Detention figures – According to data issued quarterly by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), as of 30 June 2024, there were 8,023 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) detained as “security prisoners” including 209 children (12-17 years) (208 boys/1 girl). A further 1,415 Palestinians were held as “unlawful combatants” including 17 children. In the case of children there was a 2% increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 28% compared with 2023. 3,377 of these detainees are being held without charge or trial in administrative detention including 75 children – an all-time high. According to the IPS, 50% of child detainees and 69% of adult detainees were transferred out of occupied territory to facilities in Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This data comes from official Israeli sources and cannot be independently verified. No data was provided for the first quarter of 2024. More statistics
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Justice delayed: hundreds of children continue to be transferred –According to official Israeli data it is projected that between 350-500 Palestinian children have, or will be, transferred from occupied territory to detention facilities in Israel in 2024 in violation of Geneva IV. Many of these children report treatment in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture post transfer. This official policy has affected up to 32,000 children since 1967 and has been approved by Israel’s Supreme Court. And while the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been in possession of undisputed evidence on this issue since 16 March 2015 (Ref. OTP-CR-79/15) the rights of these children remain unprotected. By way of contrast, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russians alleged to have transferred “hundreds” of children from Ukraine after an investigation lasting just 364 days. The impression that Palestinians will not receive equal rights under the law is a contributing factor to on-going violence in the region and is undermining the credibility of the “rules-based” order.__________________________________________________________________________________
UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children in Armed Conflict – In June the UN Secretary General released his annual report on children in armed conflict including information on Israel/Palestine. The report notes “extreme levels” of violence in 2023 on all sides. For well over 10-years these reports have included information on Palestinian children held in Israeli military detention noting that: “the high number of instances of such treatment reported and documented suggests that ill-treatment of children is common in the Israeli military justice system”. Treatment referred to in these reports include: excessive use of hand ties and blindfolds; beatings; solitary confinement; limited access to lawyers; administrative detention; forced confessions; and recruitment as informants. Commencing in 2011, the Secretary General also noted that Palestinian children are routinely transferred from the occupied West Bank in violation of Geneva IV. This year the report added the Israeli army to a list of armed forces that commit grave violations against children in times of conflict. Read more__________________________________________________________________________________
UK Lawyers Report – No Accountability, No Progress – In 2012, a delegation of lawyers published an independent report funded by the UK Foreign Office on the treatment of Palestinian children in Israel’s military detention system. The report found undisputed evidence of breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Geneva IV, including the unlawful transfer of children from occupied territory. Twelve years on, one of the report’s 40 recommendations has been substantially implemented tending to confirm that shielding individuals from the legal consequences of their actions is unlikely to improve the situation. Since 2012, the delegation has sought to return to the region to update the report, but on both occasions the fact-finding missions were cancelled at the 11th hour, most recently due to a lack of cooperation by Israeli officials. On the last occasion, the delegation included Sir Keir Starmer KC MP, the UK’s recently elected Prime Minister. Read more__________________________________________________________________________________
A child's testimony – A 17-year-old minor from Bethlehem describes the night Israeli soldiers came to his home at 2:30 a.m. The soldiers broke down the front door to the family home before they had a chance to open it. The soldiers conducted a search breaking the family’s furniture. The minor reports being slapped, kicked and beaten with a gun. The boy was then detained and painfully hand tied and blindfolded. He asked for the ties to be loosened but the soldiers refused. He remained tied for 12 hours. No information regarding his detention was provided. The minor was then transferred on the floor of a military vehicle where he experienced further abuse. He was first taken to an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank before being taken to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, for interrogation. He reports being held in solitary confinement for 23 days during interrogation and was not informed of his legal rights. This child remains in Israeli military detention and his parents are denied visitation rights. Read more__________________________________________________________________________________
