Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian children in Israeli military detention deteriorate 

Toronto, July 22,  2024 – Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons have told Save the Children of facing increasing starvation, abuse including sexual violence, with conditions deteriorating markedly since the start of the war last October including a rise in infectious diseases like scabies.  

Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts. On Friday 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an Advisory Opinion declaring the State of Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, directly challenging the legal status of Israeli policies and practices related to military detention.

Save the Children said that the ICJ’s conclusion reinforces the need to immediately end the arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinian children, a decades-long child protection catastrophe.

Since last October, Save the Children’s partners have supported about 49 former child detainees in Gaza. The children reported physical abuse and interrogations where some said they were asked to strip naked and stand in extreme temperatures. During their arrests, their parents had no information on their whereabouts and once released, children showed clear signs of violence and ill-treatment, including bruises, shock, traumatic stress, and weight loss. Some children reported being sexually assaulted, harassed, strip searched, and violently beaten. Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment of children is strictly prohibited under international law. 

The Palestinian Commission has reported that more than  650  children from the West Bank and an unknown number of children from Gaza have been detained since October, a finding echoed by recent UN reports. Of these, around 250 are reportedly still in prison. 

The main alleged offense is stone throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children.   

 Firas* and Qusay*, both 17, are from the occupied West Bank and were detained in two different Israeli-run prisons before the war in Gaza started. They were released at the end of 2023. They spoke to Save the Children about the conditions in detention. 

Qusay* said he saw a child with head injuries from a beating so severe that he would faint every time he tried to stand. He also said new detainees brought to the prison were as young as 12 and 13 years old: 

“The younger children were really scared and kept crying, I wanted to take care of them, but when I asked the prison guard to allow me to stay with them, I was violently beaten.” 

The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a governmental prisoners’ organization set up in 1998, recently confirmed the spread of infectious skin diseases like scabies among prisoners due to a lack of hygiene items and shared bedding. Firas* recalled using a lighter to burn the ticks that would come near him, while Qusay* was released with tick bites covering his body. 

Qusay* said: 

“[After the war started], they took everything, we didn’t have enough blankets and I shared my pillow with another prisoner. In the winter, they opened the windows so we would feel cold. One child prisoner had a severe rash, so we asked the guard to allow him to sit in the sun or clean his body. The guard said, ‘Call me back when he’s dead’.” 

According to Israeli media reports, the recent increase in mass detentions has led to ‘intolerable’ overcrowding in Israeli prisons, with reports  of widespread abuse including detainees deprived of medical treatment and kept in cages, and human rights organizations documenting cases of torture.  

Firas* said the number of child detainees where he was held rose noticeably in the first five days after the war started on 7 October. Both children said conditions in detention deteriorated significantly after the war began. They said they would not be allowed to speak to or see their parents.   

Firas* said:

“The horrors we endured made me think that pre-war life in prison was heaven.”  

Child psychologists are warning that children released from detention are increasingly struggling to recover, unable to cope with the shock experienced in prison and the fear of being re-arrested. 

A psychologist from a partner of Save the Children said:  

“Their symptoms this time around are more intense and severe than in the past, partly because of the social conditions around them. The whole community is tense and stressed about what is happening. The children we talked to think a lot about their peers who are still in prison. They say, ‘we are safe now, but they are still not’. They feel guilty for being freed, and the constant fear of being re-arrested prevents them from thinking about the future. They can’t make decisions, they say, ‘Why would I think of tomorrow if they will re-arrest me’. Their families describe them as ‘frozen’.” 

With legal and family access to Palestinians in Israeli-run prisons further restricted since October, testimonies from children and adults released from detention are some of the only available sources on the conditions faced. 

Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Jeremy Stoner, said:    

‘We’ve been working alongside our partner on the ground and speaking to hundreds of former child detainees in the past years, and we have never seen such devastation and hopelessness. These children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence. The children we spoke to have endured horrors an adult should never witness, let alone a child. 

“The abuse and ill-treatment of Palestinian children must end. The decades-old protection crisis for Palestinian children can no longer be ignored. For too long, the Israeli occupation has severely impacted the lives of Palestinian children.”

 Save the Children continues to demand an immediate moratorium on Israeli military authorities arresting, detaining and prosecuting children and for the immediate release of all children arbitrarily detained. 

Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children since 1953.  

Save the Children has been working with a partner in the West Bank for 10 years to provide rehabilitative support to children following their release from Israeli-run prisons. This includes psychosocial support, vocational assessments and trainings as well as remedial sessions for those who missed out on education.  We are also assisting children from Gaza who were detained during the war and have been subsequently released with psychosocial support and referral to medical services. 

 Notes to Editor:  

• Since the beginning of the war Israeli forces have detained more than 9,400 Palestinians  from the West Bank in addition to thousands other from Gaza whose exact numbers are not confirmed. We know from our latest research before the war that most children in the military detention system face appalling emotional and physical abuse, including 86% of them reporting being beaten by Israeli authorities in detention, and 69% reporting having experienced sexual violence and abuse. 
• A 2022 research by Save the Children found that children in Israeli prisons are routinely denied their right to contact with their families at every stage of the detention process. Save the Children research in 2020,  2022 and 2023 found alarming levels of abuse and ill-treatment of Palestinian children held in the Israeli military detention system, echoing findings from UNICEF and Palestinian organizations.