Following the first Israeli re-deployment in 1994, Palestinian society witnessed a rapid increase in the number of juveniles who come into conflict with the law. Eighty-six of these children were sentenced to periods of detention in reformatory schools. Statistics from 1999 constitute a dangerous indicator of the manner in which the situation is developing. Social workers with the Ministry of Social Affairs followed-up 1,404 cases with Palestinian children from the West Bank and Gaza in 1999. This is a drastic increase compared with the 86 between January and August 1996.
Palestinian juveniles experience a more complicated situation than do juveniles in other countries.
The laws currently applicable and operative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are an amalgamation of Ottoman Codes, British amendments thereto, Mandatory and Emergency Regulations, Jordanian laws and constitutional principles, and Israeli military orders. As each colonial, administrative or military power retreated, it left behind entire legal systems of sets of administrative orders, which operated with the force of law. For example, it is estimated that the Israeli military authority has issued more than 1,500 military orders in the West Bank and 1,100 in Gaza. Moreover, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are geographically separate and have historically been administered by different powers and subject to different laws. The result is that there are substantial discrepancies between the laws applicable in Gaza and those applicable in the West Bank.