Childhood in Custody: High-Level Dialogue on Palestinian Children in Military Detention

Your Majesty, Tesheuk, Excellencies, good afternoon and welcome. My name is Inga Rasching and I am the Global CEO of Save the Children and I really like to welcome you to this event. This is the first event during the High Level Week focused on detention of children in the occupied Palestinian territory. The detention of Palestinian children by Israeli military authorities is a decades-old child rights crisis that remains profoundly underreported. Every year, hundreds of children from the West Bank and Gaza are held in Israeli military detention. The UN Secretary-General's most recent report on children and armed conflict verified the detention of 989 Palestinian children in 2025 alone. 981 children. Save the Children has been documenting these issues and supporting affected children for many years. Most recently, our teams and partners gathered testimony from more than 165 formerly detained children. The findings are deeply disturbing. Children described physical, emotional and sexual abuse. humiliation, starvation, deprivation, and mistreatment during detention. The consequences do not end upon release. Many continue to experience enduring mental and physical harm, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, night terrors, and self-harm. Children are remarkably resilient, but no child should be expected to endure such experiences. No child. The evidence gathered by Save the Children, alongside findings from the UN, independent investigations and human rights organisations, indicates that the conditions and treatments have significantly worsened since October 2023. Palestinian children remain the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted in military courts. No child should face such a system, nor be held in military detention. We urge the government of Israel to end this practice and release all children currently in custody. For more than a century, Save the Children has been advocating for children's rights. Our founder, Eglantyne Jebb, helped lay the foundation for what became the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, grounded in the principle that every child has rights and that their best interests must guide all decisions affecting them. Today, we will hear directly from Mohammed, a Palestinian American teenage boy who has been detained by the military in Israel for nine months while in his family's village in the occupied West Bank. Mohammed was released in 2025, and he joins us with his uncle, Sayad, to tell their story. Before we begin, I want to ask everyone to respect Mohamed's safeguarding and privacy. So please do not take any photographs or record during his testimony later. No photographs allowed when he speaks. Mohamed's case drew attention for more than 100 human rights, civil rights, and faith-based organizations, and from members of the UN Congress who called for action on his behalf. Yet, his experience is not unique. Many Palestinian children remain in detention today and continue to face horrifying conditions. I want to start by also thanking Mohammed and Saeed for coming here, joining us today, and for their willingness to share their story and their voice with us. I would also thank Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Taoiseach of Ireland, Michael Martin, for their leadership in helping draw attention to this issue. And it is now my honour to invite Her Majesty Queen Rania to deliver the opening keynote. Please take the podium.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. We are here to state the painfully obvious. Children belong in schools, playgrounds, and around the dinner table. They do not belong in military detention. Every boy and girl should be protected, reassured, and cherished, not assaulted, intimidated, or degraded. We know this. Something so basic, so human, should go without saying. But when it comes to Palestinian children, it seems we must say it again and again. For decades, the world has turned a blind eye as they are arbitrarily taken into custody, denied due process, and held indefinitely in a notoriously brutal prison system. Most parents can barely allow themselves to imagine it. Their 12-year-old taken at gunpoint, driven away somewhere they cannot follow. It's inconceivable, yet it happens to Palestinian families all the time. Not occasionally, routinely. I would warn you that children's accounts of detention are disturbing, difficult to hear. But this is not a situation where we have the luxury of sheltering behind disclaimers. We do not get to turn away, because to protect our own comfort would be to enable the inhumanity. Children tell of a grim, familiar pattern, ripped from their homes in the middle of the night, not knowing where or why they are being taken. brought alone, handcuffed, and blindfolded to interrogation sites, hauled before military courts, pressured to sign documents they don't understand, assaulted and threatened with rape, kept underfed, isolated, and afraid. A recent UN commission of inquiry confirmed what had long been documented, the torture of Palestinian children in Israeli custody. The conditions described by child detainees in Save the Children's survey are harrowing, but one figure stopped me cold. Two-thirds reported being held in solitary confinement for up to 45 days. Picture a child trapped in a cell, terrified and alone, for 45 minutes, crying, apologizing, banging on the walls, calling for their parents. But 45 days? What would that even look like? Last year, Walid Ahmad, a Palestinian teenager, died after six months in Israeli custody. An autopsy showed he had been starved, yet an Israeli judge closed the case, saying the evidence wasn't enough to prove a crime. A year and a half later, Israel still holds his body. prisoner, even in his death. His family is still denied the dignity of laying him to rest. Walid is the first known Palestinian child to die in Israeli custody, but so much of his experience was typical. He was taken in a pre-dawn raid. He was held without charge. He requested medical assistance that never came. This routine cruelty isn't the work of a few abusers. It is the product of a political, legal, and security apparatus that normalizes violence against children, as long as those children are from Palestine. And I just don't understand what is so terrifying about Palestinian children. Before they even come of age, Palestinians are cast as threats, demographic threats, security threats, presumed guilty of crimes, of future crimes they haven't committed. Their innocence stripped away, they are dehumanized so thoroughly that even a kid with roller skates, a soccer ball, or a kite can be seen as something menacing. And a child can be branded a terrorist, as if they were never a child at all. I'll leave you with the words of a young Palestinian detained at 15. We need help from everyone who can help us. The world must know what we're going through, the suffering we are experiencing. Well, now you know. And I know that much of what I said has made you uncomfortable. But Palestinians deserve our discomfort. Palestinian children deserve our pain, because only when we feel their pain can we begin to heal it. Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Your Majesty, for that incredibly powerful intervention. I would now like to invite Toshiok and Michael Martin to take the floor for your keynote speech.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a particular honor for Ireland to jointly organize this very important event with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Save the Children, and I'm particularly pleased to be here today with Her Majesty Queen Rania, and thank you very much for your powerful commentary earlier. Save the Children is a valued partner for Ireland and has played a vital role in bringing the experiences of children deeply affected by conflict and occupation to the attention of the international community. I want to thank Save the Children for giving this topic the spotlight and attention that it deserves. The report on the abuse of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention is a particularly important contribution in this context and its findings are deeply shocking. I wish in particular to acknowledge the extraordinary courage of the children who shared their testimonies. The testimonies presented in this report recount experiences that no child should ever endure. They starkly reveal the human cost of war. We can never become immune to the horrific reality of conflict. Behind every statistic in this report is a child whose rights dignity, and sense of safety has been profoundly affected. I thank every individual, and in particular, Mohammed, who is with us today, who spoke about their experiences. Because your bravery has ensured that the brutal realities of this detention cannot be ignored. No child should have to do this. Detention is particularly traumatic for children, and causes severe long-term impacts, psychological trauma, physical and mental health issues, and higher mortality. The personal costs are borne by children and their families, but there are also wider consequences, lasting burdens on communities and national economies. In particular, when children lose access to education, their entire development is impacted as individuals and as people. apart altogether from significant opportunities lost, perhaps, potentially later in life. This, of course, can deepen poverty and make it much more difficult for communities to build a stable, cohesive, and prosperous future. The report itself reveals a system characterized by methodical violations of children's rights and fundamental deficiencies in due process protections. It documents allegations of physical abuse, coercion, prolonged isolation from family members, which is quite shocking, and the detention of children without adequate legal safeguards. It is difficult to comprehend the rationale or the aim of this cruelty and terror against children. Does detaining a Palestinian child in an Israeli military detention facility enhance the prospects of that child living in peaceful coexistence into the future? Or what is it doing to the child in terms of early life experiences? And in many ways, if you like, completely, as we have heard, undermining and reversing, if you like, what should be the natural experiences of children. And what lessons are they learning as a result of this behavior by a state towards children? Particularly alarming are findings that 99% of children interviewed reported experiencing physical assault while detained. Every child interviewed reported being denied contact with their families. I was struck by the testimony of a 16-year-old, and I quote, "Sometimes I wonder, did we really survive? Do people make it out alive? Do humans even have this kind of brutality?" And how can we answer these questions? International humanitarian law and international human rights law is crystal clear. Children must be afforded special protection. All children are entitled to dignity, due process, family contact, legal representation, and protection from violence, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention. The continued detention of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention and reports of mistreatment and abuse are indefensible. Ireland calls for full compliance with international law, for independent monitoring and accountability, and for the protection of all children affected by war. Consistent and systematic accountability for grave violations against children is necessary in all cases, regardless of the perpetrator. There must be full accountability for these crimes. During our term on the UN Security Council, Ireland was a strong advocate and active voice for children in armed conflict, consistently raising children's protection concerns in council debates. We sought to integrate child protection concerns across broader priorities on accountability, protection of civilians, humanitarian access, and conflict prevention. Ladies and gentlemen, Children are not responsible for the conflicts that surround them. Their rights, safety, and dignity must be protected at all times. And we have to work together to ensure that we do not lose a generation of children to the horrors of war and to make certain that every child has a chance to learn, to play, and to live without fear. Children detained, Palestinian children detained by Israel should be released immediately. Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you, Teishik, for that very powerful keynote speech. And thank you both for setting the scene. We are now moving to a seated dialogue as part of this event. I have the pleasure to invite His Excellency, Dr. Riad Masour, to provide some introductory remarks. And then he will also introduce our special child briefer, Mohammed. Our UN director, Mohammed Alasmara, will be facilitating the discussion in Arabic and English if needed. But over to you, Your Excellency, Dr. Mansour.

