RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli forces arrested around 745 Palestinian children in the first 10 months of the current year, according to a non-governmental organization.
In an annual report, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said that the children arrested by Israel experienced numerous rights violations. They are taken away from their houses usually late at night under harsh conditions, the report said.
@UNICEF, Despite sustained engagement by UNICEF and repeated calls to end night arrests and torture of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, Israeli authorities have persistently failed to implement practical changes to stop violence against child detainees. pic.twitter.com/7ipPlgr7Zg
— Wessam Ahmed (@WessamA51875392) November 20, 2019
It noted that arrested children are deprived of their right to education, a clear violation of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and some of the children are denied family visits and proper medical treatment.
According to the report, nearly 200 children are currently imprisoned in various Israeli detention centers.
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The NGO called on the International human rights organizations — including UNICEF — to make more efforts to provide protection to Palestinian children from Israel’s arrests and harassments.
According to Palestinian figures, roughly 5,700 Palestinians — including a large number of women and children — are languishing in Israeli detention facilities. 1700 of prisoners are in need of medical treatment.
https://twitter.com/ShehabAgencyEn/status/1120313913248292864
Hundreds of Palestinian children whom Israel arrests every year. The estimates range between 800 and 1,000. Some are under the age of 15; some are even preteens. A mapping of the locales where these detentions take place reveals a certain pattern: The closer a Palestinian village is to a settlement, the more likely it is that the minors residing there will find themselves in Israeli custody.
For example, in the town of Azzun, west of the Karnei Shomron settlement, there’s hardly a household that hasn’t experienced an arrest. Residents say that in the past five years, more than 150 pupils from the town’s only high school have been arrested.
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A number of Israelis, whose sensibilities are offended by the arrests of Palestinian children, have decided to mobilize and fight the phenomenon. Within the framework of an organization called Parents Against Child Detention, its approximately 100 members are active in the social networks and hold public events “in order to heighten awareness about the scale of the phenomenon and the violation of the rights of Palestinian minors, and in order to create a pressure group that will work for its cessation,” as they explain. Their target audience is other parents, whom they hope will respond with empathy to the stories of these children.