B'Tselem, the Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said in a report that police were regularly violating Israeli law in their treatment of minors in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where tensions between settlers and Palestinians run high.

Confrontations in the East Jerusalem neighborhood often involve stone-throwing by young Palestinians, and B'Tselem said at least 81 minors had been arrested between November 2009 and October 2010, most accused of throwing stones.

"The Jerusalem police systematically violates the law, primarily the Youth Law, which grants minors special rights in criminal matters and prohibits, as a rule, interrogation of minors at night," the group said.

B'Tselem said the Israeli police take the minors from their beds in the middle of the night and use unnecessary violence against them.

B'Tselem said that the police opened 1,267 files last year against Palestinian minors from East Jerusalem on suspicion of stone-throwing, and ignored laws and regulations governing the questioning of minors in some cases.

The report, which is based on interviews with 30 detainees, said that some of the minors were arrested at night and even taken from their beds, and taken to the Russian Compound in Western Jerusalem, even though according to the law all efforts must be made to avoid detaining minors during the night.

According to the report, in many cases minors were questioned without their parents being present, which is also against the law. Some of the young detainees even say violence was directed against them, and they were cuffed for no reason.

The report said, "The police behavior against Palestinian minors from (East Jerusalem neighborhood of) Silwan amounts to serious contempt for special protections granted to them as minors."

The report mentioned that in at least four instances police detained children below 12 – the age of criminal responsibility.

"In one case an eight-year-old boy was taken from his bed in the middle of the night only because he had the same name as another boy who was suspected of throwing stones," said the report.

According to the B'Tselem report, the minors' complaints of violence were either ignored or treated with contempt, and in few cases in which an investigation was launched, it was closed without any legal action against those responsible.

"B'Tselem calls on Jerusalem police to uphold the law in letter and spirit when dealing with cases of stone-throwing in East Jerusalem."

The Jerusalem police said in response, "In our activity against minors who violate the law, we act in accordance with the law, and in cases where people complained that their rights had been violated or that police violated the law, we opened the door for them to file their complaints with the appropriate authorities.

"Most of the parents are present during their children's interrogation, but in some cases parents choose not to be present.”

— With input from agencies