Palestinian child Mahmoud Fouad Abu Alia, 11 years old, revealed horrific details of his arrest and assault by Israeli occupation forces in the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. Sources reported that a military force consisting of five soldiers stormed a commercial store where the child was present to buy his needs, violently dragging him and taking him to an unknown location amidst a state of terror that prevailed in the area.
Child Mahmoud described the moments of abuse he was subjected to inside the military vehicle, indicating that the soldiers severely beat him on his face and all over his body. He added in his testimony that the assailants used rifle butts to hit him on his back, while ordering him to remain completely silent and preventing him from screaming or expressing his pain throughout the detention period, which lasted for about an hour.
The suffering did not stop at beatings and detention, but extended to include a direct threat to his life after his release at the eastern entrance of the village. The child confirmed that a settler who was in the area fired live bullets at him immediately after he was left by the occupation soldiers, which amplified the state of psychological shock and fear he experienced during that harsh experience, reflecting the reality of childhood in the occupied territories.
For his part, Fouad Abu Alia, the child's father, explained that his son suffered injuries and bruises that even adults could not endure due to the excessive violence used against him. The father indicated that the family immediately took Mahmoud to the hospital for necessary medical examinations, where reports showed clear bruises in various parts of his body, stressing that targeting children in Al-Mughayyir village has become a repeated and systematic policy.
In a related context, the store owner, Ataf Abu Alia, who witnessed the incident, confirmed that the soldiers entered the store suddenly and dragged child Mahmoud without any justification or pretext. The witness explained that the child was not doing anything but buying some simple necessities, but four soldiers pounced on him and began physically assaulting him in front of those present before dragging him to the military jeep stationed outside.
This incident comes at a time when data from Palestinian prisoner institutions indicate an escalation in the targeting of minors, with at least 350 children held in occupation prisons. These numbers are part of a larger toll exceeding 9,000 prisoners living in difficult detention conditions, amidst human rights warnings that the arrest of children is becoming a tool to intimidate Palestinian society and break its will.
International and local human rights reports confirm that the occupation authorities annually arrest between 500 and 700 Palestinian children, who are then brought before military courts that lack the minimum standards of international justice. Psychologists warn of the deep and long-term effects of these violations on an entire generation of children who are deprived of their most basic rights to safety, play, and education.
My right is to live in peace and play, but the Palestinian child does not live his childhood.
شارك برأيك
Including an 11-year-old child.. Horrific testimonies of occupation soldiers' assault on children in the village of Al-Mughayyir