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Iran hosts fifth intl. conference on solidarity with Palestinian children

Saturday, 01 October 2022 9:23 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 01 October 2022 9:23 PM ]

Saman Kojouri

Press TV, Tehran

Tehran has hosted the fifth conference on solidarity with the Palestinian children and youths. The event is held every year on the occasion of the martyrdom of 12-year-old Palestinian Mohammad al-Durah and other martyred Palestinian children and youths.

The event highlights the ongoing plight of those born under the Israeli occupation and blockade. Human rights groups have long accused the Israeli regime of deliberately targeting Palestinian children. This comes amid the failure of the international community to hold Tel Aviv accountable for its crimes.

Muhammad al-Durrah was martyred in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, on the second day of the Second Intifada. Jamal al-Durrah and his 12-year-old son, Muhammad, were filmed by a Palestinian cameraman, as Israeli forces fired bullets at them. The footage shows the pair crouching behind a concrete cylinder, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust, after which the boy is seen slumped across his father's legs.

Since 2008, the Israeli regime has waged three wars on the Gaza Strip killing and maiming thousands of children. During Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, Israeli forces killed over 2,200 Gazans, including hundreds of children.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the Israeli regime has detained more than 9,000 Palestinian children across the occupied territories over the past seven years. Some 19,000 minors, including children younger than 10 years of age, have been arrested since the start of the Second Intifada back in September 2000.

To Palestinians the martyrdom of 12-year old Mohammad al-Durrah has become a symbol of resistance, which Palestinians believe is the only solution to put an end to Israeli aggressions.

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