'Israel' detained 1,200 children from West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023
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Marking Palestinian Child’s Day, rights groups accused "Israel" of subjecting detained minors to torture, starvation, and medical neglect.
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A Palestinian child is detained by an armed Israeli soldier in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza Strip, March 30, 1994. (AP)
"Israel" has detained around 1,200 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023, according to figures released Saturday by three major Palestinian rights organizations—the Commission for Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, and Addameer—on the occasion of Palestinian Children’s Day (April 5), Anadolu Agency reported.
In a joint statement, the right groups accused Israeli authorities of subjecting these child detainees to “torture, starvation, medical neglect, and systematic deprivation on a daily basis.”
The harrowing conditions, they said, recently resulted in the first child detainee death since the war on Gaza began—17-year-old Walid Ahmad, from the town of Silwad, near Ramallah, who died in Megiddo Prison, northern "Israel". Rights groups confirmed his death last week, citing forensic reports that attributed it to systematic starvation.
The organizations stated that the scale and severity of arrest campaigns targeting Palestinian minors have reached unprecedented levels, describing them as attempts to “uproot [children] from their families and strip them of their childhoods during the bloodiest phase in their history.”
“Since the genocide began, children’s detentions have increased dramatically. In the West Bank alone, at least 1,200 children have been arrested,” the statement noted. It added that figures from Gaza remain unknown due to “Israel’s ongoing crimes of forced disappearance.”
They renewed their appeal to international human rights bodies to take “concrete actions to hold Israeli leaders accountable for ongoing war crimes” and to impose sanctions.
According to the institutions, 63 detainees have died in Israeli custody since October, including 40 from Gaza. Currently, more than 9,500 Palestinians—among them women and over 350 children—are being held in harsh conditions inside Israeli prisons.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continues to escalate its aggression across the West Bank, where at least 944 Palestinians have been killed and around 7,000 wounded, based on official data.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared "Israel’s" decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in both the occupied West Bank and the east part of occupied al-Quds.
'Israel' starved Palestinian child to death in prison, autopsy reveals
An autopsy has revealed that a Palestinian teenager, 17-year-old Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, was starved to death while in Israeli custody, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) reported on Thursday.
Ahmad, a resident of the town of Silwad, died at the Israeli Megiddo Prison in late March under harrowing conditions.
According to DCIP, Ahmad’s death was likely the result of "starvation, dehydration from colitis-induced diarrhea, and infectious complications all compounded by prolonged malnutrition and denial of life-saving medical intervention."
The autopsy, conducted at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, also uncovered alarming signs of abuse. The examination showed considerable air accumulation in both the chest and abdominal cavities—findings that DCIP said were "likely caused by blunt trauma."
In addition, evidence of inflammation, edema, and congestion in the large intestine pointed to traumatic injuries, possibly inflicted by beatings at the hands of Israeli prison guards.
Further examination revealed that Ahmad had suffered from extreme, likely prolonged, malnutrition. A laceration was also found on his neck, adding to the growing indications that he was subjected to severe mistreatment.
'Israel deliberately killing child detainees'
Speaking to the press, Ahmad’s father confirmed that Israeli authorities had subjected his son to "beatings, starvation, and medical neglect during his time in custody."
"An autopsy report showed that he had lost a significant amount of weight, developed scabies and infections, and had fallen unconscious before his death," he said, stressing, "Israel is deliberately killing child detainees. Walid had no prior health issues. He was starved, left untreated, and ultimately killed."
'Israel' orphaned 39,000 Palestinian children in Gaza
Over 39,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both of their parents amid relentless Israeli attacks, a new report has found, as the death toll climbs to 50,523, with 114,776 others wounded since 7 October 2023.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the enclave is now facing "the largest orphan crisis in modern history," with tens of thousands of children left without parental care due to the prolonged Israeli onslaught.
In a statement issued ahead of Palestinian Children’s Day, the bureau confirmed that 39,384 children have been orphaned during the 534 days of bombardment. Of these, around 17,000 children have lost both parents and are now "facing life without support or care."
Meanwhile, at least 100 Palestinian children have been killed or injured each day in Gaza since "Israel" broke the ceasefire on March 18, the head of UNRWA said, citing UNICEF.
Calling the situation "harrowing", Philippe Lazzarini lamented the "young lives cut short in a war not of children’s making."
He added that 15,000 children had been reportedly killed since the war broke out on Gaza.
The UNRWA chief maintained that the war has "turned Gaza into a “no land” for children."
"This is a stain on our common humanity. Nothing justifies the killing of children wherever they are," he asserted, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Read more: Over one mln Gaza children stranded without life saving aid: UNICEF
