ISRAELI forces have killed over three thousand Palestinian children since the beginning of the Second Intifada also known as the Aqsa Intifada in September of 2000 while tens of thousands of others sustained injuries.
The figures were released by the Palestinian Ministry of Information who pointed to the deliberate killing of Palestinian children by the Israeli military.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information added that 123 Palestinian minors have been killed and many more injured ever since US President Donald Trump officially recognised Jerusalem al-Quds as the Israeli capital in December 2017.
Since 2008 Israeli forces waged three wars on the Gaza Strip killing and maiming thousands of children. During Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza Israeli forces killed over 2,200 Gazans including hundreds of children with more than 11,000 people wounded.
According to human rights organisations the Israeli attacks on Palestinians including children were systematic and deliberate and fall under Israel’s strategy of using disproportionate and excessive force against civilians.
No Israeli force has ever been put on trial in crimes perpetrated by its soldiers due to the protection it enjoys from the United States.
Despite Israel’s grave violations of international law, Palestinian children continue to suffer due to international apathy. Rights groups demand that Israeli war criminals be brought to justice.
Meanwhile, on Friday Palestinians were attacked by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces on Friday overnight detained 10 Palestinians from various parts of the West Bank, according to the Palestine Prisoners’ Society (PPS).
It confirmed that Israeli forces rounded up four Palestinians, including two brothers, after ransacking their families’ houses in Beit Dajan village, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli military vehicles stormed Jenin city, where soldiers re-arrested two former prisoners.
Soldiers also conducted two separate raids in al-Yamun and Silat al-Harithiya towns, west and northwest of Jenin city, resulting in the detention of two other former prisoners.
A similar military raid was carried out in Deir Ghazaleh village, northeast of the city, resulting in the detention of another Palestinian.
In Bethlehem district, Israeli soldiers re-arrested a former prisoner after stopping and ordering him out of a vehicle near the Gush Etzion colonial settlement bloc. He was identified as a resident of Dheisha refugee camp, south of the city.
Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for ‘wanted’ Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.
Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.
- Also on Friday four Palestinians were injured, one of them critically, after Israeli occupation forces attacked dozens of activists protesting in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near the city of Qalqilia in the occupied West Bank, against the Israeli colonial settlements.
Morad Shtewi, coordinator of the popular resistance in the village, said Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated rounds and tear gas at the protesters, injuring four of them. One of the four injured, an 18-year-old teenager, was reportedly hit by a rubber-coated bullet in the head and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where his condition was described as critical.
The other three cases were moderate, and were treated at the scene by local medics.
Soldiers also fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades at the protesters, causing many cases of suffocation from gas inhalation.
For years, the village of Kafr Qaddum has been at the heart of a national campaign protesting against the Israeli colonial settlement activities in the occupied West Bank. Almost every day and especially on Fridays, clashes erupt between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian protesters in the village.
- Again on Friday, November 27, dozens of Palestinian protesters were injured as Israeli forces quelled an anti-settlement rally in Kafr Malik village, east of Ramallah, according to witnesses.
They confirmed that a large Israeli military force intercepted the rally called for to defend the villagers’ lands threatened with confiscation at Ras al-Tin and Ein Samiya spring to make room for the construction of a new Israeli colonial settlement outpost, stopping the protesters at the eastern entrance of the village.
Soldiers violently dispersed the protesters, opening fire towards them, injuring three with rubber-coated steel bullets in their feet and causing dozens others to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.
Israeli settlers have recently commenced the construction of the new colonial settlement outpost in Ras al-Tin area, and prevented the villagers and shepherds from reaching the area.
Settlers are also attempting to demolish the school in the area, constructed with funding from the European Union, in preparation to force the Palestinian Bedouin community from this area.
- After a long hunger strike going beyond 100 days to protest against his detention without charge or trial, Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras was finally freed on Friday.
The Israeli authorities released al-Akhras from the Israeli hospital of Kaplan where he was held for subsequent worsening of his health condition. He arrived at al-Najah Hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus following his release by Israeli authorities.
After final medical examinations he was moved to his home town Silat ad-Daher south of the occupied West Bank. In a press statement, al-Akhras thanked the Palestinian people for the solidarity actions and insisted that gaining rights and liberty are only achieved through fighting.
Israel arrested al-Akhras in July over accusations of being a prominent member of the Jihad resistance group, which he denied. He immediately started his hunger strike demanding that he should either be prosecuted for clear charges or be released.
Israel at first refused to deal with his demands, but when he was at the verge of death, the Israeli High Court ruled that if al-Akhras ended his hunger strike, his administrative detention would not be renewed upon its expiration on sixth of November.
Prominent figures who rushed to welcome al-Akhras praised his encouragement in what they described as defeating the occupation’s authorities.
Administrative detention involves no indictment, no revelation of confidential evidence and no trial or judgment of the accusations against the prisoner.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are languishing in Israel’s jails without charge or trial under the illegal so-called administrative detention.
The inmates say their hunger strike is a bid to have their voice heard and to force the Israeli regime to end this illegal policy.
Reports say more than 7,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.
Maher al-Akhras has achieved victory after his hunger strike and is free, and his battle definitely gives other Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention a glimmer of hope, enabling them to go on with their actions and their fight for justice that aim to get back their rights in Israeli jails.
