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News > World

Report: 59,000 Palestinian Children Physically Abused by Israel

  • Israeli authorities have detained an estimated 95,000 Palestinian children since occupying the West Bank in 1967.

    Israeli authorities have detained an estimated 95,000 Palestinian children since occupying the West Bank in 1967. | Photo: Reuters

Published 11 June 2015
Opinion

Israeli troops regularly abuse detained Palestinian children with beatings, sleep deprivation and verbal abuse, according to a disturbing new report.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian children may have been abused by Israeli soldiers, according to a damning report by a human rights group Wednesday.

“It is estimated that since 1967, some 95,000 (Palestinian) children may have been detained (by Israeli forces), of which 43,000 were arrested in night raids and 59,000 physically assaulted,” stated Military Court Watch (MCW), a West Bank-based nongovernmental organization.

MCW's figures are based on a study conducted between 2013 and 2015. It uses current rates of detention to estimate how many Palestinian children have been taken into Israeli custody since the 1967 Six-Day War. The war concluded with Israel occupying the West Bank.

The report also accuses Israeli forces of widespread abuse of children since 2013. Out of 200 child detainees interviewed by MCW, 187 reported having their hands tied within 24 hours of arrest, generally with plastic ties for “prolonged periods.”

“These ties are frequently described as being 'painful' or 'very painful” and in some cases cut into the minor’s wrists and cause the hands to turn blue,” the report stated.

While 93 percent of child detainees had their hands bound, 62 percent reported some form of “physical abuse.” MCW reported many children were deprived of sleep, while others were “left outside in the elements for extended periods of time whilst tied and blindfolded.”

The overwhelming majority of child detainees were not informed of their rights, and 94 percent were “denied access to a lawyer until after their interrogation.”

The disturbing report comes just two days after Israel was excluded from the United Nations' list of child rights violators. Human rights groups had demanded U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon include Israel on the list, after over 500 children were killed during Israel's 2014 offensive against Gaza. Most of those child casualties were less than 12 years old.

Ban’s own Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, accused Israeli forces of “grave crimes against children,” including intentionally bombing Gazan schools and hospitals.

If Israel had been included on the list, it would have joined the ranks of recognized child abusers such as the Taliban, Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group, and the Islamic state group. While the Taliban notoriously uses children in suicide bombings, both Boko Haram and the Islamic State group have been accused of widespread rape and other forms of sexual abuse against minors.

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