize protests in the coastal cities, especially Haifa, are ongoing, and this movement has been incorporated into the wider Palestinian body politic, a development that worries the Israeli occupation security establishment, which has failed to stamp out the members of the Karamah uprising among Palestinian citizens of Israel. Activists believe that the events of the Karamah Uprising breathed new life into the Palestinian cause “after Israeli authorities had sought to kill it.”

* The governorates of Sanaa, Ibb, and Amran, which are under the control of the Houthi militia, in Yemen, recorded a significant increase in the rates of domestic murders. Sociologists confirm that the wrong mobilization of youth and children carried out by the militias is behind the transformation of many children into criminals and murderers who are incited against their families and society. Psychological analysts believe that one of the main reasons for the high rate of children committing crimes stems from the wrong patterns of socialization practiced by the militia with children by indoctrinating them and encouraging killing and bloodshed.

* The Middle East Monitor reported that the Mayor of the Turkish city of Bolu has erected banners in Arabic and in Turkish issuing a “last call” and orders for Syrian refugees to leave Turkey and return to Syria. The banners essentially indicated that Syrian refugees “have overstayed their welcome” and “you are no longer wanted, return to your country.” Mayor Ozcan mirrored the banners’ rhetoric in his tweet.