ICSPR The Occupation Escalates Policies of Intimidation, Torture, and Forced Militarization Against Palestinian Children in Detention Centers

Date: 10 February 2025

Press Release
ICSPR The Occupation Escalates Policies of Intimidation, Torture, and Forced Militarization Against Palestinian Children in Detention Centers

The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights “ICSPR”  sent an official briefing memorandum to a number of international and UN bodies, addressing the dangerous escalation in Israeli policies against detained Palestinian children. The organization warned that detention centers have turned into systematic environments of intimidation, torture, and breaking of will, threatening an entire generation with deep and long-term psychological and physical consequences.

The memorandum was addressed to the UN Secretary-General, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and Amnesty International.

ICSPR affirmed that what Palestinian children are subjected to has gone far beyond conventional detention, amounting instead to organized policies aimed at uprooting them from their safe environments and thrusting them into a repressive military system, in direct violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and all rules of international humanitarian law.

The organization explained that arrest campaigns against children have surged dramatically since 7 October 2023. Before that date, the number of detained children ranged between 150 and 170; today, the publicly declared figure has risen to around 350, in addition to dozens of children who remain under enforced disappearance. During 2025 alone, more than 600 children were arrested and abused, while over 100 are held under so-called administrative detention without clear or explicit charges. Most children are held in Ofer, Megiddo, and Damon prisons, as well as in other facilities that lack the most basic humanitarian standards.

The memorandum indicated that arrests are carried out through intimidating tactics, including night raids on homes, the use of stun grenades and police dogs, and the transfer of children into dark, narrow solitary cells. Children are subjected to blackmail and threats of demolishing their families’ homes or harming them, and they are denied access to lawyers or the presence of parents during interrogation, in clear violation of Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

ICSPR pointed to testimonies and human rights reports confirming that prisons have become centers of abuse and torture, particularly for detainees from the Gaza Strip. Children face severe physical assaults, multiple forms of psychological humiliation, deliberate medical neglect, and denial of treatment despite injuries or illnesses caused by torture and harsh detention conditions.

The organization also warned of emerging dangerous practices related to the militarization of children, including using some as human shields under threat, forcing them to walk ahead of soldiers to inspect buildings, arresting them from schools after turning those facilities into military sites, and attempting to coerce them into collaboration.

ICSPR stressed that these policies constitute grave violations of the protections guaranteed to children under international law, including the principle of the best interests of the child, the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial, and the ban on forcible transfer. They also violate the Convention Against Torture and the Rome Statute, which criminalizes torture, unlawful imprisonment, and the use of civilians as human shields, in addition to the crime of apartheid arising from applying civil law to Israelis while subjecting Palestinians to military law.

The Commission called on the international community to act urgently, demanding immediate pressure to secure the release of all detained children, especially those held under administrative detention and those forcibly disappeared. It urged the establishment of an independent international investigation committee to examine their conditions and document war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against them, to ensure accountability before the International Criminal Court, and to compel the occupying authorities to respect their legal obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

ICSPR concluded its memorandum by emphasizing that protecting children is not a political option but a legal and moral obligation that cannot be compromised, warning that continued international silence deepens victims’ suffering and encourages impunity.