Israel takes Palestinian children from family homes for interrogation

Israeli occupation forces raided a number of homes in Nilin in the occupied West Bank this morning and detained three Palestinian children aged 13 and 14, Wafa has reported. The children were interrogated by the soldiers.

Israeli soldiers also detained four more Palestinian children this morning in the town of Abu Dis, to the east of occupied Jerusalem after raiding and searching their family homes.

The latest abuse of Palestinian children follows reports yesterday that the Israeli occupation army has killed 40 Palestinian children and detained more than 770 others since the beginning of this year. The data was revealed by rights groups to mark World Children’s Day.

The Commission for Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs accused the Israeli occupation authorities of making Palestinian children a permanent target for their destructive policies, either by killing or by arresting them.

In a statement published yesterday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said that Israeli forces rounded up 750 children in 2022. “Around 160 children are still in Israeli custody,” said the society. It listed eight children, three of them girls, who are being held by Israel under so-called administrative detention, which allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial, for indefinite periods. “Children are subject to all forms of systematic abuses, including torture,” the society added.

Since 1967 Israel is estimated to have detained more than 50,000 Palestinian children. Nearly 20,000 have been detained since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000.

READ: Hamas calls for protecting Palestine children, criminalising Israel occupation