Thank you very much. And also, I am honored to be on the podium with Her Majesty. and with the Prime Minister of Ireland, who facilitated the convening of this meeting, the first of its kind in the United Nations. But before I read what is before me, I just want to share with you two things. One, I want to congratulate, again, His Majesty King Abdullah II whom I congratulated him in person for giving a very powerful, principled, courageous statement in the General Assembly and calling it as it is and demanding from the international community action and accountability vis-a-vis those who are committing these crimes, including genocide against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. I conveyed the same message to Her Majesty. I said to her, I conveyed to His Majesty this message, made us as Palestinians so proud. He spoke like us, and he spoke on behalf of us as well. The second thing that I want to share with you, a few days ago, faith-based organizations, American organizations, organized a memorial shroud bearing the names of more than 20,000 Palestinian children killed in this genocidal war, especially in the Gaza Strip. The exhibit was so overwhelming when you see over the world, the extension of this world and this world and this world and this world and so many around it, names of each child and inviting people to write something and to give you a card that this child with this name that died unjustly in this genocidal war is yours to connect with and to tell the story of that child with everyone. I believe that exhibit should be brought to the United Nations, and we will try to really display it to the international community, to the diplomats, to the staff of the United Nations, because those are not only names. Each has a name, has a dream, and taken away from us so soon, and it is our collective duty in honoring them to save the 1 million Palestinian children who are still alive in the Gaza Strip. Now, Madam Chair, this is the first ever high-level event at the UNGA focused on Palestinian children in Israeli detentions. I thank Save the Children, Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, and the Prime Minister of Ireland for their leadership and powerful statements. Excellencies, friends, imagine detention through the eyes of a child. To be woken in the middle of the night as armed soldiers enter your home. To be taken from your parents. your hands bound and your eyes blindfolded, without knowing where you are being taken or when you will see your family again. To endure a frightening transfer, followed by interrogation, threats, isolation, abuse, starvation, and deliberate medical neglect. And imagine what this means for parents knowing what their child is enduring, yet powerless to protect them, knowing that in an instant their childhood has been taken from them. There is no equivalent in the world to the systematic targeting Palestinian children experience, including through mass arbitrary arrest and abuse. Israel targets our children. our hearts, to convince us that the only way to save them is to surrender and leave, to convince us there is no future for us in the land of our ancestors, our national homeland, Palestine. Palestinian children in detention are in the hands of Israeli occupation forces, which the UN has listed as committing grave violations against children and conflict-related sexual violence. The UN has verified multiple incidents of such sexual violence, including as a form of torture against boys and girls, as well as cases where detained Palestinian children were used as human shields. Dozens of Palestinian children have died in Israeli detention, others have disappeared and their fate remains unknown. Last year, a 17-year-old boy from Silwad, Walid Ahmad, died in detention. An Israeli autopsy found that he had suffered from prolonged malnutrition. Yet, despite the record, the clarity of the law and repeated condemnations, our children continue to be denied protection and their tormentors continue being shielded. We want our children to sleep in peace without fear, and we want those who harm them to stay awake knowing they cannot evade justice. Those who accuse us of not loving our children are liars and criminals. We love our children like all people love their children. Excellencies, friends, today you will hear directly from one of the children who endured this ordeal. Muhammad Ibrahim is a 17-year-old Palestinian American who was taken from his home when he was only 15 and detained by the Israeli military. The attention his case received shed light on the suffering of tens of thousands of Palestinian children who have passed through Israeli military courts and detention. Dear Mohammad, we thank you for having the courage to share your story, despite how painful it is. We must not remain simple witnesses to your testimony. We must act as His Majesty King Abdullah II act. We must act so that what you endured does not happen again, and so that justice, long denied, is delivered to victims. Given the sensitivity of what Mohammed experienced, he is accompanied by his uncle, Mr. Ziad Kaddour. who advocated tirelessly for his release. Mohammed will speak in Arabic with live interpretation in conversation with Mr. Mohammed Al-Asmar, Save the Children's Director for Global Diplomacy and Engagement. It is my deep honor to invite Mohammed and his uncle to come forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Your Excellency. Mohammed,. Dear guests, just a kind reminder to ensure that there's no videos or cameras of Mohammed. I mean, Mohammed is comfortable speaking in Arabic, and I'll be having an informal light chat with him, and then we'll hear also from Ziad. Mohammed,. we are here to hear from you. If you can, tell us what happened.

