Defense for Children Int’l: Palestinian children face unrelenting genocide – Day 440

Palestinian children face unrelenting genocide, displacement, and systematic abuse throughout 2024 

Defense For Children Int’l – Palestine end of year report

Palestinian children faced an unprecedented assault on their lives and futures as Israel’s genocidal campaign escalated across the occupied Palestinian territory this year.

Israeli forces killed and maimed thousands of Palestinian children and forcibly displaced even more, while deliberate Israeli policies of starvation and medical deprivation created catastrophic humanitarian conditions. Israeli attacks erased entire families in Gaza, famine and disease spread under siege, and Palestinian children endured relentless airstrikes, forced displacement, and trauma.

Palestinian children, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, were stripped of their rights to safety, education, and health by Israeli forces and authorities. Through field investigations and testimonies, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) highlights the urgent need for accountability to protect Palestinian children and secure their stolen futures (read the full report here).

‘Cruelty, Not War’ – Pope Francis Slams Bombing of Gaza Children

The Pope’s statement followed a report from Gaza’s Civil Defense rescue agency that an Israeli airstrike in the northern part of the territory on Friday killed 10 members of a family, including seven children.

“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the Holy See’s government, adding, “I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

Since the escalation of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Pope has consistently called for “peace.” In recent weeks, however, he has adopted a firmer stance against the Israeli offensive.

At the end of November, the Pope stated that “the invader’s arrogance… prevails over dialogue” in “Palestine,” marking a rare deviation from the Holy See’s tradition of neutrality.

UNRWA may be forced to stop saving lives in Gaza. Will the world let that happen? – by Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA

The UN agency entrusted with the protection and welfare of Palestine refugees for three-quarters of a century, UNRWA, which I lead, was always meant to be temporary. The conclusion of its mandate was foreseen at its establishment.

The choice before us today is whether to jettison a decades-long investment in human development and human rights by chaotically dismantling the agency overnight, or pursue an orderly political process in which UNRWA continues to provide millions of Palestine refugees with education and healthcare until empowered Palestinian institutions take over these services.

The agency may be forced to halt its work in the occupied Palestinian territory next month if legislation passed by the Israeli parliament is implemented. The laws would cripple the humanitarian response in Gaza and deprive millions of Palestine refugees of essential services in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. They would also eliminate a vocal witness to the countless horrors and injustices Palestinians have endured for decades.

The government of Israel’s brazen effort to thwart the will of the international community – expressed through multiple UN resolutions – and single-handedly dismantle a UN agency has been met with public condemnation and outrage that has largely petered out into political inertia. The dearth of political courage and principled leadership when it matters most does not bode well for our multilateral system.

What is at stake? For Palestine refugees, it is their very lives and future. The impact of barring access to education, healthcare and other social services will be devastating and multigenerational. Complicity in this endeavour erodes not only our humanity but also the legitimacy of our multilateral system.

The near total absence of political, economic or legal penalties for flagrant violations of the Geneva conventions, utter disregard for the resolutions of the security council and the general assembly, and open defiance of the rulings of the international court of justice is making a mockery of the rules-based international order (continue reading here).

Gaza’s Civil Defense has reported that Israeli forces killing Palestinians and leaving their bodies in the streets where stray dogs feed on them is a clear violation of international law.

In a statement, the Civil Defense explained that Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted rescue teams and ambulances, specifically when they attempt to approach the bodies of those killed.

It emphasized that Israel has also obstructed efforts to recover the bodies of thousands of Palestinians who have died under the rubble of homes destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.

It added that it had found several Palestinian bodies that had been reduced to skeletons.

In other instances, it described seeing stray dogs feeding on the bodies in several neighborhoods, including Zeitoun, Shujaiya, Tel al-Hawa, the Jabalia area, Tal al-Zaatar, Beit Hanoun, and parts of the eastern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Stressing that these actions by Israel constitute violations of the Geneva Conventions, it called on the signatory countries to “take immediate action to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law.”

They urged the international community, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to “pressure Israel to follow proper protocols for handling the bodies of the deceased during wartime.”

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RECOMMENDED READING (Mondoweiss): Are the Gaza ceasefire rumors finally real this time?

‘My hands are paralyzed from torture’: Gazans reveal horrors of Ofer Camp

+972 and Local Call obtained testimonies from 19 Palestinians, some of whom are current detainees who spoke through their lawyers at the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, and others who were previously held at Ofer Camp and released back to Gaza. They revealed conditions that are “similar, and in some cases identical” to those at Sde Teiman, as attorney Nadine Abu Arafeh from HaMoked explained.

Palestinians in Ofer report being handcuffed and, in some cases, shackled by their feet for 24 hours a day — even while sleeping, eating, and using the restroom — with the exception of a brief shower that is allowed, at most, once a week. They also describe facing regular beatings by guards — on one account, to death — along with ongoing humiliation, extreme overcrowding, and a lack of basic hygiene.

Gazans held at Ofer Camp, which is adjacent to the long-standing prison of the same name, are among the Palestinian detainees Israel classifies as “unlawful combatants.” As such, they go through a very brief legal procedure: normally, this consists of a three-minute hearing conducted via Zoom, where they are accused of “supporting terror,” and following which their detention is extended for another six months or until “the end of the war.”

According to HaMoked, 1,772 “unlawful combatants” are held in Israeli jails under the jurisdiction of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) as of December 2024. While the military has not disclosed the exact number detained at Ofer Camp, estimates suggest that hundreds are currently being held there (continue reading here).

NOTE: Israel is currently holding over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 345 of them are children, 89 are women, and over 3,400 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.

RELATED: Welcome to Hell: the Israeli prison system as a network of torture camps (report by Israeli human rights org)

West Bank: Landmine Kills Palestinian Child

A seven-year-old Palestinian child was killed after a landmine left by the Israeli army exploded in an area east of Bethlehem, while two other Palestinians were injured by live ammunition elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health confirmed that Muhammad Al-Rashaydeh was killed as a result of the landmine exploding in the al-Rashaydeh area on Friday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

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Christmas joy hard to find in Bethlehem

Christmas decorations and pilgrims have been notably absent for a second wartime festive season in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city with the Church of the Nativity that dominates the main square as empty as the plaza outside.

“Normally on this day you would find 3,000 or 4,000 people inside the church,” Mohammed Sabeh, a security guard for the church, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

“Christians in Ramallah can’t come because there are checkpoints,” Sabeh said, complaining that Israeli soldiers “treat us badly”, leading to long traffic queues for those trying to visit from the city 22km (14 miles) away.

Anton Salman, Bethlehem’s mayor, told AFP that on top of existing checkpoints, the Israeli army had set up new roadblocks around Bethlehem, creating “an obstacle” for those wanting to visit.

Souad Handal, a 55-year-old tour guide from Bethlehem told the agency: “Bethlehem is special at Christmas. It is so special in the Holy Land. Jesus was born here.”

“It is so bad (now) because the economy of Bethlehem, it depends on tourism,” Handal added.