Buying Time for Genocide ...

[March 2025] As Israel ramps up its attacks on Gaza, VP's latest visual exposes how the U.S. and Israel never really wanted a ceasefire. They worked together for months to block international efforts to end the genocide, all while the U.S. continued to supply Israel with weapons.  https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/buying-time-for-genocide/

Stolen Steps: Child Amputees in Gaza

[April, 2025] This visual created in partnership with Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), tells the stories of children whose lives and limbs have been stolen by Israel in its years-long siege of Gaza, and how Israel’s targeted destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system makes it impossible for them to access much-needed medical supplies and rehabilitation services.   https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/stolen-steps/

Data-led visual stories for social justice. Don't miss their next release: http://visualizingpalestine.org/subscribe

Israeli army kills two Palestinian children in occupied West Bank “Both Ayman and Rimas were targeted suddenly and without warning in the back with lethal force by Israeli soldiers safely positioned inside armoured vehicles”

Israeli forces displace more Palestinians in West Bank's Nur Shams camp

 22 Feb 2025

Two Palestinian children were shot in the back and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Ayman Nasser al-Haymouny, 12, was killed in Hebron while 13-year-old Rimas al-Amouri was shot in the Jenin governorate, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Wafa news agency confirmed.

Israeli forces opened fire on al-Haymouny and shot him when he was visiting relatives south of Hebron. He was rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries.

Al-Amouri was shot in the abdomen and taken to Jenin Government Hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

She was shot while standing in the courtyard of her family home in the Jenin area on Friday afternoon, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) said.

An Israeli soldier in an armoured car, stationed approximately 50 metres (164 feet) from al-Amouri, fired at least five bullets into the courtyard where she was standing, hitting her in the back, DCIP said.

“Both Ayman and Rimas were targeted suddenly and without warning in the back with lethal force by Israeli soldiers safely positioned inside armoured vehicles,” DCIP’s Ayed Abu Eqtaish said.

“Israeli forces have nothing but contempt for Palestinian children’s lives and systemic impunity means they will face no consequences,” he added.

The killings come as the Israeli military carries out large-scale raids across the occupied West Bank for several weeks now, including in Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus overnight... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/22/two-children-killed-in-occupied-west-bank-as-israel-steps-up-sweeping-raids

“Both Ayman and Rimas were targeted suddenly and without warning in the back with lethal force by Israeli soldiers safely positioned inside armored vehicles,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Israeli forces have nothing but contempt for Palestinian children’s lives and systemic impunity means they will face no consequences. It is outrageous that world leaders have allowed Israel to kill Palestinian children with such cruelty with no accountability.” https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_fatally_shoot_two_young_palestinian_children_in_the_back_in_the_occupied_west_bank

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine ]

Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank

Sep 09, 2024 

Ramallah, September 9, 2024—20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days, Defense for Children International - Palestine said in a report released today.

The report, “Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank,” details and analyzes Palestinian child fatalities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023, and July 31, 2024. Israeli forces routinely targeted Palestinian children with live ammunition and aerial attacks, prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching wounded children, and confiscated children’s bodies in violation of international law.

“Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with calculated brutality and cruelty all throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” said Khaled Quzmar, general director at DCIP. “The international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children’s lives.”

In this report, evidence and documentation collected by DCIP indicate that Israeli forces are deliberately targeting Palestinian children with the intent to unleash cruel and degrading treatment up until the moment of the child’s death.... READ MORE  https://www.dci-palestine.org/targeting_childhood_palestinian_children_killed_by_israeli_forces_and_settlers_in_the_occupied_west_bank

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

The full report can be read and downloaded here.

Key findings

1. 20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days.

2. Israeli forces deliberately target and shoot unarmed children with live ammunition and trained snipers. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 116 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024.

3. Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinian children in aerial attacks in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024. Some children were directly targeted while others were collateral damage as Israeli forces deployed aerial attacks in densely populated civilian areas.

4. Israeli forces and authorities systematically deny Palestinian children their right to medical care when preventing ambulances, paramedics, or bystanders from providing medical care to a child shot with live ammunition or struck in an Israeli airstrike. In 43 percent of cases in this report, Israeli forces deliberately prevented injured Palestinian children from receiving medical care by detaining and firing live ammunition toward ambulances, paramedics, and civilians attempting to provide aid.

5. Israeli authorities and forces systematically, deliberately, and specifically embolden Israeli settler violence towards Palestinian children. Israeli forces present during armed Israeli settler attacks fail to prevent the aggression, fail to help the Palestinian victims, and often collaborate with the settlers in inflicting lethal harm. In two cases, Israeli forces and settlers fired toward Palestinian children simultaneously, and DCIP was unable to determine which perpetrator fired the fatal bullet.

