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2023 is the year of genocide of Palestinian children by Israel - DCIP
Jordan News
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RAMALLAH
– On Tuesday, the NGO Defense for Children International in Palestine (DCIP) said that 2023 is the year of genocide against
Palestinian children by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), Amad Media
reported.اضافة اعلان
The slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza
The DCIP indicated that the IOF killed at least 8,000 children in Gaza since October 7, 2023. It confirmed that this rate of killings is unprecedented, indicating that Palestinian children are the main targets of the occupation.
The DCIP expects that this death toll will increase significantly, as thousands are still missing under the rubble.
In addition, many risk death due to the IOF cutting off food, water, electricity, medical supplies, and fuel from Gaza, and continue to launch random and direct attacks against civilian residential buildings and infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, bakeries, water stations, and agricultural lands.
It said that the health care system in Gaza has completely collapsed as the IOF besieged major hospitals, and forced doctors and patients to evacuate under threat of arms. They continue to directly attack the healthcare infrastructures, including hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and healthcare workers. They also prevent fuel from entering the strip, causing hospitals to use what is left of their backup generators.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza (about 1.9 million people) have been displaced.
The IOF evacuation orders and its extensive ground offensive have pushed many Palestinians to the south of Gaza, concentrating specifically in Khan Yunis and Rafah.
About 1.2 million displaced Palestinians live in 156 UNRWA facilities, most of which are schools.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians in crowded shelters suffer from respiratory infections, chicken pox, lice, and scabies.
The WHO has announced record cases of diarrhea due to a lack of clean drinking water and warned of the possibility of a cholera epidemic spreading quickly. There are also recent reports of an outbreak of hepatitis A, according to OCHA.
According to international law, this constitutes a genocide. Genocide can result from direct murder or by creating intolerable living conditions that lead to the deaths of numerous people. Genocide is prohibited under international law.
Increased attacks by settlers
In 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers killed a total of 121 Palestinian children in the West Bank, according to the DCIP.
The IOF and Israeli settlers have fired live ammunition at the children, killing them. 19 children were killed in air strikes in the northern West Bank for the first time since the Second Intifada in the early 21st century. 14 of them in drone attacks, four with rockets fired by an Apache attack helicopter, and one child in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, the deliberate use of lethal force can only be justified in circumstances where there is a direct threat to life or serious injury. However, evidence collected by the DCIP indicates that Israeli forces carry out intentional lethal attacks against Palestinian children.
Encouraged by the Israeli government and forces, settlers continuously attacked Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.
In one case, a Palestinian child was killed by gunfire in 2023 and the DCIP was unable to determine whether the bullet was fired by a settler or an IOF soldier.
17-year-old Obada Sa'ed Awad Abu Srour was shot in the back on October 11, 2023, in Qusra, a village in southeast Nablus. According to documents collected by the DCIP, at least seven armed settlers from the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement, accompanied by IOF soldiers, invaded the village of Qusra. The Palestinian citizens resisted them, and the settlers and soldiers randomly fired live ammunition at the citizens. The bullet hit Abu Srour in the back and exited his chest. He was then transferred to the Salfit Governmental Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Beatings and shootings that result in the injury, and sometimes death, of Palestinians are frequent incidents. Settler attacks also throw stones at Palestinian citizens, as well as vandalize their properties, such as homes, vehicles, churches, mosques, and schools.
The Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, says that settlers who attack Palestinians intend to displace Palestinians from their land.
Additionally, in 2023, the DCIP documented 38 cases in which Israeli forces prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching the injured, one of which was the case of 17-year-old Mahmoud Khaled Mahmoud Abu Al-Haija, who was shot in the abdomen while standing in front of a window inside his family’s home in Zahra, south of the Jenin refugee camp.
An Israeli sniper stationed on the other side of the street fired at Abu Al-Haija from a distance of approximately 300 meters. Israeli forces then stormed his family’s apartment, searched it, and confiscated the child’s mobile phone and ID, while his father called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, Israeli soldiers searched the paramedics and prevented them from reaching Abu Al-Haija for about 40 minutes. Eventually, the ambulance transported the child to Al-Razi Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Exemption from their crimes is common among settlers who attack Palestinians. According to Yesh Din, 91 percent of investigations into crimes against Palestinians were closed without charges being filed.
