Israel detained over 2,000 Palestinian children since 2023
Photo: REUTERS
Palestinian Prisoner’s Society published a report on Wednesday revealing that Israeli forces have detained more than 2,000 Palestinian children since October 2023.
Palestinian rights group said Israeli authorities continue to escalate their systematic targeting of Palestinian minors, noting that at least 350 Palestinian children confront “harsh conditions” inside Israeli prisons.
Demonstrating this ongoing surge, Israeli troops arrested at least six children from Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
The organization highlighted that the ongoing policy of enforced disappearance and thousands of missing persons - including children - in the besieged Gaza Strip obscure the precise number of minors arrested in Gaza.
Moreover, the rights group emphasized that Israel’s policy of holding minors in detention without formal charges or a release date constitutes “an additional violation and crime that leaves children facing the unknown and deprives them of family and educational stability.”
In its report, the society detailed punitive Israeli practices that start with “intimidation and arrest” and extend to “torture, starvation and denial of healthcare”.
To illustrate these systematic abuses, the group showcased the case of 15-year-old Mohammed Hamid, who contracted scabies - a contagious skin infestation - while detained in Ofer Prison, a facility where human rights organizations have long documented severe abuses.
Hamid suffered severe infections, underwent heart surgery, entered an intensive care unit in critical condition, and ultimately lost one of his legs to amputation.
The rights organization additionally featured the tragic case of 17-year-old Walid Ahmed, who died in March 2025 after spending six months in Megiddo Prison. In December, an Israeli judge halted the official investigation into his death, asserting that while clear evidence of starvation existed, investigators had established no definitive cause of death.
Israeli authorities had incarcerated Ahmed in Megiddo alongside his friend Mohammed Ibrahim, a teenager from Florida. Following months of relentless advocacy from US-based organizations and direct appeals from high-ranking lawmakers, Ibrahim finally secured his release.
However, Mohammed Ibrahim was not the only young American whom Israeli forces held without charge. Israeli troops seized Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi from his West Bank home during a late-night raid in June.
After he turned 18 in detention, authorities transferred him from a youth holding area into an adult section at Ofer Prison. Similarly, Israeli forces arrested 16-year-old Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah, another American citizen, in July. Although Karakrah was set for release in August after his family secured bail, Israeli authorities abruptly reversed their decision to free him.
In light of these conditions, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society demanded “real international action” to ensure the immediate release of arbitrarily detained children, mandate thorough investigations, and end torture, starvation, and the denial of medical treatment in Israeli prisons.
Overall, Israeli forces have detained more than 25,000 Palestinians across the West Bank, alongside thousands more in Gaza, since launching their genocidal war in October 2023.
Source: Al Jazeera (adapted)
