Israeli occupation detains nearly 2,000 Palestinian children since October 7, including an Infant and children under 10
GAZA, Sept. 13 (YPA) – The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies stated that the Israeli occupation authorities have detained nearly 2,000 Palestinian children since October 7, 2023, including children under the age of 10. The center highlighted the ongoing torture, abuse, and medical neglect faced by minor prisoners.
The center confirmed that Israeli occupation forces deliberately and systematically target Palestinian children with a green light from security and political leaderships. Tens of thousands of children have been detained since the occupation of Palestine, a policy that escalated since October 7, 2023, alongside an unprecedented increase in abuse, torture, starvation, and medical neglect.
The center noted that the occupation currently holds 370 minor children in its prisons, subjecting them to all forms of torture, abuse, and deprivation of basic rights. Among them, 185 are serving actual sentences, 90 are under administrative detention without charge, and the remainder are detainees awaiting trial. They are distributed across minor sections in “Megiddo and Ofer” prisons, with others held in detention centers.
The youngest detainee is an infant under one year old, born inside prison in September 2025 to detained mother Tahani Samhan. She was arrested while pregnant, and the occupation refused to release her; she gave birth alone without family members permitted to accompany her.
Children are detained in a barbaric manner through late-night home raids, destruction of property, and intimidation. They are violently transferred to military vehicles, beaten, and brought to interrogation and detention centers that lack basic living conditions, where they face all forms of torture, abuse, and humiliation.
Children are also detained at military checkpoints across the occupied West Bank, on their way to or from school, or while playing near their homes. In every arrest, child detainees endure at least one form of physical or psychological torture—even those held for hours or a few days—and undergo field interrogations before transfer to interrogation centers.
Over the past five years, the occupation has enacted and amended legislation to extend detention periods for children, double torture methods, simplify arrest and punishment procedures, exact revenge, and harshen sentences.
The occupation has markedly escalated administrative detention orders against minors without charges, reflecting a policy aimed at detaining the maximum number of children without cases or evidence. Around 90 children are currently held under administrative detention. The occupation continues to disregard international human rights conventions protecting minor prisoners, which prohibit torture and cruel or degrading treatment, classifying such acts as war crimes.
Child prisoners face various retaliatory measures, notably visitation bans and intensified raids by specialized repression units, who assault them, use tear gas, search rooms, and destroy personal belongings.
Children are held in rooms and sections unfit for human habitation, lacking basic living and hygienic conditions, facilitating the spread of diseases. Dozens of children have contracted scabies due to a lack of hygiene supplies, restricted showering, water shortages, and failure to isolate infected individuals, alongside continuous medical neglect.
The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies renewed its call to international child rights organizations to uphold their responsibilities toward Palestinian children, condemn these violations, and pressure the occupation authorities to abide by international conventions, specifically the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which mandates protection and safe development for children.
YPA