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The fate of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl, tried before an Israeli military court for hurling rocks at passing cars and sentenced to two months in prison, has gripped Palestinians who say her treatment demonstrates Israel's excessive measures .
Malak al-Khatib, arrested last month, is one of only a rare few female Palestinian minors who have faced arrest and sentencing.
"A 14-year-old girl won't pose any threat to soldiers' lives," said her father, Ali al-Khatib. "They are well-equipped and well-trained so what kind of threat could she have posed to them?"
The Israeli military said Malak al-Khatib was charged with stone-throwing, attempted stone-throwing and possession of a knife and that under a plea bargain, she was sentenced to two months in prison and a US$1,500 fine.
Having spent four weeks in detention, she has another four left weeks left at a central Israeli prison for women.
Out of a total of more than 5,500 Palestinians held by Israel, about 150 are minors.
But the teenager is among a handful of female minors ever held by Israel.
Palestinian officials say she is the youngest girl detained and sentenced by Israel.
On December 31, she walked to a West Bank road used by both Israelis and Palestinians, and began throwing rocks at passing cars, Palestinian officials told her parents.
Israeli security forces later arrested her and said they found a knife in her possession.
"These kids grow up with news about clashes, about oppression of Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and they go to express themselves," Ali al-Khatib said.
Sarit Michaeli from B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said that under Israel's military justice system, Malak al-Khatib would not be afforded the same rights and protections as Israeli minors under the legal system.
"An Israeli child will not be held in detention for three weeks, even a boy, let alone a girl, because of these protections provided to children by the Israeli youth law," she said.
Issa Karake, head of the Palestinian government's Prisoner Affairs Department, said the case is just another in a policy meant to break the spirits of young people resisting the Israeli occupation.
"The Israelis show no tolerance with the Palestinian children," Karake commented on the case. "The Israelis are crushing a whole generation."


Palestinian girl, 14, jailed by Israeli military court for hurling rocks at passing cars 

Palestinian Khawla Al-Khatib holds a poster of her 14-year-old daughter Malak al-Khatib, detained for stone-throwing by Israel.Photo: AP

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