Childhood behind bars: experiencing life under occupation as a Palestinian child

Navid* was fast asleep when the Israeli Defence Force soldiers came for him.

It was late at night when the soldiers burst into the 17-year-old student’s home, beat and arrested him and took him out into the night. His family were not allowed to say goodbye.

Navid’s story is not unusual for children in the West Bank.

Embrace the Middle East, through its campaign Childhood Behind Bars, is mobilising people to call on the UK government to urge Israel to end the use of traumatising practices against Palestinian children in detention, and stop children’s unlawful transfer outside the occupied territory. The campaign is also calling on the UK government to enact legislation that bans trade with and investment in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Protecting child rights through international law

Children’s wellbeing and protection is vital for the international community. This is signalled by the special protection awarded to children through the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which applies to every person below the age of 18. Children’s special legal protection is indisputably recognised internationally, making the CRC the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.

The numerous provisions of international law protecting children include Article 3 of the CRC, which states that, in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

If a child must be detained, Article 37 of the CRC sets strict parameters that states must follow to respect child detainees’ rights. Children must never be subjected to torture or inhumane treatment. They should never be arbitrarily arrested, and arrest must only be treated as a last resort. While in detention, children should be treated humanely, kept separate from adults and be able to maintain contact with their families. Child detainees should also have prompt, independent legal assistance to ensure their protection under the law.

Article 40 goes further, asserting that all children must be treated as innocent until proven guilty, to be granted a fair and prompt trial, and an interpreter if they do not understand the language spoken and used.

Children are also safeguarded by other treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. For instance, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of protected persons, including children, from an occupied territory.

The institutionalised ill-treatment of Palestinian children

Despite these protections, UNICEF finds that Palestinian children in the West Bank experience “widespread, systematic and institutionalised” ill-treatment, from traumatising nighttime arrests in their homes to inhumane practices, such as blindfolding, use of single plastic ties and beatings.

Most children who are arrested – some as young as 12 – are detained under the charge of stone throwing, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years. Some children are held in administrative detention – a practice where children can be locked up without trial or without having committed an offence – on the grounds that they plan to break the law. A child held in administrative detention can be detained indefinitely, without legal proceedings, and without access to classified evidence against them.

Like Navid, many Palestinian children are transferred to detention centres in Israel, outside the occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

UN estimates and Israeli military data indicate that around 38,000 to 55,000 Palestinian children were imprisoned under military law between 1967 and 2022. The numbers have increased since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Before the attack, around 170 Palestinian children were being held in detention, but since then over 1,300 children have been detained, and as of June 2025 at least 440 children were in detention.

The trauma of recurring arrests and detention

Embrace the Middle East works in partnership with Christian grassroots organisations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to support the most marginalised communities. Some of Embrace’s partners in the West Bank work with Palestinian child ex-detainees and support their rehabilitation and reintegration.

Arrests and detention are a recurring practice against the Palestinian community in the West Bank. Children, along with their families and wider community, not only have to face the trauma of their detention, they also live in fear of being rearrested under spurious or no charges or of witnessing the traumatic arrest of loved ones.

We saw this with Navid, who started to suffer from anxiety attacks when military raids happened near his home. He lost a lot of weight, struggled with insomnia and experienced an overwhelming sense of guilt, blaming himself for his family’s distress.

Israeli occupation and international law

These practices do not occur in a vacuum, but within the context of Israel’s 58-year-long occupation of the Palestinian territory, an occupation to which, sadly, we see no end in sight. International bodies, such as the International Court of Justice with its Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 and the UN General Assembly resolution of 19 September 2024, declared the occupation illegal and called on Israel to put an end to it. Israel has ignored such calls so far.  

UN member states like the UK, as Israel’s close ally, have a responsibility to hold Israel to account and pressure it to follow international legal standards. Moreover, the UK has a legal obligation towards the self-determination of the Palestinian people and must oppose the occupation with all its available means.

The UK government’s position is that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law. Yet, it has failed to take meaningful action to ban trade with such illegal settlements. The UK’s current policy of “recommending” appropriate labelling of products without enforcing a legal ban is wholly inappropriate.

This is why Embrace the Middle East has  launched this important campaign. We mustn’t stay silent on these injustices. Together, we can raise our voices to bring about change.

Find out more at https://embraceme.org/childhood-behind-bars.

*Name changed for anonymity.