Israeli attacks on children escalate

An official report has alleged that Israeli attacks against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have escalated in the past two weeks. Issued by the Child Information Department in the Palestinian Ministry of Information on Monday, the report pointed out that Israel’s killing of 17 year-old Mohamed Salaymeh in Hebron brought the number of children martyred since the start of the November offensive against the Gaza Strip to 50.

In addition, children continue to be arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. Twenty-one have been arrested since the beginning of December, including two girls: Tamrlen Al-Sau, aged 15, and Tala Al-Sau, 16, whose house was stormed in the neighbourhood of Qa’a El-Hara in occupied Jerusalem.

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The report gave details of the injuries inflicted on Shadi Masharqa, 17, who was shot in the stomach and has shrapnel from acoustic bombs in his hand and chest. He was wounded when Israeli soldiers fired at shops and cars in Dura, near Hebron, on 1st December. When the Israelis opened fire on civilians in the Gaza Strip on 3rd December, during what is supposed to be a “ceasefire” there, they wounded 16 year old Jihad El-Sawarka in his left leg.