© Abed al-Hashlamoun/EPAGun education for kids
The Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office reported on 9 January that it has documented more than 600 cases of Palestinian children being detained by the Israel during 2025, including a child who died in prison.
A statement issued by the media office said:
"Israel targets children with arrests, harsh interrogations, and long sentences to destroy their future, distort their consciousness, and spread fear across society. 350 children remain in Israeli prisons, including 155 who have been convicted and 90 who are being held without charge as administrative detainees."Administrative detention lasts six months but can be renewed multiple times based on secret evidence. Some administrative detainees are held for many years.
Detained Palestinian children are held in the Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Megiddo prison in Israel at the northern edge of the occupied West Bank.
The media office said that Israel had detained 1,700 Palestinian children since the start of the genocide in Gaza on 7 October 2023, "with an unprecedented escalation in torture."
Israel committed:
"Grave violations during arrests, including the arrest of children under 10 years old, shooting and causing injuries without medical treatment, interrogations inside hospitals, and transferring the wounded to interrogation centers before they had recovered."The office confirmed that the detained children are subjected to inhumane conditions, including torture, denial of education and family visits, medical neglect, overcrowding, lack of food and hygiene, and the spread of scabies, especially in winter, due to the lack of heating and adequate clothing.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported that Israel is currently holding 52 female Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including five arrested since the beginning of January. Israeli forces are also holding 16 women who are being held without charge under administrative detention.
PPS said that Israeli forces have arrested 650 women since 7 October, in most cases in response to women expressing their opinions in posts on social media.
Some of the women were detained to be held as hostages to pressure wanted members of their families to turn themselves in.
PPS stated:
"Most female prisoners are held in Damon prison in northern Israel, where they are subjected to "repressive practices, including psychological terror such as threats of rape, repeated raids, physical assault and humiliation, forcing female prisoners to kneel while handcuffed, as well as verbal abuse that violates human dignity."PPS affirmed that "what female prisoners are subjected to constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law," calling on international human rights institutions to "urgently intervene to hold the occupation accountable and put an end to the crimes committed against Palestinian women."
Israeli authorities currently detain more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, who are subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect.
Israeli ministers and Knesset members, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, argue that any action against Palestinian prisoners - even anal gang rape - is permissible and have publicly defended Israeli soldiers guilty of these acts.
Reader Comments
When your captors view you as merely cattle then trying to reason with them is useless. IMO, the Palestinian people reached that point long ago.
It seems that the children's orgainsations in the UN and elsewhere meant to protect children are only there to record their abuse and eventual death in an isreali apartheid prison for throwing stones or being cheeky.