Beijing: The detention of Palestinian children is one of the most serious violations carried out by Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people, said the Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Advocacy on Thursday, pointing that it constitutes a direct assault on a group protected under international law.
According to Qatar News Agency, data from Palestinian and international human rights organizations indicate that Israeli authorities arrest hundreds of Palestinian children each year. More than 350 children are currently held in Israeli prisons, most of them from the West Bank, along with children from occupied Jerusalem. Arrests of children from the Gaza Strip have also been documented, particularly during periods of military escalation.
The Center said that most children detained in the West Bank are tried before Israeli military courts within a judicial system that disregards the legal rights of minors and fails to provide them with fair trial conditions. He added that they are subjected to lengthy interrogations without the presence of their parents or lawyers, and are threatened and intimidated to extract confessions. Many are forced to sign statements written in a language they do not understand, which are later used as the basis for their conviction.
It pointed out that detention conditions fall far short of minimum humanitarian standards, including overcrowding, malnutrition, medical neglect, and denial of education. This leaves deep psychological scars, including anxiety, fear, and social isolation, which persist even after the detainees are released.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Advocacy revealed that the occupation authorities have arrested about 9,300 Palestinians in more than 27 prisons, detention and interrogation centers, including 51 female prisoners and about 350 children, reiterating his demand to provide urgent international protection for Palestinian children, to stop the policy of arresting and prosecuting them, to release those arbitrarily detained, and to ensure that those responsible for the violations committed against them are held accountable.