Peace be upon you. I am Mohammed Ibrahim.

And what happened to me was that I was in the United States. I came to Palestine. I was 15 years old. And after three weeks of my

I'll translate.

My name is Mohammed. I was in the United States. I went to Palestine to visit for three weeks. After three weeks of visiting, I was 15 years old, I got arrested by the Israeli military soldiers. محمد اذا ممكن تحكي لنا شو صار خلال الاعتقال كيف كان الاعتقال وشو صار معك بعديها اجوا على الثلاث الصبح.

واجوا قوات الاحتلال اجوا صحوني من النوم كانوا كنت نايم and they took me with weapons and handcuffs, and tied me up and gagged me, and took me to the military base. And then they took me, they arrested me, and took me to the prison of the occupation, and took me for the investigation.

At 3 a.m., I was woken up in my room, in my house, by the Israeli occupying soldiers. I was asleep. They blindfolded me. They were aggressive with me, and they put me in their jeeps and took me to the Israeli prisons. At the prison, I was put under interrogation. Mohammed, tell us how it was during the arrest, what was your experience?

It was a difficult experience, we were in a famine, we had diseases, the situation was difficult, we were many, and the food was very little, and we were young. and we were in need of help, but no one was there to help us.

While in prison, in detention, it was very hard. It was a very hard experience. We were very young. We were hungry. We were sick. It was very crowded, and we needed a lot of help, which we couldn't get. And.

While inside, myself and other Palestinian.

Children with me, we were confined to within four walls. We had no communication to the outside world, no news. We couldn't communicate with our families, with our friends. We couldn't even send or receive letters. I'll move on to Ziad, your uncle. Ziad, if you can explain to our audience here, what was the experience for you as a family advocating for Mohammad's release and throughout this horrible.

