This report illustrates the scale and range of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law perpetrated by the Israeli army during Operation Cast Lead. It stresses that these violations follow decades of impunity for previous violations and demonstrates how eight months on, in the context of the Gaza blockade and continued military occupation, Palestinian children remain unable to rebuild their lives.

This report documents the widespread ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the hands of the Israeli army and police force. It contains the testimonies of 33 children who bear witness to the abuse they received at the hands of soldiers from the moment of arrest through to an often violent interrogation. Children report being painfully shackled for hours on end, kicked, beaten and threatened, some with death, until they provide confessions, some written in Hebrew, a language they do not speak or understand. The report finds that these illegally obtained confessions are routinely used as evidence in the military courts to convict around 700 Palestinian children every year.

This situation analysis provides an overview of the extent to which Palestinian children living in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) were able to enjoy their rights to protection in 2008, from a structural and practical perspective. The study focuses on the level of protection available to three particular target groups of children living in the oPt, in terms of laws, policies, mechanisms and practices. The target groups in question are children vulnerable to violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation in their homes and communities; children in conflict with the law under Palestinian Authority (PA) jurisdiction and children detained by Israel under its military order system.

This report documents the extent of settler attacks perpetrated against Palestinian children in the Occupied Territory. While settler violence has steadily increased since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000, the start of 2008 has marked a notable increase in settler attacks against Palestinian civilians, including children.

At any given point during 2007, there were between 310 and 416 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons and detention centres in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. These figures are similar to those for 2006 (340 to 420). The number of children arrested in 2007 and the first three months of 2008 brings the total number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces since the beginning of the second Intifada (September 2000) to over 6,000.

An analysis of human rights violations against Palestinian children in 2005

While the overall level of violence decreased in 2005, Israeli military activities continued to neglect, and in some cases deliberately abuse, the fundamental rights of Palestinian children, breaching rights guaranteed under international human rights law.

An Analysis of Human Rights Violations Against Palestinian Children in 2004

An analysis of human rights violations against Palestinian children during the 2004, including case studies, DCI field documentation and analysis of developments regarding the impact of the Wall on Palestinian children's lives.

As part of activities surrounding the opening of DCI/PS centres in Bethlehem and Hebron, Palestinian children speak out about their lives, their hopes and fears, and their dreams for the future.

In April 2004, following the success of the book Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel's Detention of Palestinian Children, DCI/PS and Dar Productions produced a 20-minute documentary to shed further light on the experiences of Palestinian child prisoners. The film is entitled Stolen Youth and was directed by Saed Andoni and funded by Save the Children Sweden.

Between reality and law

This detailed Arabic-language research examines Palestinian legal procedures from arrest and interrogation, to trial and sentencing, in cases where children have come into conflict with the law.

The use of children in armed conflict takes on a unique character in the context of the Israeli occupation. DCI/PS has issued the first in-depth study into this sensitive issue.

An Analysis of Human Rights Violations Against Palestinian Children in 2003

Israel's occupation tactics may have changed over the course of 2003, but the result remains the same: directly and indirectly, individually and collectively the basic rights of Palestinian children are being systematically violated.

Written by former DCI/PS staff and volunteers and published in association with DCI/PS, Stolen Youth is the first book to deal specifically and comprehensively with the experience of Palestinian child prisoners. It is a disturbing and often shocking account of abuses that have been widely documented but never addressed by the international community.

An analysis of human rights violations against Palestinian children during the second Intifada, including case studies, DCI field documentation and detailed analysis of developments during and after the Israeli invasions of March-April 2002 and the subsequent direct occupation of much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

8 factsheets (covering Torture of Palestinian Children, Israeli Military Courts and Orders, Israeli Prisons, Conditions of Detention for Palestinian Children, Education in Israeli Prisons, and Case Studies of Palestinian Child Prisoners).