6. Israeli forces killed at least 49 Palestinian children during the intensified large-scale and deadly incursions into Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024. 

7. The fatal shootings of child protesters in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the use of expanding bullets during the crackdowns constitute war crimes prosecutable at the ICC. In October 2023, Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinian children with expanding bullets designed to increase in size upon impact, inflicting fatal internal injuries.

8. Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Israeli authorities have confiscated 18 Palestinian children’s bodies in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024.

9. Israeli authorities work to ensure Israeli forces continue enjoying impunity and face no consequence for the extrajudicial killing of Palestinian children. There are no known accounts of accountability during this reporting period.

Present and Future: The Urgency of Children’s Rights in Palestine- DCI "Our children are our future... But our children are our present, too"

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=3326&ed=191&edid=191Present and Future: The Urgency of Children’s Rights in Palestine

By Rifat Odeh Kassis

Our children are our future. This is a common idea, easily borrowed for slogans and sayings; an idea with which, I suspect, most people in the world would agree.

But our children are our present, too. The problems they encounter, the challenges they face, reveal a diagnosis of the problems and challenges afflicting society itself.

Sixty-three years into Israeli occupation, the state of Palestinians’ human rights is grave, and the state of Palestinian children’s rights is graver still. In a situation dominated by military control, violence, intimidation, fragmentation, and the violation of basic rights to free movement, education, health services, and so forth, all Palestinians have seen their liberties constantly violated and denied - and children, growing up in this atmosphere with all the toxins it contains, are the most severely affected.

Defence for Children International - Palestine Section (DCI-PS) seeks to provide resources, support, empowerment, and hope to Palestinian children and their families in the midst of this environment. DCI-PS is the Palestinian chapter of the international DCI movement, which works to protect and promote children’s rights through 45 national sections across the globe. Founded in 1991 and staffed by a dedicated team of employees and volunteers, our main office is located in Ramallah, though we work throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Our vision is a Palestinian community that is fit for all children: a community that is free and independent; a community in which justice, equality, and respect for human dignity prevail; and a community in which children can enjoy and exercise their human rights without any kind of discrimination. In our work and our advocacy, we prioritise the child’s best interests above all, and emphasise children’s own right to participation: we encourage and act upon the belief that children themselves are fully capable of articulating their needs, of participating in the social processes that honour those needs, and thus of acting as true agents of social change.

Our work at DCI-PS is structured according to our three central roles: to document (we have a monitoring and observing role); to defend (we provide legal representation for children in Israeli prisons and children in conflict with the Palestinian law, advocate for their rights, and seek accountability from primary duty-bearers); and to empower (through capacity-building initiatives and work with others, e.g., networking, coordination, and cooperation with other governmental and non-governmental bodies).

DCI-PS’s legal and advocacy work seeks - among many other goals - to improve the protective environment for children within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority (this includes assisting in developing a Palestinian juvenile justice system in accordance with international standards); monitoring and documenting the conditions of children in detention within both the PA and Israeli systems; representing Palestinian minors in Israeli military courts; providing legal and psychological support to children in conflict with the law and to their families; producing advocacy materials about discriminatory Israeli governmental and military policies; and strengthening the programmatic capacities of child-focused community-based organisations working alongside us in the Palestinian context.

And what does this context contain? In other words, what is the reality experienced by Palestinian children, and what are the primary obstacles to the true fulfilment of their rights?

The detention policies of the Israeli state. Among the most egregious aspects of Israel’s detention policy overall is its treatment of child prisoners. While military regulations active in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) technically define a child of 16 as an adult (and while this in itself defies the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines an adult as 18 years old), in practice, children as young as 12 are tried in military courts, with 14-year-olds often being tried as adults. Children are routinely grouped with adults in detention, and neither Israel nor the PA has juvenile courts. Starting from the Second Intifada, Israel began to utilise administrative detention against children; since that time, too, the arrest and detention of children has become more rampant and systemic, with around 350 to 430 child prisoners held each month.

As of December 2010, there were 213 children in detention; 30 were between 12 and 15 years old; one child was held under administrative detention (which means being arrested and detained with neither charge nor trial, justified by administrative order instead of judicial decree). The most common charge for children in detention is stone-throwing. As of October 2010, Jerusalem police are implementing a policy of increased/extended house arrest for children charged with throwing stones, as well as high fines for their families, in an attempt to “discourage” this activity.