First of all, I'm honored to be here with Her Majesty and everybody who invited us. Mohammad has gone for 10 months. My own country, the United States of America, didn't approach us to help us or put us on a platform to help advocate for Mohammed. We got news on February 16th, early in the morning, that Mohammed was taken from his home. And we did what any American probably would do in that situation. We called the U.S. Embassy, gave him his passport information, and we called lawyers. Unfortunately, the lawyers are dealing with a I don't know the correct word, but we have a two-tiered justice system in Palestine and the West Bank. And if you're Israeli, you go to civilian courts. If you're Palestinian, you're not considered civilian. And I guess over the last three years, you guys understand that we're not even considered humans right now. So Muhammad was taken by the military to a military interrogation center. by a military interrogator, a military prosecutor, and a military judge. So imagine defending him without knowing his side of the story and them carrying on with their prosecution and court cases in a language you don't speak. So that's just some of the daily that we, you know, not to mention the checkpoints on trying to attend his court hearings. So 10 months went by. There was not a phone call. We weren't allowed to write a letter. The only updates we got were from the Israeli Prison Services and the U.S. Embassy who visited him three times. Every update we got in 10 months was worse than the other. First, they mentioned the weight loss. And the second time was more weight loss. It reached the level where they were ashamed to tell us how much weight he lost. They used words like low BMI. Scabies. I think every prison is, there's a bad scabies infection. They mentioned that he wasn't comfortable speaking to certain people visiting him because there was a lack of trust. You know, we went through multiple lawyers and we were begging the US embassy to go visit him and do something for us. And none of that worked. Her Majesty mentioned Waleed Ahmed. Waleed Ahmed went to the same school as Mohammed. They lived in the same town. They knew each other before prison. Waleed Ahmed died in Mohammed's arms. The day that he died, I got a phone call from Mohammed's father. He said, "Somebody just died in the prison that Mohammed's from, that Mohammed's in, and he's from our village." Of course, we thought it was the kid who had just got there for a few weeks, the torture and the abuse, you know, maybe he couldn't take it. And hours later, we found out it was Walid. We didn't jump up and down that Mohammed was still alive when our neighbor's son, was just killed. We do love our children. Nobody in the world loves their children more than another parent. We are human. They can spend as many billions they want on TV and on news stations to make you believe that we're not. Mohammed was taken in February. On July 11th, His first cousin, Seif Allah Musleh, a 20-year-old from America, went to go visit his mother. Muhammad's mom and Seif Allah's mom are sisters. These are my nephews. Seif Allah was beaten to death by over 12 Israeli settlers while the IDF blocked the ambulances for two hours and 44 minutes until they saw him take his last breath, then they let the ambulance go get him. I want any mother or parent or sister, aunt, just to focus on this for a few seconds. Imagine being his mom and Saifullah's mom. Imagine the two sisters at that exact moment, one burying her child and the other one hoping that her son will come home alive after hearing the news of Wali Ahmad. That's what we were going through. That's what pushed us to advocate more. I went to Washington multiple times, door to door, congressman to congressman. I live in Florida. I don't get much help from our congressional officials in Florida. There were a few. Out of 535 congressmen and senators, 26 signed a letter asking for Mohammed's release. 26 out of 535. That's less than 4.5% of total politicians in Washington. Just this morning, when me and Mohammed, we arrived late because all the airports were closed. Just this morning, we saw videos of our village in Mazar-e-Sharqiya, which has a 74% population of US passport holders overseas in the West Bank. Over 150 Israeli settlers came and attacked homes and destroyed cars. A 15-year-old American was taken for 10 months, tortured, starved, with no communication with his parents because they said that he was standing next to somebody who threw a rock. I want you to understand the level of impunity that the Israeli government has in the world. Dropping bombs on innocent children is not self-defense. Israeli settlers killing us and burning our homes and standing in front of them You're taken on administrative detention for protecting your home. The same impunity that the state of Israel has, the same impunity that the settlers have. Saifullah was killed, we can't bring him back. Muhammad, we were able to bring back. Hopefully people here today can advocate for Waleed Ahmed, for his body to be thawed out from the freezer and returned to his parents. As a human, as a 16-year-old kid, I do not give a damn what kind of passport my nephew or the children of Palestine hold. Look at them as what they are, innocent children. Him being an American doesn't make him more important than the other 981 kids in Israeli prisons. Saifullah being killed, our nephew and his cousin, isn't more important than the millions of kids that are getting killed everywhere else between Lebanon, Gaza, and everywhere else. I'm honored to be here and I'm glad that we have this platform And you guys mentioned that this is the first of these kind of meetings. I'm sorry. I'm not proud of that. These meetings should have been done years and years ago. We're honored to attend. Everybody should do their part. What we did for Muhammad, we would do for any child, Palestinian or not. What the Palestinian people in whole are going through, especially the last three years, from a government that claims itself to be one of the most moral and the only democracy in the Middle East and the United States' greatest ally, I think everybody should see through that and know that that's ********. I'm sorry to say that, but we can't just keep turning the other cheek to these statements. I expect more from our world leaders, I expect more from the United States, I expect more from humanity. Just something personal to share, while Muhammad was in prison and we were burying his first cousin, Saifullah, Saif was 20 years old. I saw Muhammad in January. My wife was pregnant with twins. We were trying to get pregnant for 20 years. Doctors told us not to try anymore. My kids were born three weeks, 20 days after Saifullah was killed. So as my cousins buried their son that they raised for 20 years old, I had just brought a new son and daughter into the world. 20 years of marriage and trying, you know, has God is sufficient for us. Alhamdulillah, we praise God, that was a blessing. My wife asked me for nine months, "What do you want to name your son?" And I said, "Just have a healthy birth, healthy kid, you know, the names will come with them." My son's name is And Mohammed met my kids. How many kids in Gaza, Jenin, Nablus, Lebanon, can't say the same thing? How many people have been buried? How many people are under rubble to this day? I know it's about Save the Children, and I know it's about everybody else, but if you can look at us as what we are, we're humans who love each other. We're uncle and nephew. We're brothers, sisters, aunts, and grandparents, all alike. and we deserve better, the world deserves better, our children deserves better. Currently, there is a young lady by the name of Sema Safi. She's an American 20-year-old. Sema Safi has a disease, a Mediterranean fever disease that she takes injections that cost over $11,000 for a single injection every three months. She's in an Israeli prison. She's an American. She's not more important than the other thousands of women in prison, but for us, it's deja vu. There's another girl there that needs our help. There's many more. I thank you guys for giving us this platform. I hope that this opens doors and hearts, inshallah, that you guys will see the bigger picture and talk to more governments in joining in and doing something about this. Thank you.