Arresting, torturing, and arbitrarily trying children continued in 2023 in Israeli military detention centers
The DCIP estimates that an average of 165 Palestinian children were arrested by the IOF every month in 2023.
Every year, the IOF arrests and tries between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts.
Children are usually brought to interrogation blindfolded, handcuffed, scared, and sleep-deprived. They are often subjected to verbal abuse, threats, and physical and psychological torture.
Israeli military law does not provide the right to an attorney during interrogation, and Israeli military judges rarely exclude confessions obtained under torture.
Through the testimonies of 75 Palestinian children arrested by the IOF in the West Bank last year, it was found that 61 percent of them were subjected to physical violence after arrest, 96 percent were handcuffed, 88 percent were blindfolded, and 47 percent were arrested from their homes in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, 69 percent faced verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation, and 65 percent were searched naked at least once. 72 percent were deprived of adequate food and water, 65 percent were not properly informed of their rights, 97 percent were interrogated without the presence of a family member, and 95 percent were not informed of the reason for their arrest. 43 percent were presented with or signed documents in Hebrew, a language that most Palestinian children do not understand. 24 percent of them were isolated in solitary confinement for two or more days.
The average time that Palestinian children were held in solitary confinement during the past year was 26 days while the longest period of solitary confinement documented was 40 days, according to evidence collected by the DCIP.
In terms of administrative detention, IOF arrested at least 45 Palestinian children during 2023, per the evidence collected by the DCIP.
Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without charge or trial that Israeli authorities regularly use to arbitrarily detain Palestinians, including children. Children detained under administrative detention orders are not charged with any crime, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is not disclosed to the child or their lawyer, which prevents them from preparing a legal challenge to the detention and its alleged basis.
Israeli forces escalated arrest operations throughout the occupied West Bank after October 7. According to the DCIP, the IOF arrested more than 200 Palestinian children since then.
The DCIP estimates that the IOF released 130 children as part of the ceasefire agreement in November, including 17 children who were under administrative detention.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
The slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza
The DCIP indicated that the IOF killed at least 8,000 children in Gaza since October 7, 2023. It confirmed that this rate of killings is unprecedented, indicating that Palestinian children are the main targets of the occupation.
The DCIP expects that this death toll will increase significantly, as thousands are still missing under the rubble.
In addition, many risk death due to the IOF cutting off food, water, electricity, medical supplies, and fuel from Gaza, and continue to launch random and direct attacks against civilian residential buildings and infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, bakeries, water stations, and agricultural lands.
It said that the health care system in Gaza has completely collapsed as the IOF besieged major hospitals, and forced doctors and patients to evacuate under threat of arms. They continue to directly attack the healthcare infrastructures, including hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and healthcare workers. They also prevent fuel from entering the strip, causing hospitals to use what is left of their backup generators.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza (about 1.9 million people) have been displaced.
The IOF evacuation orders and its extensive ground offensive have pushed many Palestinians to the south of Gaza, concentrating specifically in Khan Yunis and Rafah.
About 1.2 million displaced Palestinians live in 156 UNRWA facilities, most of which are schools.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians in crowded shelters suffer from respiratory infections, chicken pox, lice, and scabies.
The WHO has announced record cases of diarrhea due to a lack of clean drinking water and warned of the possibility of a cholera epidemic spreading quickly. There are also recent reports of an outbreak of hepatitis A, according to OCHA.
According to international law, this constitutes a genocide. Genocide can result from direct murder or by creating intolerable living conditions that lead to the deaths of numerous people. Genocide is prohibited under international law.
Increased attacks by settlers
In 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers killed a total of 121 Palestinian children in the West Bank, according to the DCIP.
