Israel holds majority of Palestinian children without charge
Rights groups say minors face systematic abuse, torture, and inhumane conditions under administrative detention policies
WEST BANK, Palestine (MNTV) — More than half of Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel at the end of 2025 were held without charge or trial, human rights organizations reported, highlighting the continued targeting of minors amid Israel’s ongoing military aggression.
Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) said 51 percent of the 351 Palestinian children in Israeli custody were being detained under so-called “administrative detention,” a practice allowing indefinite imprisonment without formal charges or court hearings.
The organization described this as the highest number and proportion of child detainees on record since it began monitoring in 2008.
The figures only account for children held in Israeli Prison Service facilities, excluding those in military detention or interrogation centers, where reports indicate systematic torture, deprivation, and abuse.
Firsthand testimonies collected by DCIP describe minors being beaten, denied medical care, placed in solitary confinement, and subjected to other forms of physical and psychological torture.
The mass detentions are part of a broader policy that has intensified since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Administrative detention allows six-month incarcerations that can be renewed indefinitely, effectively criminalizing children without legal process.
Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner advocacy group, reports that over a third of all Palestinian prisoners — more than 9,500 individuals — are currently held under similar measures.
Human rights observers, including Israeli groups such as B’Tselem, have long condemned the prison system as a network of institutionalized torture, systematically targeting Palestinian detainees.
DCIP emphasized that the treatment of children in these facilities flagrantly violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has ratified, and called for immediate accountability and international intervention.
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