On Palestinian Children’s Day, Hamas called for the prosecution of Israel’s leaders for war crimes as the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza continues with “systematic targeting of children.”
The Palestinian Children’s Day, celebrated annually on April 5th, is marked this year as the regime’s forces have killed some 19,000 children, including 274 newborn babies and 876 infants below the age of one year, in Gaza since October 2023, Hamas said in a statement on Saturday.
In Gaza, Hamas said, over 1,100 children have been abducted and “around 39,000 have become orphaned by losing one or both parents, while thousands others face the threat of famine, malnutrition, and disease.”
“The fascist occupation continues its systematic targeting of children, using them as human shields, depriving them of education in Gaza.”
Hamas also warned that the resistance group will never forget the regime’s “crimes against our children.”
It reiterated that the international community’s silence, “which is a shameful stain on human rights and humanitarian organizations… emboldens the occupation to escalate its crimes” against innocent Palestinian children.
The resistance group urged “the United Nations and governments to criminalize the occupation and activate its inclusion on the ‘List of Shame’ for perpetrators of crimes against children.”
Hamas also said that human rights organizations need “to assume responsibility in exposing the occupation’s crimes and to work seriously to protect Palestinian children and ensure their rights.”
Marking Palestinian Children’s Day, Palestinian political prisoners’ legal defense and advocacy groups said in a report that at least 350 Palestinian children are currently being held in the Israeli regime’s prisons and military camps across the occupied territories.
The report warned that the Palestinian children “face a wide array of abuses and rights violations including torture, starvation, deprivation of medical care and systematic maltreatment.”
Walid Ahmed, a 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner, became the first child to lose his life in Israel’s prison on March 22, after being held in detention without any charges.
According to the report, Walid “faced systematic crimes, the most notable of which was the crime of starvation, which led to his martyrdom.”
Walid was the 63rd Palestinian who lost his life in the Israeli regime’s detention since it launched in October 2023. Since then, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been abducted by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
According to Palestinian prisoner rights groups, Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in its detention centers.