Yes.

So, yes, please. Thank you so much, Mohammed Sayad, for sharing your stories with us. We are many, and I couldn't agree more that we all have a really important role to play, and that's why we are having this discussion today, because more needs to be done and every child's rights needs to be respected. There are many of us working, supporting these children, and I now want to give the floor to Dr. Junis Al-Khatib, who is the president of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, who will talk about some of the work that they do to support children in detention in Palestine.

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Your Excellencies. Well, it's hard to speak after this testimony by Ziad and his nephew. And I don't want to just add more examples. The introductory remarks covered great space but I would like to say thank you save the children for such a great report which then put in light and to the agony the suffering of children detainees in Palestine at the same time I would say I would not read my my my words just very simple statement. The mere presence here of all of us under this title. I think it is a shame on the international community. The children are still detained. In prison and treated this way. We have seen. As Palestine with Kristen. Because we received, of course, ICRC, the. cover this aspect of detainees, but we also received them after I received them, and we can see the suffering they went through. And there are so many of these testimonies that we recall. The physical side might be the one that we all see when they come out. the beating, the loss of weight, the loss of hair, unrecognizable. Actually, mothers did not recognize their children when they went out of detention. But the black hole, which is the mental and psychological status of these children, that we try in the Red Crescent and in many Palestinian organizations to address. We have a program that takes care of that. But my message will be this. We have really got fed up of repeating ourselves. As humanitarians, Palestinian, the word protection, here we are talking about protection for children. I'm not a child protection expert, but all Palestinians have gone through this occupation and understood what they are, their rights. But through the last three years, repeating all these stories about protection and access and dual use and medical supplies and trucks and how many went and nothing happening. I think action has to take place. Impunity cannot continue. The international community is responsible to take action. Our humanitarian space is shrinking. It has been through the last three years. All the suffering that was talked about by Ziad and his nephew, about escapees and and lack of food medicine and all of that nowadays all Palestinian children in Gaza are suffering from the same things without being in detention lack of Humane shelter water sanitation you name it they are living under such shall we keep repeating Access for humanitarian aid, access for humanitarian missions to help people, freedom for medical missions, Dr. Hassam Safi, we in the Red Cross still have two of our colleagues in prison. So please, I think that the international community is obliged to put an end to these calls. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr. Al-Khatib. So we are now going to open for a few interventions from the floor. Time is very limited, so I would like you to ask you to not speak for more than maximum two minutes. And the first person I will invite is Mrs. Carmen Magallanos, the Director General for the Maghreb in the Foreign Ministry of Spain. So over to you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Excellencies, dear colleagues. Thank you for convening this very important meeting, Save the Children, for your work and all of us who are here supporting this very critical cause. As we have listened with the testimony, I would say that deeply disturbing from Mohamed and Siad. In conflict, the most vulnerable victims are the children. The protection of minors deprived of their liberty is a moral and ethical responsibility and a non-negotiable obligation under international humanitarian law. Spain, consistent with our demand of full compliance of international law and the respect of the rights of minors, urges for the full implementation of the most protective framework defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in times of work and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The condition of Palestinian minors under Israeli military custody is unacceptable and demands a firm and unequivocal response. More than half of Palestinian minors in Israeli jails are under administrative detention, with no charges against them, and are deprived from any legal protection. We categorically denounce this defenselessness and the serious reports concerning interrogation condition abuses and the use of force, the lack of immediate legal representation or no legal representation, or family accompaniment during custody. Those violations are unacceptable, they have to be investigated, and accountability must be assured. In accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention, protected minors must be granted a special regime that ensures their physical and mental integrity, adequate health care, and hygienic conditions. We also demand that the Israeli authorities warranty access, as you were saying, and the International Committee of the Red Crescent be able to fully, regularly, and with no obstacles have the right to visit all Palestinian detainees while allowing inspections by international bodies and United Nations special rapporteurs. We, Spain, of course, will not stand idly in the face of children's rights violations. The severe and lasting harm inflicted on generations of young Palestinians, of children and their families, brings the hardest pain, as we have listened today. But they also tear the social fabric and feeds a spiral of violence and despair that hinders the possibility of peaceful coexistence in the region. Only through strict compliance with international standards, accountability, and the eradication of arbitrary detentions will we be able to protect the future of the children that is our future and lay the foundations for a just and lasting peace. Thank you.

