AhlulBayt News Agency: The Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner Society, two human rights groups concerned with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, said at least 770 children from the West Bank have been arrested since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October last year.
On the International Children’s Day, which falls on November 20, the two prisoners’ rights groups said on Wednesday that there is no clear-cut numbers of the children who have been arrested from Gaza in light of the ongoing crime of enforced disappearance against Gazans.
They explained that at least 270 children are still detained in the Israeli prisons of Ofer and Megiddo, in addition to other military detention camps, including new established camps after the escalation of Israeli arrest operations that affected thousands of citizens.
The human rights groups indicated that the arrested children were subjected to severe beating and threats, affirming that statistical studies and documented testimonies indicate that arrested children were subjected to one form or another of either physical or psychological torture, through a number of systematic tools and methods that run contrary to human rights laws, international conventions, and child rights. A number of children were subjected to field executions during arrest operations, they said.
Statistical studies also documented a number of cases of children used as hostages by the Israeli occupation forces to pressure their family members to surrender, noting that the most prominent of these cases was the story of a three-year-old child from the town of Beit Leqia in Ramallah, who was arrested for one hour and a half, before he was released when his father had to turn himself in.
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On the International Children’s Day, which falls on November 20, the two prisoners’ rights groups said on Wednesday that there is no clear-cut numbers of the children who have been arrested from Gaza in light of the ongoing crime of enforced disappearance against Gazans.
They explained that at least 270 children are still detained in the Israeli prisons of Ofer and Megiddo, in addition to other military detention camps, including new established camps after the escalation of Israeli arrest operations that affected thousands of citizens.
The human rights groups indicated that the arrested children were subjected to severe beating and threats, affirming that statistical studies and documented testimonies indicate that arrested children were subjected to one form or another of either physical or psychological torture, through a number of systematic tools and methods that run contrary to human rights laws, international conventions, and child rights. A number of children were subjected to field executions during arrest operations, they said.
Statistical studies also documented a number of cases of children used as hostages by the Israeli occupation forces to pressure their family members to surrender, noting that the most prominent of these cases was the story of a three-year-old child from the town of Beit Leqia in Ramallah, who was arrested for one hour and a half, before he was released when his father had to turn himself in.
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