Palestine: Palestinian detainee institutions announced on Sunday that Palestinian children have long been targeted by Israeli policies, facing repression and control instead of being spared. In a report released on Palestinian Children's Day, the Commission of Detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association highlighted the severe conditions faced by detained children, especially following the war of genocide. Currently, around 350 children are held in Israeli prisons, with additional detentions occurring in the Gaza Strip under perilous conditions.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, the institutions reported that systematic torture, including enforced disappearance, denial of family visits, and severed communication, characterizes detention practices. This systematic approach complicates efforts to track the exact number or fate of many detainees. The arrest of children is portrayed not as an anomaly but as a sustained policy aimed at subjugating a generation through organized repression, impacting tens of thousands of children over time.
Since the onset of the Israeli genocide, widespread arrest campaigns have occurred across the occupied Palestinian territories, leading to the detention of more than 1,700 children in the West Bank alone. This figure encompasses both those released and those still in custody. The report indicates that detentions typically begin with violent nighttime raids, where Israeli forces storm homes unannounced, creating fear and chaos within families. Children are then taken, restrained, and moved through multiple checkpoints, often subjected to beatings, harsh treatment, and prolonged detention without sustenance.
Many of these children are transferred blindfolded, exacerbating their fear and confusion, and leaving enduring psychological scars from the initial moments of detention. Interrogation is described as one of the most severe stages, conducted in environments designed to break children's will and extract confessions. Deprived of access to lawyers or family members, children endure long hours of isolation, psychological pressure, and intimidation.
The report further notes that violations have escalated during the ongoing war, with increasingly severe detention conditions, heightened sleep deprivation, and intensified physical and psychological abuse. The institutions caution that the legal process has devolved into a systematic pattern of abuse, inflicting profound and lasting impacts on children's mental health and future.
