Khaled Quzmar, executive director of the Palestinian Center for Children’s Rights, warned on Thursday of the tragic and dangerous deterioration in conditions facing Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli prisons, amid escalating torture, starvation, and deliberate medical neglect.
In press statements, Quzmar said Israeli forces have arrested more than 2,000 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the genocidal war, noting that at least 350 children remain imprisoned or detained in Israeli facilities.
He explained that human rights organizations and international institutions face severe, arbitrary restrictions preventing them from visiting detained children or examining the harsh conditions of their detention, which violate international laws and humanitarian conventions.
Quzmar also warned of the serious consequences of escalating attacks by Israeli settlers and forces against Palestinian children and their families, particularly during the olive harvest season, as farmers continue to be prevented from accessing their land.
He stressed that these systematic violations amount to an ongoing war against Palestinian childhood and its future, while the international protection children need remains absent despite the safeguards established under international conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Figures on Palestinian prisoners reveal the scale of arrests carried out by Israeli authorities. Approximately 9,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 94 women, 350 children, and 3,244 administrative detainees. Another 1,320 Palestinians are detained under the so-called Unlawful Combatants Law.
Meanwhile, the total number of arrests recorded since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip has exceeded 24,600, according to the Asra Media Office.
In a related development, the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies documented 530 arrests carried out by Israeli forces across the West Bank and Jerusalem during September, including 39 children and 15 women and girls.
According to Palestinian prisoners’ organizations, more than 19,300 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank between the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza and the end of September, including 596 women and girls and 1,530 children.
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