Violence and abuse during detention. In addition to regularly suffering similar abuses as adult prisoners - beatings, humiliation, being painfully shackled, etc. - child prisoners are subjected to many tactics designed to exploit their young age and intimidate them into confessions. These illegally obtained confessions are often used as evidence in the military court system, leading to the convictions of about 700 Palestinian children each year. In Silwan, a flashpoint neighbourhood in East Jerusalem (22 homes are under threat of demolition by the Jerusalem municipality, and the neighbourhood contains particularly virulent settlement activity), 76 percent of children arrested report that they were subjected to some form of physical violence during arrest, transfer, or interrogation. Their reports include accounts of slapping, punching, kicking, beating with a rifle, and having their hands painfully restrained for hours at a time. Children are routinely interrogated in the absence of their parents.

Settler violence. During the period from March 2008 to July 2010, DCI-PS documented 222 settler attacks against Palestinians, causing 364 injuries - 93 of them suffered by children. Half of these attacks occurred in or around the city of Hebron. In investigations/analyses of 38 such attacks against children, it was found that settlers opened fire in 13 of the cases (killing 3 children, injuring 10); in 8 cases, soldiers participated, ignored the events, or punished the victims rather the attackers.

Targeted shootings. Each day in the north of Gaza, close to the border fence that separates it from Israel, scores of boys and men search for building gravel and other materials that could be used for construction - another consequence of the blockade and its accompanying shortage of work and resources. During the period between 26 March and 23 December, DCI-PS documented 23 cases of children who had been shot by Israeli soldiers while collecting gravel between 50 and 800 meters from the border fence.

Domestic abuse. Many cases of physical and psychological violence, including sexual abuse, go unreported within the oPt - often due to deeply entrenched social stigmas that prevent families from openly addressing such problems. Even when addressed, many cases of domestic abuse are mediated informally and never reach official institutions or trained professionals.

Lack of effective protection. Within the PA, the legislative framework that regulates child protection at the domestic level is both outdated and poorly enforced. Although the PA adopted the Palestinian Child Law in 2004, an important first step toward the condemnation of violence against children, the scope of this legislation is limited in terms of the protection it actually provides. For example, it does not stipulate precise penalties for violations of the law, nor does it adequately allocate responsibilities among primary duty-bearers.

The Ministry of Social Affairs is the main body responsible for overseeing the oPt’s child protection mechanism, but it doesn’t have a sufficient number of protection centres or officers under its supervision to fully accommodate the number of children who require protection; likewise, collaboration with other governmental and non-governmental bodies (e.g., to strengthen inter-ministerial child protection policy) leaves much to be desired. The oPt also lacks an adequate juvenile justice system: the mechanisms that exist for dealing with children in conflict with the law are outdated, and its protection methods and resources do not meet international standards.

I could go on. The problems are seemingly endless; the violations are appalling; our present reality is, clearly, a troubled one.

Yet working with DCI-PS - with my impassioned colleagues, with other organisations determined to make a difference, with children themselves and their remarkable strength - reminds me every day that we must not resign ourselves to this reality. Indeed, we must change it. And we can, little by little, child by child, family by family, lawyer by lawyer, law by law … in collecting affidavits from children and ensuring that their voices be heard; in representing children in court who would not otherwise have been defended; in advocating internationally for the rights of children in, for example, Gaza, a place so painfully inaccessible to most of us in person and so easily neglected by the world; in collaborating with both governmental bodies and other NGOs to gradually effect changes in the very institutions - and mentalities - that exist with respect to children’s rights; it is clear that we are all, both children and adults, growing and changing.

There is a great deal of work to be done before we can confidently say that we have “a Palestinian community that is fit for all children.” In the meantime, when we remember that our children are both our present and our future, we can work together in sharing our experiences, energies, and abilities to strengthen both.

I invite you to visit the DCI-PS website, www.dci-pal.org, to learn more about our work - and about the children we are working for.

Rifat Odeh Kassis is president of Defence for Children International Executive Council - Geneva, and general director of Defence for Children International - Palestine Section.

Inside the Military Repression of Nabi Saleh: Arrest of Children

Inside the Military Repression of Nabi Saleh: Arrest of Children from Joseph Dana on Vimeo.

Nabi Saleh. January 2011. Footage of the arrest of 11 year old Kareem Tamimi. He was detained for five hours and released by Israeli army officials. His brother, 14 year old Islam, was arrested the previous day and remains in jail.

For more on the military repression of the popular struggle in the West Bank please visit The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. popularstruggle.org. The video is courtesy of the Belal Tamimi of Nabi Saleh who shot the footage.

