ISRAELI military forces killed 78 Palestinian children under 18 years in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in 2021, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said, marking Palestinian Child Day, April 5.
According to the records of the Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP), 17 children were killed in the West Bank and 61 in the Gaza Strip, the PCBS reported on Tuesday.
Out of the figure, 26 were aged 0-8 years, 17 aged 9-12 years, 20 aged 13-15 years and 15 aged 16-17 years, the data showed.
It added that the estimated number of children under 18 years is expected to reach 2.35 million in Palestine by mid-2022, with 1.20 million males and 1.15 million females, representing 43.9% of the total population (41.7% in the West Bank, and 47.3% in the Gaza Strip).
In a report published on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said the Israeli regime has detained more than 9,000 Palestinian children across the occupied territories over the past seven years.
Testimonies by the minors show most of them underwent some sort of physical or psychological torture.
The PPS said 19,000 minors, including children younger than 10 years of age, had been arrested since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000.
The advocacy group said 160 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli jails.
It said the testimonies provided by the minors showed that most of them were subjected to some sort of physical or psychological torture at the hands of their Israeli interrogators.
- A Hamas official has warned Israel against pressing ahead with its open aggression against Palestinians in the occupied East al-Quds (East Jerusalem), particularly Muslim worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, stating that resistance groups will eventually run out of patience and act in retaliation.
Ismail Rezvan, a senior member of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), warned Israeli authorities on Tuesday ‘not to test’ the resistance front’s patience, which is ‘running thin’ in the face of ongoing hostile measures against Palestinians, Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported.
He urged Palestinian officials to ‘stop security coordination’ with Israel, avoid organising ‘vain meetings’ with authorities from the Tel Aviv regime, and resort to the ‘resistance option’ instead.
The Israeli occupation forces have for a third consecutive night attacked Palestinians at Bab al-Amoud, also known as Damascus Gate.
‘We call on parties and mediators to stop the crimes of the usurping Israeli regime. The resistance will continue to defend the Palestinian nation,’ Rezvan noted.
His remarks came as confrontations broke out between young Palestinian men and Israeli forces at the Damascus Gate of al-Quds on Tuesday evening.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters during the clashes to disperse the crowds.
Meanwhile, Jordan condemned the latest wave of tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories over the past few days, and the frequent break-ins of Israeli settlers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the fasting month of Ramadan and under the protection of Israeli forces.
‘The 144-dunam (36-acre) al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a special place of worship for Muslims,’ Spokesman for the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Haitham Abu al-Ful, said.
Abu al-Ful stressed the need to stop all restrictions on the entry of Muslim worshippers to the al-Aqsa Mosque, and said the settlers’ aggression and violent behaviour contravene the existing historical and legal facts as well as international law.
‘All provocative and unilateral actions that lead to further escalation of tensions and violence must be stopped,’ he emphasised.
Palestinians have ramped up their retaliatory attacks against Israeli forces in recent weeks, carrying out a series of operations that have killed at least 11 Israelis since March 22. Eight Palestinians have also been killed during the same period.
It is customary for Israeli forces to exhibit increased levels of violence against Palestinians during the fasting month of Ramadan.
Last week, a Palestinian man identified as Diaa Hamarsheh killed five Israelis, including a policeman, before being shot dead in the ultra-orthodox town of Bnei Brak east of Tel Aviv.
The operation came days after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli forces and wounded four others in a shooting attack in the northern Israeli city of Hadera before being shot dead.
- A member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset), who is the chairwoman of the ruling coalition, has announced her resignation in a move that leaves the regime of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett without a majority at the legislature.
MK Idit Silman, of the right-wing Yamina party, said on Wednesday that she is quitting the ruling coalition and will instead work to form a new one.
Silman’s announcement left Bennett’s coalition – an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right to an Arab Muslim party – with 60 seats, the same as the opposition at the 120-member parliament.
‘I will not abet the harming of the Jewish identity of … Israel and the people of Israel. I will continue to try to persuade my friends to return home and form a right-wing government,’ she said in a statement.
‘I know I am not the only one who feels this way. Another government can be formed in this Knesset.’
Earlier this week, the lawmaker lashed out at Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, leader of the left-wing Meretz party, after he instructed hospitals to allow leavened bread products into their facilities during the upcoming Passover holiday.
This is while under religious rules, unleavened bread is not allowed in the public domain during Passover.
Silman did not tell Bennett of her resignation in advance, leaving the premier to learn through media reports that he had lost his parliamentary majority.
Opposition head and Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to congratulate Silman for what he called a ‘courageous move.’
‘I was very moved to hear MK Idit Silman’s statement, and I congratulate her on behalf of the masses of the people of Israel who yearned for this moment,’ the former premier said in a video statement.
‘I call on all those elected by the national camp to join Idit and come home, you will be received with complete respect and with open arms.’
Netanyahu would need the support of at least 61 lawmakers in order to form a coalition of his own without new elections.
Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, of the Religious Zionism party, predicted that Israel’s ruling coalition would not survive.
‘This is the beginning of the end of the left-wing, non-Zionist government of Bennett and the Islamist Movement,’ he tweeted.
The development comes amid growing tensions within the Israeli coalition, which last year united different parties to oust Netanyahu after a series of inconclusive elections that paralysed the Knesset for two years.
