Alwaght- Israeli regime forces have killed 14 Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the start of this year, according to a Palestinian statistics agency.
In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Israeli regime forces had killed 35 children in 2016.
“Some 300 Palestinian children are still held in Israeli prisons,” added the statement, which was issued to mark the Universal Children’s Day.
The Ramallah-based organization said that around 4,000 children had been detained by Israeli forces since October 2015, most of whom had been released.
The statement said around 848 children had been displaced due to Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes.
According to the agency, Israeli authorities had demolished 418 homes and 646 establishments in 2016.
The Universal Children’s Day is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.
Children make up around 46 percent of the 4.5 million Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli killed 3,000 Palestinian children since 2000
According to another report issued mid this year, the Israeli regime has killed more than 3,000 children since 28 September 2000 when the Second Intifada began until the end of April 2017, a new report has found.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information said in a report released ahead of Children’s Day that the Israeli forces have injured more than 13,000 children and arrested more than 12,000 others, and continues to hold 300 children in its prisons. The most common charge is stone throwing.
The report published yesterday said that 95 per cent of children were tortured and assaulted during their detention.
Israel arrests 700 Palestinian children annually
On average, the report said, Israeli forces arrest nearly 700 children annually, but this has increased since the start of the al-Quds Intifada or uprising in October 2015. Nearly 2,000 children were arrested between October 2015 and November 2016.
The report noted that school students are subjected to violations at the Israeli military checkpoints at the entrances to Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, warning that the Israeli policies establish a dangerous economic situation in the northern Jordan Valley and force Palestinian children to drop out of school.
Children jailed for stone-throwing
In its 2017 report, Human Rights Watch notes that, Israeli regime forces continued to arrest children suspected of criminal offenses, usually stone-throwing; question them without a family member or a lawyer present; and coerce them to sign confessions in Hebrew, which they did not understand.
The HRW has also warned that some Israeli officials have been “encouraging” forces to kill Palestinians even when they do not constitute a threat.
Another report issued January this year noted that, 2016 saw the highest number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli regime troops over the past decade.
Child-killer Israel not being held accountable
The report by Defense for Children International (DCI), a Geneva-based NGO focusing on children's rights, noted that 35 children were killed and 83 others injured by Israeli troops in 2016.
Palestinian boy confronts Israeli tank in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, 2 July 2002It warned that Israeli forces are not being held accountable for using firearms against the Palestinian protesters and stone-throwers.
Israel remains the world’s leading child-killer regime and it continues to perpetrate its atrocities against children with impunity amid silence by the international community and support of some of the major world powers especially the US.
