Israeli dark child-killing record ‘shame’ for Western backers: Iran

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
25 Jun 2023 17:37

Iran's FM spokesperson calls out the dark Israeli record of arresting and murdering Palestinian children.

Palestinian women take the last look at the body of Muhammad Matar, 16, who was killed by Israeli fire, on August 20, 2020, when he was accompanied by two other children near a settlement bypass road near their village. (AP)

The Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, criticized the dark record of the Israeli regime in killing children and minors as a "source of shame" for the illegal entity's Western supporters.

Kanaani rebuked an annual report on children's human rights abuses by the United Nations, scheduled to be released next week, in a Twitter thread on Sunday, for excluding the Israeli occupation.

The annual report on children's human rights includes the maiming, killing, sexual abuse, and abduction of children, the denial of aid access, and the targeting of schools and hospitals in conflict zones.

The study includes a list meant to corner conflict parties with the intention of pressuring them to implement child-protection measures. Despite repeated petitions from human rights organizations, "Israel" has not been put on the list of countries that should be held accountable for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian children.

He added, "It is surprising that a regime with a history of incarcerating 160 children, keeping under house arrest 600 innocent children and 600 Palestinian patients, including 30 physically-challenged patients, does not qualify to be on the United Nations' list of shame."

"This is while this child-killing regime shamelessly took the lives of 26 innocent Palestinian children in the first six months of the year alone...The dark record of the Zionists in such actions should be a source of shame and embarrassment for the Western supporters of this apartheid regime," he further added.

"Israel" has attacked Palestinian towns and cities over the past months. As a result, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

The majority of raids have been in Nablus and Jenin, where Israeli forces have tried to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance against the occupation.

Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have killed at least 126 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including Al-Quds, among whom were 21 boys and one girl. Last year represented the highest number of Palestinian fatalities in the past 17 years, with 155 people killed.

'Israel' arrested over 50,000 Palestinian children

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies confirmed that Palestinian children in Israeli prisons are subjected to one or more forms of humiliation and physical and psychological torture through a number of systematic tools and methods that contradict international norms and conventions on children's rights. These violations actually start from the first moment of arrest and continue during the period of investigation and detention.

In a press release issued on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, which was recognized by the UN, the Center highlighted that Palestinian children are more vulnerable to abuse than other children because of "the aggressive policies against them," particularly the use of prolonged detentions and cruel interrogation tactics.

Who is Ahmad Manasra?

Born on January 22, 2002, in occupied Al-Quds, Ahmad Manasra is one of a family of ten.

With the beginning of the popular uprising in 2015, arrests against children in occupied Al-Quds escalated and were accompanied by systematic abuse and torture.

On October 12, 2015, Ahmad and his cousin Hassan - who was martyred on that day - were subjected to brutal abuse by Israeli occupation forces and settlers.

This day marked a turning point in Ahmad's life. As a result of his arrest, interrogation, and physical and psychological torture, even while receiving treatment in the hospital, he suffered from a fractured skull and serious health conditions.

After several sessions, the Israeli occupation court issued a verdict of 12 years in prison against Ahmad and compensation of 180,000 shekels. The sentence was reduced to nine and a half years in 2017.

Before his transfer to prison, the Israeli occupation authorities held Ahmad for two years in a special institution for juveniles in difficult and harsh conditions and later transferred him to "Megiddo" Prison when he was 14 years old.