Thank you so much for those words. Next is Ms. Kajsa Ollongren from the European External Action Services, and you are the Secretary General, so over to you.

Thank you very much, and it's really an honour to speak on behalf of the EU at this event. I really thank Ireland, holding the presidency currently of the EU, Jordan, Palestine, for convening this very, very important meeting, and of course, not only do we feel the discomfort that the Queen just mentioned, but also really our hearts bleed for everyone that is affected by this terrible crisis. And thank you very much, Said Mohammed, for being here with us today. The EU remains deeply concerned about the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on children, especially, of course, in Gaza and on the West Bank, because we see that children continue to bear the brunt of violence, displacement, and erosion of essential services. So protecting children affected by war must be a core priority for all of us, and it is a core priority for the European Union external action. It was also my key focus in my previous position when I was the Special Representative for Human Rights. And despite an increasingly challenging multilateral environment, the broader funding pressures of course facing our humanitarian system, the EU continues to be one of the few donors providing sustained support for child protection and education in emergencies worldwide. And through our humanitarian and development assistance, we will continue to support services that directly benefit Palestinian children. And since October 2023, we have provided 674 billion in humanitarian assistance to Palestine. And under our resilience program for Palestine, we have committed 1.3 billion euros to support recovery and resilience efforts. And we want this assistance to sustain education, health care, social protection services, and ensuring that families and children continue to have access to essential services. At the same time, we consistently advocate for full respect of international humanitarian and human rights law and for the protection of all civilians, including, of course, children. We have repeatedly raised our concern with the Israeli authorities regarding the situation of children in detention, children in detention. and called upon Israel to uphold its obligation towards all detainees, including by granting the International Committee of the Red Cross regular access to detention facilities. The recent Israeli Supreme Court ruling on ICRC access is a positive development, and the EU has encouraged its full implementation. Now, looking ahead at the 30th anniversary of the children and armed conflict mandate this year, the EU remains committed to strengthening collective diplomatic and advocacy efforts to advance the protection of children in conflict situations worldwide. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm now handing the floor to the representative from the League of Arab States. And please be brief. Two minutes max.

Thank you, thank you, madam. First of all, I express my deep appreciation to Save the Children, Jordan, Ireland, and Palestine. We meet today because the protection of Palestinian children is not merely original file that we discuss, but also a true test of the conscience of the world and of our shared humanity. As we have heard today about the painful story, the children didn't choose to live under occupation, yet they pay the price every day in their freedom, their education, and their safety. Children are pulled from their beds at night, separated from their families, and driven to military camp that lack the most basic elements of justice. Even in the occupied Jerusalem, home have not been spared. Children are subjected to house arrest. so that the home become a prison and the family is forced, barely to play the role of jailer over its own child. House arrest is not a merciful option. It's the deprivation of the child's childhood within the walls of his own home. This time has come to move from merely describing suffering to providing protection and from documentation to accountability. From this platform, we affirm four urgent demands. First, the immediate release of all detained children and an end to military trials. administrative detention and house arrest. Second, opening independent investigation, enabling the Red Cross and United Nations, other relevant organization to have access to them and holding violators accountable. Third, guaranteeing the child right to immediate contact with their family and lawyers and providing psychological and educational support to this released for transforming this dialogue into a sustained United Nations follow-up mechanism so that we don't settle for words spoken today and forgetting tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, I call on the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Ms. Agnes Callamard.

