International Children’s Day deepens the wounds of Palestinian homes that mourn the separation of their loved ones

On October 12, 2015, Palestinian occupation forces arrested Ahmed Manasra, a resident of the town of Beit Hanin, north of Jerusalem, when he was 13 years and nine months old, after shooting and immediately wounding him.

Ahmed was transferred to the “Al-Maskoubiya” detention center in the Holy City, despite the need to complete a period of treatment, to be taken to be investigated by Israeli intelligence while he groaned in pain from his injury. , appears as a child before the Israeli courts, which sentenced him to 12 years in prison and a fine of (180) thousand shekels, thus spending his innocent years in occupation detention centers.

Seven years have passed since Ahmed became a boy, and he left his childhood chained in the corners of small cells, which restrained his big childhood dreams and even canceled them from the very beginning, so he no longer had innocent images in him. a memory that they will later pass on to other generations to come.

lost childhood

Examining the details of the story of the Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Manasra confirms the violation of the rights of children of the occupied countries In all the cities of Palestine International Children’s Day, which corresponds to November 20, cannot pass like the rest of the world, without leaving a dark image inside every Palestinian house and leaving its children as martyrs or excommunication. He is a prisoner or suffered long-term wounds, as a result of arbitrary Israeli practices that do not distinguish between a small child or an old man.

“Emirates Today” met Ahmed Manasr, the uncle of the prisoner Ahmed, to describe his tragedy behind bars, saying: “He spent his childhood in Israeli detention centers, deprived of his right to childhood under the laws of the world, far from the tenderness of his father and mother, he was deprived of his right to play, study and pursue his hobbies. and fulfill his dreams.”

He adds: “Prisoner Ahmed was a child when the occupying authorities arrested him, and he is still reliving his childhood, especially as he experienced a severe psychological relapse, which exacerbated his suffering inside the detention centers, especially when he was denied long periods of visits from his families inside the prison.”

Manasra points out that his nephew faces arbitrary occupation measures, as the Israeli prison service administration often steals the money we deposit for him in the prison canteen, which is known as “the canteen”, under false pretenses, which are “sanctions”. “

The prisoner’s uncle, Manasra, says: “Ahmed has been living in solitary confinement (cell) for more than a year and a half, while he appeared before an Israeli court to extend his isolation for another six months, and the occupation rejected our request for his early release, in within the framework of the law called (one third of detention). ) Many times”.

Dreams behind bars

Ahmed Manasra is not the only child bound by Israeli restrictions. Behind the bars of the Damon, Ofer and Megiddo detention centers, 170 Palestinian minors, including three girls and five children, are in administrative detention, which holds prisoners for long periods of time without charge or court order, according to Prisoner Affairs Commission spokesman Hassan Abed Rabbo.

Abed Rabbo, in an exclusive interview with Emirates Today, said: “This year we have witnessed, since its inception, the occupation forces intensifying operations targeting Palestinian children, pursuing their fathers and arresting them. The number of arrests by Israel up to November reached 800 children arbitrarily from various Palestinian governorates.” Including Jerusalem, whose children are exposed to abuse, house arrest and detention in youth detention centers.”

And he adds: “The occupation intentionally abused children and practiced sadism on them inside the detention centers, because they were subjected to abuse by naked and provocative searches, by imposing sentences against them, preventing their parents from occasionally visiting them, denying them (canteens) and access to Al square -Fura, and the imposition of financial penalties as a measure.” Penalties by the Israel Prison Service, with the tightening of sentences and punishments against children of prisoners, and the imposition of financial penalties against them as a collective punitive measure.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Committee confirms the Israeli prison administration’s failure to provide the necessary medical care and treatment for the children of prisoners, sick or wounded, who were exposed to direct fire by Israeli forces during the process. to pursue and arrest them.

He points out that Palestinian children who are imprisoned are deprived of psychological and counseling care inside the prison, which indicates that this worsens the psychological, neurological and health problems of children who are deprived of childhood and the right to play, freedom and education behind bars.

The destruction of innocence

Moving behind the bars that drained the innocence of Omar al-Zuhur and spread the scourge of separation in the homes of their relatives, hundreds of homes in various parts of Palestine are inhabited by the pain of separation from their young children, who perished as a result of brutal killings and extermination by Israeli forces.

In the months of this year, there have been records proving that the Israeli occupation has deliberately targeted Palestinian children. According to statistics from the International Movement in Defense of Children, Israeli forces have killed 49 Palestinian children since the beginning of this year in 2022, including 32 children in the West Bank and 17 others in the Gaza Strip, while the occupation keeps the bodies. 12 of them are in cold storage, to prevent their families from looking at them for the last time to say goodbye.

Among the stories of killings that Israel has spread among Palestinian towns to steal young souls is what happened to seven-year-old Ryan Yasser Suleiman, from the town of Tuqu’, southeast of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, whose dreams were buried in their cradle. when he stopped His heart was filled with fear after being chased by occupying soldiers armed to the teeth on September 29.

With the departure of Rayan, that child who in his old days dreamed of becoming a nurse, the number of children in his family who were exposed to persecution and attacks by the occupying army and searches of their homes rose to three.

And in the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, the child Ghaith Rafiq Yamin (15 years old) was wounded by an Israeli sniper’s bullet in the head, in the area of ​​”Iraq al-Tayyeh”, east of Nablus, and he immediately climbed to a higher comrade.

Upon arriving in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli siege since the summer of 2006, five-year-old Alaa Qaddum abandoned her rosy dreams, saying goodbye to her family, covered in her own blood spilled in the yard of her house, after Israeli helicopters passed by on August 15. fired missiles at the area where she lives in Shujaiya settlement, east of Gaza City, and the next day and hundreds of meters away from the place where the child Qaddoum was killed, occupation missiles killed two brothers Moamen (five years old) and Ahmed Al-Nairab (11 years ).

According to statistics from the International Movement for the Defense of Children, since the beginning of the current year 2022, Israeli forces have killed 49 Palestinian children, including 32 children in the West Bank and 17 others in the Gaza Strip, while the occupation is keeping the bodies of 12 of them in cold storage.

Palestinian children who are imprisoned are deprived of psychological and counseling care inside the prison, which worsens their psychological, neurological and health problems and denies them their childhood and right to play, freedom and education behind bars.