Israeli forces have arrested more than 1,630 children in the occupied West Bank and dozens in Gaza since October 2023, Palestinian prisoner rights groups said on Thursday, on the occasion of World Children's Day.
The groups - including the Palestinian Prisoners and Released Prisoners Authority, the Palestinian Prisoners Club, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association - said Israel's actions are part of a systematic campaign against Palestinian children, who have for decades been one of the groups most vulnerable to Israeli violations.
Alongside detaining children, Israel has carried out night raids on their families' homes, deprived them of education and carried out deadly attacks on them, the groups said.
In a statement, the groups said that Palestinian children were "paying the price for their existence in a reality controlled by colonial domination, which makes no distinction between young and old".
The statement highlighted that Israel had killed tens of thousands of Palestinian children since October 2023, which marked a "dangerous and unprecedented turning point".
Many children detained by Israeli forces have been forcibly disappeared and barred from visits while being held without charge or trial.
Israel currently holds around 350 Palestinian children, including two girls, in conditions that fall below international standards for protecting minors.
In Israeli detention, they face starvation, isolation and are deprived of proper medical attention and legal representation, according to rights groups.
According to children who gave testimonies to the groups, their detention was part of a policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Children said they were deliberately isolated and subjected to severe abuse by Israeli prison authorities.
"It should be noted that these procedures were not new, but after the war of extermination [in Gaza], they became harsher, more widespread, and had a deeper impact on the lives of the detained children,” the groups said.
According to data from prisoner rights groups, more than 90 children are now held by Israel without charge or trial under administrative detention. Under the policy, Israel is effectively able to hold them indefinitely, with
The prisoner rights groups urged states to compel Israel to stop its violations against Palestinian children, stressing that the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation must be enforced.
In Gaza, where the ICJ has determined that Israel is plausibly committing genocide, Israel has killed nearly 20,000 children, according to Gaza's authorities.
In September, charity group Save the Children said this number equated to one child killed every hour since the beginning of the war in October 2023.