West News Wire: The Arab League has pleaded with the international community to act to stop the Israeli government’s abuse of Palestinian children.
“The international community must act decisively to put a stop to Israeli abuses [against] Palestinian children, to ensure their safety, and to protect them.”
Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, the assistant secretary-general of the League, made these remarks on Sunday at a regional conference on the prevention of serious crimes against children in armed conflicts that Qatar co-hosted.
The perpetrators of these crimes must be held accountable by the world community, and their crimes must be prosecuted.
In other parts of her speech, Abu Ghazaleh stressed the importance of preserving international agreements that guarantee children’s safety from violence.
Asem Khamees, the deputy Palestinian minister of social development, spoke at the conference and said that between 2015 and 2020, Israel “detained 7,500 Palestinian children.”
“There are now 170 Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons; they are all being subjected to various forms of abuse and torture.”
A Palestinian rights organisation reported in January that Israeli police had detained 7,000 Palestinians overall in 2022, including hundreds of women and children. The Palestine Centre for Prisoners’ Studies (PCPS) published the information in a report.
142 Palestinian children under the age of 12 were among the 865 Palestinian children detained by Israel in 2022, according to PCPS director Riyad al-Ashqar. He claimed that several of those kids weren’t even nine years old, and all detainees were subject to abuse, torture or humiliation.
The official said in one such case, Israeli forces arrested two-year-old Hammoudi Amash at the Barta’a checkpoint, claiming he insulted the Israeli soldiers stationed there.
The damning report followed a statement released by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs on 22, which said Israel had placed more than 600 Palestinian children under house arrest in 2022.
