Palestinians say 24 Gazan children held at Israel’s Megiddo Prison

By Awad Rajoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Some 24 Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip are held by Israel at Megiddo Prison, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Sunday.

“Around 94 children are held at the prison in northern Israel, including 24 from Gaza,” the Commission of Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a joint statement.

According to the statement, Israeli authorities keep in custody some 200 Palestinian children, including more than 40 held without charge or trial under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention.

“Prison authorities continue to impose punitive measures against child prisoners similar to those taken against adult detainees since Oct. 7,” the statement said, adding that children held at Israeli prisons were deprived of family visits.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

More than 32,200 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,500 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala