The number of children killed by Israeli security forces and occupiers in the occupied West Bank has doubled this year. Save the Children reported that 34 children have been killed so far, including the recent killing of two teenagers.
C. Rubini CTC, Vatican News
Mahmoud Al Saadi (17) on his way to school on Monday and Ahmad Shehadeh (16) were recently killed in a raid in Nablus on Tuesday night. This made it the deadliest year since 2006 for children living in the West Bank.
A 16-year-old Israeli-Canadian teenager was killed and more than a dozen others were injured in two separate explosions in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning. Violence in the West Bank has been escalating in recent months.
The rapid expansion of Israeli settlements and the sharp increase in Israeli military raids and Palestinian attacks in the occupied West Bank. In addition to being caught up in the violence, Palestinian families are also deprived of access to essential services due to movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities.
“The continuing deadly attacks on children are unacceptable. So far in 2022, 34 Palestinian children have lost their lives in the West Bank. It has been the most brutal year in 15 years and an Israeli child was killed in an early morning attack yesterday. “Once again, children are paying the ultimate price in a conflict they have no part in,” said Jason Lee, Save the Children’s director for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The escalation of violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel threatens the lives and well-being of children and is deeply alarming. A culture of impunity will continue to reinforce spirals of violence. The time has come to say stop.” He added.
Save the Children said that if concrete measures are not taken to reduce the incidence of violence, children will continue to pay the price with their lives. Under international law, children deserve special protection and must always be protected from violence. Therefore, Save the Children said that all necessary measures should be taken to protect them.
Save the Children said that the Israeli military must stop shooting at children and that all parties involved should work to defuse the crisis and end the current cycle of violence, ensuring protection for children and giving them a hope for the future.
At the same time, the organization revealed that those responsible for the attack should be brought to justice and that they call on the Italian government and the entire international community to press for an immediate, impartial and independent investigation into the killing of the children. With a permanent presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) since 1973, Save the Children has been working for Palestinian children since the 1950s.