Jason Lee, Save the Children’s Country Director for Palestinian territories, said that the abuse of children in military detention was already a “child protection crisis” before October 7, and said it has “only become worse.”
“What we know about how these children are being treated is unacceptable, but what we don’t know could be even worse,” he said.
“There’s no justification for beating and stripping children, dehumanising and terrorising them … there must be an end to this abusive military detention system and a definitive ceasefire now.”
He added that Israel’s “blanket secrecy” has left hundreds of families across the West Bank and Gaza unaware of their children’s safety and the conditions that they are being subjected to.
Last November, there were three exchanges of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails with a total of 112 Israeli hostages released, including 78 women and children.
One child released in a prisoner exchange in November told a YMCA social and psychological specialist how they were terrorised by guards who told him that he was being sent to his execution when he was called from his cell.
“He told us that when he was released he didn’t believe that he was home. In the beginning, he couldn’t think of the future … his mother told me that he was scared to leave the house,” said the YMCA worker.
“He was scared of the community around him, he was scared of being rearrested especially since he has a brother that is still in there. His family worked a lot to support him and to convince him to leave the house.”