(International Criminal Court i.e. ICC) Karim Khan, a dossier on Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people. During the meeting that took place in The Hague, al-Maliki stressed that the state of Palestine continues to cooperate with the ICC and the staff of the prosecutor’s office to present all documented information that proves that the Israeli military and settlers (extremist Jews) have committed serious and continuous crimes against the Palestinian people.
He stressed that all these crimes fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The senior Palestinian diplomat underscored the importance of the ICC and its role in holding war criminals accountable in light of the rise to power of the extremist settler-terrorist government, which unabashedly expresses its schemes based on field executions and forced expulsions. The Palestinian minister said that bringing criminals to international justice will help protect the Palestinian people and deter crimes committed against them. Elsewhere in his remarks, he called on the ICC prosecutor to pay a visit to Palestine and prioritize the administration of justice. Last year, Palestinian human rights defenders welcomed the ICC’s decision to assert its full territorial jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories.
A leader of the Palestinian Fatah resistance movement stated that the Israeli regime is holding hundreds of prisoners, including children, behind bars in jails, saying that the underage detainees are subjected to various forms of torture and that Israeli prison officials treat them as criminals. On Monday, Dr. Ayman al-Raqab, who is also a professor of political science at Quds University, condemned the gross mistreatment of Palestinian children and the blatant violation of their rights by the Tel Aviv regime, denouncing the state of Israeli detention centers and the corresponding policies that contradict international principles and regulations.
Raqab noted that Israeli officials have subjected a number of detained Palestinian children, including teenage girls, to brutal forms of torture and treat them as serious criminals, even though they are not of age. Earlier this month, a Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy group said that since the beginning of the current year, Israeli forces have detained more than 750 Palestinian children during a campaign of arrests in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a statement on November 19 that 160 children are still being held behind bars in Israeli detention centers, explaining that some of the minors were first injured before being detained. Among the detainees are three girls, two of whom are 16 years old and the third 17, and five others who are in pre-trial detention.
The so-called pre-trial detainees are arrested on “secret evidence,” without knowledge of the charges against them, and are not allowed to defend themselves in court. They are typically held for renewable six-month periods, often resulting in years of detention. Palestinian prisoners are held for long periods without being charged, tried, or convicted, which is a pure violation of human rights. Human rights groups have long called on Israel to end this use.
The Israeli regime’s Prison Service (IPS) holds Palestinian prisoners in deplorable conditions without adequate hygiene standards. During the years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, they have also been systematically tortured, harassed, and oppressed. According to the Palestinian Prisoners Study Center, approximately 60% of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails suffer from chronic diseases that led to their death either in their detention or after their release.