You very much for this very powerful discussion. I will just add three more points. The first one is the alarming rise in the use of administrative detention. It has been mentioned, but I think it's important to reiterate that over 40% of Palestinian children held in jails are detained without charges or trials. The second characteristic of what is happening is the fact that they are being tried in military court, where conviction rates exceed 99% and where children are often forced into signing plea bargains. And we've already heard about all the conditions of detention that amounts to torture or ill treatment. This is not new. You've highlighted that this is not the product of some rogue individuals in some forgotten prisons. This is part of state policy. It is state sanctioned. It is state designed. It is state enforced. And for Amnesty International, this is also how we have proven genocidal intent. It is in the treatment of people in detention and the treatment of the future generations. and of Palestinian children. I could reiterate what is evident, which is kids must have access to their families. They must have access to the ICRC. There should not be administrative detention. But let me be very clear, that will not do anything. That will not do anything. We are here surrounded by governments' representatives. They have the influence and the power to put an end to it. There is a regime of impunity that is being fed by the inaction of the international community. The international law is demanding that all trade, all investment with with Israel that is related to apartheid, to genocide, to unlawful occupation, to annexation. All of these relationships must be banned, must be stopped. How many of you, how many of them in these rooms, in this UN, have actually done that? The only reason why those kids are being treated in that way is because we allow it. We allow it in the name of greed. in the name of profit, in the name of very narrowly defined geostrategic interest. And this is entire generation, the future of that region that we are killing. So please, we have the tools to do something. We can put an end to it. It's called banning investment and trade, finishing those economic relationships, those military relationship. And that is demanded by international law. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So the last speaker on my list is His Excellency Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar, Ministry of State of the United Arab Emirates.

Thank you, Chair. At the outset, I would like to thank the organizers of this important dialogue. Also, I would like to thank Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and His Excellency Martin, Prime Minister of Ireland, for their participation and their efforts in highlighting the situation of Palestinian children. Protecting children in times of conflict is not a political choice, but a legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibility. Regrettably, the Palestinian children continue to bear a large share of consequences of this conflict, including torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, starvation, and deprivation of the basic rights, especially considering children, considering credible reports of ongoing violations. In this regard, the United Arab Emirates is rejecting all practices that violate the rights of the Palestinian people. The United Arab Emirates is expressing grave concern about the situation of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in light of reports of ongoing violation, and therefore we stress the need to ensure accountability and intensifying international efforts to prevent further deterioration. In this context, the UAE emphasizes the need to adhere to the provisions of international humanitarian law and international humanitarian right law, including the Convention on the Rights of Children. Palestinian children, like all children of the world, deserve to live in safety and dignity, to receive education, care, and protection, and to grow up free of fear. violence and detention. From this standpoint, we call for respect of the special protection guaranteed to the children under international law and an end to the administrative and arbitrary detention of Palestinian children, ensuring respect for their rights and legal guarantees, treating them with dignity and human humanity, investigating the violations they are subjected to, and ensuring accountability of that. Thank you, Madame General.

Thank you so much. And with that, I would like to thank all our speakers and participants today. And most importantly, thank you to Mohamed Ensiad. Your courage in sharing your experience with us today makes it really clear that behind every statistic there is a child, a family and a future. It also reinforces a very simple principle: no child should be subject to treatment that violates their rights, harm their well-being or undermines their future. I really would urge all of us as we leave today that reflect on what we've heard, because as many, many people have been saying throughout this whole session, These are not new things. This has been going on for decades and we need to do something radical, we need to do something different because we need to take action. I mean, there's so many people who have said it so clearly that if we are not acting today, knowing what we know, we will, yeah. It's up on all of us to do everything we can, because we cannot expect children to carry this burden alone. They need principled leadership, they need accountability, and they need sustained international attention. So I am counting on all of you, and I know that the children in the West Bank and Gaza is counting on all of you. So go out there, do something, call to action, take action. You all have different platforms, use those and make sure that we are not sitting here in two, three, four, five, 10, 20 years time and having the same debate, because enough is enough. Thank you.