The IOF and Israeli settlers have fired live ammunition at the children, killing them. 19 children were killed in air strikes in the northern West Bank for the first time since the Second Intifada in the early 21st century. 14 of them in drone attacks, four with rockets fired by an Apache attack helicopter, and one child in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, the deliberate use of lethal force can only be justified in circumstances where there is a direct threat to life or serious injury. However, evidence collected by the DCIP indicates that Israeli forces carry out intentional lethal attacks against Palestinian children.
Encouraged by the Israeli government and forces, settlers continuously attacked Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.
In one case, a Palestinian child was killed by gunfire in 2023 and the DCIP was unable to determine whether the bullet was fired by a settler or an IOF soldier.
17-year-old Obada Sa'ed Awad Abu Srour was shot in the back on October 11, 2023, in Qusra, a village in southeast Nablus. According to documents collected by the DCIP, at least seven armed settlers from the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement, accompanied by IOF soldiers, invaded the village of Qusra. The Palestinian citizens resisted them, and the settlers and soldiers randomly fired live ammunition at the citizens. The bullet hit Abu Srour in the back and exited his chest. He was then transferred to the Salfit Governmental Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Beatings and shootings that result in the injury, and sometimes death, of Palestinians are frequent incidents. Settler attacks also throw stones at Palestinian citizens, as well as vandalize their properties, such as homes, vehicles, churches, mosques, and schools.
The Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, says that settlers who attack Palestinians intend to displace Palestinians from their land.
Additionally, in 2023, the DCIP documented 38 cases in which Israeli forces prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching the injured, one of which was the case of 17-year-old Mahmoud Khaled Mahmoud Abu Al-Haija, who was shot in the abdomen while standing in front of a window inside his family’s home in Zahra, south of the Jenin refugee camp.
An Israeli sniper stationed on the other side of the street fired at Abu Al-Haija from a distance of approximately 300 meters. Israeli forces then stormed his family’s apartment, searched it, and confiscated the child’s mobile phone and ID, while his father called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, Israeli soldiers searched the paramedics and prevented them from reaching Abu Al-Haija for about 40 minutes. Eventually, the ambulance transported the child to Al-Razi Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Exemption from their crimes is common among settlers who attack Palestinians. According to Yesh Din, 91 percent of investigations into crimes against Palestinians were closed without charges being filed.
Arresting, torturing, and arbitrarily trying children continued in 2023 in Israeli military detention centers
The DCIP estimates that an average of 165 Palestinian children were arrested by the IOF every month in 2023.
Every year, the IOF arrests and tries between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts.
Children are usually brought to interrogation blindfolded, handcuffed, scared, and sleep-deprived. They are often subjected to verbal abuse, threats, and physical and psychological torture.
Israeli military law does not provide the right to an attorney during interrogation, and Israeli military judges rarely exclude confessions obtained under torture.
Through the testimonies of 75 Palestinian children arrested by the IOF in the West Bank last year, it was found that 61 percent of them were subjected to physical violence after arrest, 96 percent were handcuffed, 88 percent were blindfolded, and 47 percent were arrested from their homes in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, 69 percent faced verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation, and 65 percent were searched naked at least once. 72 percent were deprived of adequate food and water, 65 percent were not properly informed of their rights, 97 percent were interrogated without the presence of a family member, and 95 percent were not informed of the reason for their arrest. 43 percent were presented with or signed documents in Hebrew, a language that most Palestinian children do not understand. 24 percent of them were isolated in solitary confinement for two or more days.
The average time that Palestinian children were held in solitary confinement during the past year was 26 days while the longest period of solitary confinement documented was 40 days, according to evidence collected by the DCIP.
In terms of administrative detention, IOF arrested at least 45 Palestinian children during 2023, per the evidence collected by the DCIP.
Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without charge or trial that Israeli authorities regularly use to arbitrarily detain Palestinians, including children. Children detained under administrative detention orders are not charged with any crime, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is not disclosed to the child or their lawyer, which prevents them from preparing a legal challenge to the detention and its alleged basis.
Israeli forces escalated arrest operations throughout the occupied West Bank after October 7. According to the DCIP, the IOF arrested more than 200 Palestinian children since then.
The DCIP estimates that the IOF released 130 children as part of the ceasefire agreement in November, including 17 children who were under administrative detention.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
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