The Israeli army killed more than 980 Palestinian children under age 18 and injured hundreds more during its three wars on the besieged Gaza Strip.
During its indiscriminate military attacks on Gaza, Israel, despite its claims on respecting international law, violated all international standards that protect children’s rights, including what are stipulated by the 1989 international convention on the rights of the Child, the 1948 universal declaration of human rights and the 1949 Geneva convention.
In a statement released by Defense for Children International-Palestine on the international day of innocent children victims of aggression that is observed on the fourth of June, the organization said that 2014 was the deadliest and most difficult on Gaza children, where more than 530 of them were killed in direct Israeli attacks.
The number of civilian deaths has been a central element of the heated discussion of the Gaza conflict too. Only last summer, 500 Palestinian children were killed and 3,300 wounded during Israeli’s Operation Protective Edge. Besides, according to the Defence for Children International Palestine Organization, “around 500-700 Palestinian children are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year. The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged with throwing stones, and three out of four experience physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation.”
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