170 Palestinian children still languishing in harsh conditions in Israeli prisons

The Israeli occupation is holding around 170 Palestinian children in inhumane conditions that violate the International Humanitarian Law and human rights conventions, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

In a report, the commission explained that Palestinian children in Israeli occupation jails are subjected to various forms of abuse and torture in a blatant breach of international human rights standards.
The commission called on international human rights groups to provide protection for the Palestinian children in Israeli occupation prisons.

Since 2000, the Israeli occupation has detained at least 17,000 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 18, with some under the age of 10.

According to the report, about 75 per cent of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails have been subjected to at least one form of physical abuse, while all of them have been exposed to psychological torture at the time of their detention or during their imprisonment.

Most of the detained Palestinian minors are from occupied Jerusalem, where they are subjected to various forms of rights abuses, such as unlawful detention, house arrest, banishment from the holy city, and hefty fines.

There are nearly 5,000 Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, including 170 children, 31 female detainees, 18 journalists, and 700 sick detainees – 200 of whom are in dire need of proper health care.

Of them, there are approximately 1,300 Palestinian detainees who are being held under so-called ‘administrative detention’ – a euphuism for holding detainees for renewable periods without charge or trial but based on “secret evidence”.