The Palestinian Authority (PA) says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinian children and wounded thousands more since 2000.
The PA’s Minister of Social Affairs Kamal al-Sharafi revealed the figure on Saturday in a statement marking Palestinian Children’s Day.
According to Sharafi, 1,520 Palestinian children have been killed and nearly 6,000 others injured by Israeli forces over the past 14 years.
He said more than 10,000 Palestinian kids have been arrested, 200 of whom are being held in Israeli detention centers.
The minister called on the international community to take measures to protect and support the children.
Last year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also voiced alarm over the Israeli regime’s use of violence against Palestinian children.
In its report, the agency said some 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17 are arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli forces every year in the occupied West Bank.
The UNICEF report blamed Israeli authorities for practices that “amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture.”
The latest figure released by PA officials comes amid persistent settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlers often assault Palestinians, vandalizing their properties, cars, mosques and olive trees. However, the assailants are rarely detained.
According to the UN, there were nearly 400 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
MRS/NN/AS
No comments:
Post a Comment