DCI-Palestine is receiving reports of an increase in the number of children being arrested from the West Bank village of An Nabi Salih. The village is situated approximately 15 kilometres north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and is adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement of Hallamish. In or about January 2010, the settlement expanded, and more land from Nabi Salih was confiscated, giving rise to Friday protests by the villagers. As is often the case, these protests start peacefully, and end up with an exchange of tear gas, rubber bullets, sometimes live ammunition and stones.

Detention Bulletin (January 2011)
In a recent report issued by DCI-Palestine, there was a finding that Palestinian child detainees reported some form of abuse occurring inside a settlement in 47.5% of cases.

Gerard Horton
International Advocacy Officer - Lawyer
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section
Tel: +972 2 242 75 30 ext. 103
Fax: +972 2 242 70 18
Mobile: + 972 0599 087 290

Defence for Children International: Silwan, East Jerusalem - 60 Israeli professionals speak out at [Israeli] violence against [Palestinian] children

http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1731&CategoryId=1

Defence for Children International - Palestine Section

2010/12/01


Silwan, East Jerusalem - 60 Israeli professionals speak out at violence against children

1 December 2010] – On 24 November 2010, 60 prominent Israeli professionals sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior officials raising their concerns about the violent treatment of Palestinian children at the hands of the authorities in occupied East Jerusalem.

According to Israeli Police, in 2010 more than 1,200 criminal cases have been opened against children from occupied East Jerusalem alleging involvement in stone-throwing incidents. The letter states that ‘children and teenagers related that they had been dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night or arrested in their neighbourhoods by undercover detectives and special security forces; taken in for questioning while handcuffed and unescorted by their parents; in certain cases, the families were not notified of the arrest in real time; minors were asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release; were threatened and humiliated by their interrogators; and some of them were even subject to physical violence while taken in for questioning and under interrogation.’ The authors of the letter urge the Prime Minister to ‘immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that all arrest, detention, and interrogation procedures employed against minors suspect of throwing stones in East Jerusalem … adhere to the letter and spirit of the law.’

The issues raised in the letter reflect concerns held by DCI-Palestine, which has documented 22 cases of children who report being mistreated by the arresting authorities since 8 October 2010. The age of the youngest child reporting mistreatment is seven years.

• Ten-year-old boy grabbed by three men in civilian clothes - Voices
• Twelve-year-old boy arrested on his way to school - Voices

These arrests are occurring against a backdrop of heightened tensions in occupied East Jerusalem due to the Municipality’s plans to demolish houses in Silwan, and the presence of around 380 settlers in the area. Under international law, East Jerusalem forms part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and ‘all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status … have no legal validity.’ (UN Security Council Resolution 465 of 1980)

Copyright © 2010 DCI/PS. All rights reserved.

Israeli army still using children as human shields in 2010.... Voices from the Occupation

http://www.dci-pal.org/english/home.cfm
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI-PS) is dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), as well as other international, regional and local standards.

Motto: Affecting positive change in the best interests of children

25 November 2010
Voices from the Occupation

Silwan (East Jerusalem): On 25 October 2010, a 12-year-old boy is arrested on his way to school and taken to al-Mascobiyya interrogation centre for questioning.

2010/11/23

Israeli army still using children as human shields in 2010

22 November 2010] – One day after an Israeli military court imposed a suspended sentence on two Givati Brigade soldiers for using a nine-year-old boy as a human shield in Gaza, DCI-Palestine has just obtained an affidavit from a 13-year-old boy who reports being used as a human shield on 19 August 2010. This brings to three, the number of human shield cases documented by DCI-Palestine in 2010.

18 February 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (16-year-old girl from Nablus)
16 April 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (14-year-old boy from Beit Ummar)
19 August 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (13-year-old boy from near Nablus)

The practice of using human shields involves forcing civilians to directly assist in military operations or using them to shield an area or troops from attack. Both of these circumstances expose civilians to physical, and sometimes, mortal danger. Civilians are usually threatened and/or physically coerced into performing these tasks, most of the time at gunpoint. The practice is illegal under both international and Israeli domestic law.

In the latest case documented by DCI-Palestine, a 13-year-old boy from a village near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, was beaten and then forced at gunpoint to search and open doors in a house where the army suspected a wanted person might be hiding – Nazzal A. – Voices From The Occupation.

Since April 2004, DCI-Palestine has documented 16 cases involving Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army. Fifteen of the 16 cases, occurred after the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled the practice to be illegal in October 2005, suggesting that the army is not effectively implementing the Court's decision, or simply disregarding the Court’s order altogether....READ MORE