Our Wednesday News Analysis | Israel has a long history of taking Palestinian children captive

A PALESTINIAN CHILD BEING ARRESTED IN JERUSALEM, F BY MASKED ISRAELI POLICE FORCES. (PHOTO: ADDAMEER)

Over the past several days, dozens of Palestinian women and children have been released from Israeli prisons as part of the hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

As of Thursday, 180 Palestinian women and children were freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for 99 Israeli women and children, as well as foreign nationals, mostly Thai laborers, who were freed from captivity in Gaza.

As more footage rolls in of Palestinian children, mostly young teenage boys, crying and hugging their mothers upon their release from Israeli prison, more and more people have been left wondering: why was Israel holding on to so many Palestinian children in the first place?

Currently, some rights groups estimate that there are some 8,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. But that number is increasing every day, as Israel continues to conduct massive arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. In fact, at the same time Israel has been releasing Palestinian prisoners, it is estimated by Palestinian rights groups that Israeli forces arrested and newly imprisoned close to 300 Palestinians – nearly double the amount of prisoners that were released in the exchange.

Of the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centers, it is estimated that before the hostage exchange, there were around 80 women, and at least 250 children in Israeli jails...

Read more: Israel has a long history of taking Palestinian children captive

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WHY DID GAZA CHILD, ALMA, REFUSE TO BE RESCUED FOLLOWING ISRAELI ATTACK ON HER HOME? (VIDEO)

Source: Palestine Chronicle

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/why-gaza-child-alma-refused-to-be-rescued-following-israeli-attack-on-her-home-video/

By Palestine Chronicle Staff
Published December 4, 2023

It was not only Alma’s love for her family that made this story worth telling, but the love of the community itself, especially those who were digging with their bare hands.

The moment Palestinian child Amal was rescued in Gaza. (Photo: via AJA, videograb)

When a residential building of five stories came tumbling down in the Yarmouk neighborhood, in central Gaza, scores of people rushed to the rescue.

Many lifeless bodies were pulled from under the rubble, and the rescuers grew discouraged with time that no one remained alive amid the heap of bloody concrete and dust.

That’s when Alma’s voice trickled through the cracks of the large slabs of concrete, before being fully audible.

“We are alive here,” Alma shouted.

“What is it, Alma?” a man’s voice, one of the rescuers, answered from above.

“Help my mother, my father, my brothers, and my grandmother first. Then you can help me. Only then you can pull me out.”

The girl repeated: “Please leave me to the very end. I also need to be here so I can help direct you,” she added.

“How old are you?” said the man’s voice.

“I am 12 years old. One of my brothers is a baby, he has to be helped first.”

“Are you Sara’s sister?” said the voice.

“My sister is Rehab and my baby brother is (nicknamed) Tarzan.”

“How old is Tarzan?” asked the voice.

“One year, one year and a half,” she shouted.

“Please promise me that you will help my brother, Tarzan, please.”...

Read more: Why Did Gaza Child, Alma, Refuse to Be Rescued Following Israeli Attack on Her Home? (VIDEO)

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A NAKBA IS UNFOLDING IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK, TOO

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/29/a-nakba-is-unfolding-in-the-occupied-west-bank-too

By Mariam Barghouti
Published November 29, 2023

Israeli forces and settlers are terrorising the Palestinian population in the West Bank in preparation for its expulsion and the annexation of Palestinian land.

Men walk amid the debris of buildings the Israeli army damaged during a raid on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on November 26, 2023 [Zain Jaafar/AFP]

Over the past month and a half, Israel’s genocidal goals in Gaza have become increasingly clear. Not only is the Israeli army mass-slaughtering civilians, but it is also carpet-bombing the enclave with the aim of destroying all civilian infrastructure meant to sustain life.

Hospitals, schools, water treatment plans, any source of electricity – including solar panels – warehouses and farms have been targeted. This has rendered the strip unliveable, forcing the Palestinians there into another Nakba.

But it is not only in Gaza that Israel hopes to get rid of the Palestinian population. The Israeli ethnic cleansing effort extends to the occupied West Bank where Israel is moving forward with a similar – albeit a more surreptitious – plan.

Annexation plans and a problem

To separate the continuing genocide in Gaza from the broader Palestinian context is to deny that the target of Israeli crimes is neither Hamas nor the Gaza Strip, but rather the Palestinian existence in historical Palestine as a whole.

This is not an imagined Palestinian fear, but a reality that even the forefathers of the Israeli state constantly and openly admitted to...

Read more: A Nakba is unfolding in the occupied West Bank, too