GAZA, (PIC)– The Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners said on Monday that there are still 340 Palestinian children in Israeli jails exposed to many deliberate violations against their basic rights.
In a statement issued on the occasion of the Palestinian child day, the center highlighted that the Palestinian children in Israeli jails are exposed to unbelievable violations of their rights which are guaranteed by international laws and conventions.
The center explained that the Israeli jailers physically abuse and maltreat the children in prisons and detention centers, lock them up in small rooms and deprive them of family visits.
It added that more than 231 children were prosecuted and more than 100 others are awaiting trials while many others are administratively detained without leveling charges against them.
The center also said that the policy of medical neglect raised the number of sick children in Israeli jails to 50 patients, pointing out that the most common disease suffered by children is food poisoning resulting from eating canned meals served deliberately by the prison administrations.
In a related context, the march of freedom candles on Monday lit the streets of the besieged Gaza Strip on the occasion of the Palestinian child day and hundreds of children whose fathers are imprisoned in Israeli jails went on the march at the invitation of the popular committee against the siege.
The children gathered in the Unknown Soldier plaza in Gaza city and carried banners calling for releasing their fathers, who are deprived of hugging their sons and daughters and seeing them grow up.
Israel has been barring the families of 775 prisoners from Gaza from visiting them in its jails since 2006 and invented the law of unlawful combatant to perpetuate their suffering.
For its part, the higher national committee for the support of prisoners appealed in a press release on Monday to the second international forum of Muslim parliamentarians slated to be held in Bahrain later this month to support the issue of Palestinian prisoners financially and spiritually.
The committee called on the Islamic parliamentary forum to declare 2010 a year for the support of Palestinian prisoners and to take positions and resolutions that strengthen their steadfastness and contribute to creating a worldwide public opinion in favor of their issue.