Israel’s torture regime: 351 children subjected to solitary confinement
A staggering 92 percent of the children held in solitary confinement had not been sentenced.
One of the defining features of the Israeli genocidal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank has been its barbarism towards children.
The Israelis have placed more than half of the Palestinian children they have abducted in solitary confinement at least once, highlighting the systemic nature of the Israeli torture regime targeting minors.
“Of the 635 minors held in prison, 351 were placed in solitary confinement, usually for seven consecutive days and sometimes for as long as two weeks,” according to Haaretz.
The Israeli outlet’s report is based on data released by the Israeli Prison Service and obtained through a freedom of information request by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Parents Against Child Detention.
A staggering 92 percent of the children held in solitary confinement had not been sentenced.
“Of these, 176 were held in detention pending the conclusion of their proceedings, while 115 were held without trial on the orders of the Shin Bet security service in administrative detention. Another 31 were held under other legal statuses, either before trial or without one,” the report added.
“Of the minors placed in solitary confinement, 326 were classified as security detainees or prisoners, while only 25 were classified as criminal detainees or prisoners, just four of whom had been sentenced. In addition, 14 minors – including one girl – were placed in isolation for periods ranging from several hours to two days.”
The Israelis resorted to the barbaric practice of solitary confinement 666 times, with 154 children placed in isolation more than once, including 42 who were subjected to solitary confinement four to eight times.
Under Israeli Prison Service regulations, solitary confinement is defined as “holding a prisoner in a cell without other inmates and without allowing them to leave the cell, including for daily outdoor exercise.”
The report also describes the difficult conditions that Palestinian hostages in Israeli dungeons are forced to endure:
[D]etainees are provided with only two changes of clothes, which they must wash themselves using a bar of soap also intended for bathing. With no space to dry their clothes, detainees are often forced to wear them while still wet, contributing to the spread of scabies. The testimonies also indicate that detainees are not provided with adequate cleaning supplies for their cells.
The Israelis have slaughtered more than 22,000 children in the Gaza Strip and have abducted an unknown number from the besieged enclave.
Three children abducted from “aid” distribution sites in the Gaza Strip testified last year to being subjected to horrific abuse. One of them said that he attempted suicide twice due to the extreme nature of the torture administered to him. All three experienced recurring nightmares long after their release.
The Israelis have abducted more than 2,000 children from the West Bank since October 7 and have tortured them incessantly, leading to the killing of at least one child.
Currently, at least 351 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli dungeons.