TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / January 28, 2025
Israeli forces are holding a record 112 Palestinian children in administrative detention, with no charge or trial.
Israeli occupation forces are holding a record number of 112 Palestinian children in administrative detention as of December 31, according to the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP).
This number “is an all-time high” since DCIP began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008, the civil society organization said on Monday, citing the Israel Prison Service.
Almost all of these children were detained after October 7, 2023, DCIP noted, as Israeli forces escalated military operations throughout the occupied West Bank.
“Detaining children indefinitely, without charge or trial, amounts to arbitrary detention,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Since October 7, Israeli forces have accelerated their arrest campaigns against Palestinian children and detained a record number of children without charge.”
Administrative detention orders are issued by the Israeli military commander of the area, or a military officer delegated by the military commander, the organization explained. It can last up to six months, but there is no limit to the number of times an administrative detention order can be renewed.
Ill-treatment, torture
According to the Israeli Prison Service, said DCIP, more than one in three Palestinian child detainees are held under administrative detention orders.
“At the end of 2024, Israeli forces were detaining a total 300 Palestinian children, including 112 in administrative detention,” the organization said.
Palestinian child detainees “have consistently reported increased instances of ill-treatment and torture alongside deteriorating prison conditions since October 7”, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
“Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without charge or trial regularly used by Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians, including children,” stated the organization.
‘Secret evidence’
Palestinian children held under administrative detention orders “are not presented with charges, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is neither disclosed to the child nor their attorney, preventing them from preparing a legal challenge to the detention and its alleged basis,” according to documentation collected by DCIP.
“International juvenile justice standards, which Israel has obliged itself to implement by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, said the organization, “demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and must not be unlawfully or arbitrarily detained.”
“Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year that lack fundamental fair trial rights,” the DCIP emphasized.
Eight killed in 2025
The organization also pointed out that the Israeli army killed eight Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2025, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Israeli drone strikes killed five children and three children were shot and killed with live ammunition, the organization said.
Since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing invasion of Jenin and its refugee camp, 16 Palestinians have been killed, including a two-year-old child, Laila Ayman Khatib, and a 16-year-old, Motaz Abu Tabeekh.
