Islam Times - Israeli Forces Murdered 3,000 Palestinian Kids Since 2000

Islam Times - Israeli regime forces murdered over 3,000 Palestinian kids between 2000, when the Second Intifada began, and April 2017, Palestinian Ministry of Information has revealed.

The report was issued on Thursday on the occasion of the International Day for Protection of Children on Thursday with the Palestinian Authority (PA) condemning the continuous harm brought unto Palestinian children by the Israeli regime since the Second Intifada.

During the same time period, the ministry estimated that another 13,000 children were injured by Israeli regime forces.

According to Ma’an news agency, 72 Palestinian minors have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of a wave of unrest across the occupied Palestinian territory in October 2015, with the youngest victim being an eight-month old baby killed by excessive tear gas inhalation during clashes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Information added that some 12,000 Palestinian children were detained by Israel in the span of 17 years, adding that the overwhelming majority of them were beaten or tortured while in Israeli custody, handcuffed, blindfolded, and forced to confess to charges in the absence of a lawyer or guardian.

According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, 6,300 Palestinians, 300 of whom minors, were imprisoned by Israel as of April. Earlier this year, the group denounced the fact that hundreds of Palestinian children held in Israeli custody “are tortured, ill-treated, placed in solitary confinement, and coerced into signing a confession in Hebrew, a language which most Palestinian children do not understand.”

The PA estimated that while 700 children were detained by Israeli forces each year on average across the occupied Palestinian territory, some 2,000 children had been detained since October 2015 over claims of “disrupting public order” by committing acts such as throwing rocks.