Nearly four hundred Palestinian children subject to serious abuse in Israeli prisons

Almost four hundred Palestinian children being held in Israeli prisons are subjected to “flagrant” violations of their human and civil rights, according to a Palestinian rights centre. A statement issued by the Prisoners’ Studies Centre claims that 380 children in Damon Prison and other detention centres are being abused to the extent that intervention is needed by officials and institutions. The Centre believes that the occupying power, Israel, “represented by the State Prison Service, violates all conventions and international charters that are supposed to protect minors in custody”.

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The Centre’s Director claims that the Israeli prison Service turns a blind eye to violence against children in detention and condones their beating by its staff. “In addition,” said Raafat Hamdouna, “the prison system subjects these children to psychological threats and other serious abuse, and detains them alongside adult criminal prisoners in overcrowded cells without providing them with either care or education.”

Mr. Hamdouna called upon human rights organizations and concerned bodies to intervene and stop Israeli violations against child detainees, and work towards releasing them, or at least improving their conditions while in detention.