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Israel has detained over 9,000 Palestinian kids since 2015: Advocacy group

Monday, 04 April 2022 4:55 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 April 2022 5:12 PM ]

Israeli forces detain a Palestinian minor in an area of the occupied West Bank. (File photo by Palestinian media)

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) says the Israeli regime has detained more than 9,000 Palestinian children across the occupied territories over the past seven years.

In a report published on Monday, the PPS said 19,000 minors, including children younger than 10 years of age, had been arrested since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000.

The advocacy group said 160 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli jails.

According to the PPS, testimonies provided by the minors showed most of them underwent some sort of physical or psychological torture at the hands of Israeli interrogators, who used a range of illegal mechanisms and methods that flout the existing conventions on children’s rights.

The PPS report comes on the eve of the Palestinian Child Day, which is annually observed on April 5.

In September 2021, the Palestinian Prisoners' Center for Studies said Israeli authorities had clearly ramped up targeting Palestinian children in recent years with the aim of discouraging the Palestinian minors from resisting the Israeli occupation, ruining their educational opportunities, and shaping up a weak generation.

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Official figures by the Palestinian Ministry of Information in Ramallah earlier has shown more than 1,500 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces during the time span beginning at the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000 up to April 2013. That is the equivalent of one Palestinian child killed every three days for about 13 years.

There are reportedly thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Geneva Convention.

Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates, including women and minors, have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of the so-called administrative detention. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Rights groups say Israel’s use of administrative detention is a “bankrupt tactic.”

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