[child-rights] Palestinian children targeted by Israeli military siege

For immediate release
1 April 2002

ref: 003/02

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN TARGETED BY ISRAELI MILITARY SIEGE:
DCI/PS CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION

DCI/PS urges the international community to immediately intervene to
protect Palestinian children currently under siege by the Israeli
military.  Thousands of Palestinian civilians are currently facing a dire
humanitarian crisis.  The Israeli army has severed electricity and water
lines to entire Palestinian cities.  Ambulances and medical personnel are
repeatedly being denied access to injured Palestinians.  Families are
prisoners in their own homes, many faced with the threat of being shot by
Israeli soldiers and snipers should they venture outdoors. Many are either
running low on food or have exhausted their food supply.  Palestinian
males, including boys as young as 14, are being rounded up and
detained.  Israeli soldiers have taken over numerous private homes,
destroying personal property, physically abusing residents and traumatizing
children.

The Israeli government and its army repeatedly assert that the purpose of
the ongoing invasions into Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps
is to arrest "terrorists."  Over and over again, Israeli officials have
stressed that civilians are not the target of the operations and that no
harm is intended towards them. Similarly, throughout the 18 months of the
current Intifada, the Israeli government has repeatedly denied that its
military policies in the occupied territories target Palestinian children,
who constitute 53% of the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.

Given the frequent absence of critical examination of Israeli military
actions, DCI/PS would like to stress the obvious:

-It is impossible that children are not being targeted when the Israeli
army is repeatedly attacking civilian areas and forbidding the population
to leave their homes, particularly when children constitute 53% of the
population.

-It is impossible that children are not being be targeted when schools and
houses are being hit with heavy artillery.

-It is particularly impossible that children are not being targeted when
they are being rounded up and detained.

Israel's policies of collective punishment do not discriminate on the basis
of age, sex or location. If the practical results of Israel's occupation
policies are examined, then it becomes clear that every Palestinian is a
legitimate target according to Israeli practice.

The fact sheet included below highlights the range of child rights
violations which have occurred in the last 18 months alone as a direct
result of the Israeli occupation.

As a child rights organization active for nearly a decade, Defence for
Children International/ Palestine Section is astonished by the impunity
with which Israel has treated Palestinian children over the last decade and
the lack of political will on behalf of the international community to
tackle Israel's gross and persistent violations of international
humanitarian and human rights law.

After years of consistent, state-sponsored child rights violations, there
is no excuse for inaction.

DCI/PS calls on the international community to intervene and demand an
immediate halt to Israel's siege on the occupied territories and an end to
the Israeli occupation. Please address letters of protest to the following
individuals:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mrs. Mary Robinson
OHCHR
Tel. ++41 22 917 9000
Fax. ++41 22 917 9012/9006/9005
E-mail webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon
Office of the Prime Minister
Tel: ++972 2 6705555
Fax: ++972 2 566 4838
Email: pm@gov.il

President, European Commission
(Romano Prodi)
European Commission
200 rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: Presidentsregister@cec.eu.int

US President
George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone: ++1-202 456 1414
Fax: ++1-202 456 2461
Email: president@whitehouse.gov


DCI/PS FACT SHEET:
Violations of Palestinian Children's Rights
Stemming from the Israeli Occupation

- Since September 2000, DCI/PS field research has recorded the deaths of
over 230 Palestinian children (under the age of 18) as a direct result of
the Israeli occupation:  more than 25 thus far in 2002, 98 in 2001, and 105
in 2000. More than 1/3 of children killed in the year 2001 were under the
age of 12.
- At least 17 Palestinian children have been killed as a result of Israel's
policy of extra judicial killings of Palestinian activists.
- The percentage of Palestinian children killed under the age of thirteen
doubled from the year 2000 to the year 2001.
- According to DCI/PS fieldwork, of the 98 children killed directly by
Israeli soldiers or settlers in the year 2001, 56 of those killed were not
participating in a demonstration or any form of confrontation at the time
of their death.
- Of the 42 children killed during clashes, only 26 of them were actually
participating in clashes at the time according to DCI/PS documentation. The
remaining 16 were passing nearby.
- Of the total 98 children killed in 2001, 39 were killed inside their
houses, on the way to school, or in school.
- DCI/PS estimates that over 7,000 Palestinian children have been injured
since September 2000.
A DCI/PS sample of 3,750 injuries from 2001 indicates that more than 1/5
were to the upper part of the body (head, chest, eye, neck and back).
Twenty-four percent (24%) of children who were injured were shot by live
ammunition. Nearly 40% of children injured were 12 years old or younger
(39.73%).Twenty-seven children lost a body part as a result of their injury
(limbs or internal organs). Of these, nine children lost their eye.
- Doctors report many injuries due to fragmenting bullets fired from M-16
rifles. They are designed to splinter on impact  tearing tissue and muscles
and causing multiple internal injuries.
- Since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000, DCI/PS estimates
that approximately 700 children have been arrested by the Israeli military
for political activity. As of March 2002, there are approximately 150
Palestinian child political prisoners detained in Israeli prisons and
detention centers.
- Virtually every detained child DCI/PS represents reports having been
subjected to torture, including beatings, isolation, sleep deprivation,
threats, position abuse (shabeh), exposure to humiliating and degrading
situations, deprivation from food and drink, and shaking.
- Once incarcerated, Palestinian child political prisoners are subjected to
a wide array of rights violations, including being detained with criminal
prisoners, attacked by prison staff and criminal prisoners, denied access
to education, adequate medical care, and family visits.
- Since 5 July, the Israeli Prison Authority has prevented Palestinian
lawyers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from visiting their clients.
- In 2001, 48.94% of cases DCI/PS represented were sentenced to between six
months and one year and 15.96% to more than one year. The majority of these
cases were sentenced for the "crime" of stone throwing.
- A majority of Palestinian children are living below the poverty line of
USD 2/day.
- 275 (15.6% )of all Palestinian schools are located within a 500m radius
of Israeli military presence.
- According to DCI/PS documentation during the year 2001, 98 schools were
fired at by Israeli soldiers using live ammunition, rubber-coated steel
bullets or tear gas.
- 71 Palestinian schools came under Israeli attack either through tank
shelling or rockets fired from helicopters. In some cases, school students
were present during these attacks.
- Thirty-seven school students were killed by the Israeli military or
settlers during the year 2001. Six of these were killed on their way to
school or inside their classroom.
- Eight schools were closed by Israeli military orders and five schools
were taken over by the Israeli army and turned into military bases in 2001.
- Thirty-two schools were placed under curfew, preventing students from
attending classes in 2001.