Israeli forces have reportedly detained more than 2,000 Palestinian children since October 2023, while at least 350 remain in Israeli prisons under what a Palestinian rights group describes as “harsh conditions”.
In a report released on Wednesday, the rights group said Israeli authorities continue to step up their targeting of Palestinian children, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces arrested at least six children from Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the report said.
The organisation said the number of children arrested in Gaza is unclear, given the thousands of missing people there, including children, and what it called a continuing policy of enforced disappearance.
It said detention without charge or a release date was “an additional violation and crime that leaves children facing the unknown and deprives them of family and educational stability”.
The report described practices that begin with “intimidation and arrest” and extend to “torture, starvation and denial of healthcare”.
It cited the case of 15-year-old Mohammed Hamid, who contracted scabies, a contagious skin infestation, while held in Ofer Prison, where rights groups have long documented abuses.
He suffered severe infections, underwent heart surgery and was admitted to intensive care in critical condition. One of his legs was later amputated.
The group also pointed to 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, saying that although there was evidence of starvation, no definitive cause of death had been established, the Qatari broadcaster said.
Ahmed was held in 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.
He was not the only young American held without charge, the report said.
Israeli forces reportedly took Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi from his West Bank home in a late-night raid in June. He turned 18 in detention and was later moved from a youth holding area to an adult section at Ofer Prison.
Israeli forces also arrested 16-year-old Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah, also an American, in July. He was set for release in August after his family secured bail, but Israeli authorities abruptly reversed the decision.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society called for “real international action” to secure the release of arbitrarily detained children, enforce investigations and end torture, starvation and the denial of treatment in Israeli prisons.
Israeli forces have detained more than 25,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, and thousands more in Gaza, since the genocidal assault began in October 2023, as per Al Jazeera.