Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the date of their most recent representations to the government of Israel about the treatment of Palestinian children arrested by the army of Israel, including representations about the practice of blindfolding; by whom, and to whom, those representations were made; what was the response; and what further action they will take (1) bilaterally, and (2) multilaterally.

​The UK continues to have strong concerns about continued reports of ill-treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military detention, notably use of painful restraints and insufficient notification of legal rights. Our Ambassador to Israel raised concerns with Israeli Attorney-General Mandelblit on 3 October and the Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt also raised our concerns with the Israeli authorities during his visit to Israel in August 2017.

We will continue regularly raising this issue with the Israeli authorities, and to press them to secure needed improvements to the practices surrounding military detention of minors. Whilst we have not engaged in formal multilateral discussions on the matter, we have nonetheless engaged on this alongside a number of European Partners.