Israel Occupation Forces use Palestinian children as Minesweepers: UN.
A United Nations human rights body in Geneva accused Israeli forces of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as minesweepers and human shields.
Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the UN Committee on the rights of the child said.
“Palestinian children arrested by [Israeli] military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in hebrew in order to be released.”, it said in the report.
“Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed and thousands injured over the reporting period as a result of the state party military operations, especially in Gaza, where the state party proceeded to [conduct] air and naval strikes on densely populated areas with a significant presence of children, thus disregarding the principles of proportionality and distinction.”
During the ten year period, an estimated 7000 Palestinian children aged 12-17, but some as young as nine, had been arrested, quizzed and detained, according to the report
Many are brought in leg chains and shackles before military courts, while youths are held in solitary confinement, sometimes for months, the report said
It voiced deep concern at the “continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants,” saying 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013 alone.
