Because of Israel, no Palestinian child is safe

JVL Introduction

This report from Defence for Children International Palestine  (DCI-P) is a catalogue of horror outlining the experience of Palestinian children in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Gaza is probably the most dangerous place to be a child at the moment, an estimated 20,000 killed and the highest number of child amputees in the world. Despite the “ceasefire” agreement, children in Gaza remain at risk of being killed by Israeli military forces and the inadequate aid being allowed through means being cold, possibly soaked in in adequate tents and still hungry.

DCI -P also record some of the daily trials for children in the West Bank, the numbers arrested and the torture they endure while incarcerated.  Israel is the only country in the world that prosecutes hundreds of children in military courts each year and in 2025, “(t)hroughout arrest, interrogation, and detention, children described being routinely slapped, beaten, kicked, verbally harassed, rifle-butted, and stepped on.”

Most of the findings are not new, although there is no doubt that the situation has worsened dramatically since October 7th 2023, but DCI-P have been trying to support Palestinian children for a very long time.  They have even advised children to pleased guilty when held by Israel because pleading not guilty usually means an even longer period of incarceration. The psychological impact of such injustice is almost unimaginable.

As this report concludes: “…awareness alone is not enough. Palestinian children deserve safety, justice, and a future free from violence. They deserve a world willing to uphold the laws created to protect them.”

(Images from the original report)

LL

This article was originally published by Defence of Children International (Palestine) on Tue 16 Dec 2025. Read the original here.