Over 2,000 Palestinian Children Detained By Israel Since 2023

At least 350 Palestinian children remain in Israeli prisons, amid allegations of torture, starvation and denial of medical care reported by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Israeli forces have detained more than 2,000 Palestinian children since October 2023, with at least 350 currently held in Israeli prisons under what the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society described as “harsh conditions” in a report released on Wednesday.

The organisation said that Palestinian children in detention face torture, starvation and denial of healthcare. It also criticised the detention of minors without charges or a specified release date and called for international action to secure their release and investigate abuses.

According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces arrested at least six children in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on Tuesday. The organisation said information on the number of children arrested in Gaza remained unclear, given the thousands of missing persons in the besieged territory, including children, and what it described as an ongoing policy of enforced disappearance.

The organisation said detention without charges or a specified release date was “an additional violation and crime that leaves children facing the unknown and deprives them of family and educational stability”.

Palestinian Children Face Allegations Of Abuse In Israeli Prisons

The report described Israeli practices against detained Palestinian children as beginning with “intimidation and arrest” and extending to “torture, starvation and denial of healthcare”.

The organisation highlighted the case of 15-year-old Mohammed Hamid, who contracted scabies, a contagious skin infestation, while detained at Ofer Prison, where rights groups have long documented abuses.

According to Al Jazeera, Hamid developed severe infections, underwent heart surgery and was admitted to intensive care in critical condition. He subsequently had one of his legs amputated.

Al Jazeera also reported the case of 17-year-old Walid Ahmed, who died in March 2025 after six months in Megiddo Prison. In December, an Israeli judge halted the investigation into his death, stating that although there was evidence of starvation, no definitive cause of death had been established.

American Teenagers Among Those Detained

The report also highlighted the cases of American teenagers held in Israeli detention without charge.

Ahmed had been imprisoned at Megiddo with his friend Mohammed Ibrahim, a teenager from Florida. Ibrahim was released after months of advocacy by US-based organisations and appeals from senior lawmakers.

Israeli forces took Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi from his West Bank home during a late-night raid in June. He turned 18 while in detention, after which authorities transferred him from a youth holding area to an adult section at Ofer Prison.

Israeli forces also arrested 16-year-old American Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah in July. His family secured bail, and he was due to be released in August, but Israeli authorities reversed the decision.

Palestinian Prisoner’s Society Calls For International Action

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society called for “real international action” to secure the release of arbitrarily detained children, ensure investigations are conducted and end torture, starvation and the denial of medical treatment in Israeli prisons.

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces have detained more than 25,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and thousands more in Gaza since Israel’s war began in October 2023.

(with inputs from Al Jazeera)