Premature babies were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza by order of the occupation army (Anatolia)
The official website for United Nations documents published a report prepared by the Palestinian Return Center entitled “Israeli violence against Palestinian children has increased since October 7, 2023,” which it had submitted to the Human Rights Council at its 55th session currently held in Geneva.
The Center’s report stressed Israel’s violations of children’s rights, as Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are routinely deprived of their right to life, education, adequate housing, and the right to health care.
The center warned that since October 7, 2023 (i.e. since the Al-Aqsa flood), Palestinian children have also become a major target of attacks by Israeli forces on Gaza, in direct violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report stated that schools and children's hospital departments, as well as children searching for water or food in residential neighborhoods, were targeted by Israeli air strikes and live ammunition.
The report stated, “As of the time of writing this report, more than 12,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7 alone, with thousands more having had their limbs amputated and suffering life-changing injuries.”
The report indicated that Palestinian children of all ages are exposed to attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza, and Palestinian schools were forced to end their academic year early due to acts of violence, and almost all schools in the Gaza Strip have become shelters for women and children whose homes were destroyed by Israeli air strikes, and a large number of children have been exposed to These schools were attacked, and are still being attacked by Israeli forces even though they are all crowded with Palestinian children.
The center also pointed out the increase in Israeli violence against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, where more than double the number of children killed in the entire year of 2022 were killed in the last three months, and nearly 200 children have been arrested since last October 7 as part of punitive mass detention campaigns. Detained children are subjected to various forms of psychological and physical torture.
The Palestinian Return Center stressed that deliberately targeting and harming civilians and children constitutes a war crime, calling for respect for international humanitarian law, which specifies a clear responsibility to protect the lives of civilians affected by acts of war.
Source: Al Jazeera