Save the Children Kenya

# Occupied Palestinian Territory

## Save the Children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Save the Children has worked in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since 1953, with a permanent presence since 1973. Since then, we have worked with partners to help provide quality education, protection for children, early childhood development support, and employment opportunities for at-risk youth. We also focus on child-centred climate change programming, advocacy and campaigning, on environmental education, community-based adaptation and climate activism.

Operating in severe insecurity amid unprecedented levels of violence, systematic obstruction of aid by Israeli authorities, famine and the near collapse of all formal services in Gaza, as well as hostilities, continued displacement and increased settler violence in the West Bank, we have rapidly adapted our programming to remain operational and responsive. Despite the increasingly complex and evolving situation, we are doing all we can to ensure we reach children and their families. 

## The situation for children in Occupied Palestinian Territory

**Palestinian children continue to carry the weight of the occupation.** Decades of conflict, the ongoing military occupation, and the blockade of Gaza hinder the right to self-determination and consequently have adverse impacts on the development of Palestinian communities, greatly increasing the vulnerability of children.

**For too long, the occupation has denied the rights of Palestinian children and stolen their childhoods, exposing them to violence, arbitrary detentions, and cutting them off from their homes, schools and other essential services.** Ultimately, the root causes of repeated bouts of violence and a decades-long child rights crisis in the oPt must be addressed. Only an end to the occupation can create the conditions for lasting peace and protection for children.

Palestinian children are the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted in military courts. These courts consistently fail to offer the right to a fair trial and do not meet juvenile justice standards. Instead, it is an abusive, inhumane prosecution system, where children are being physically, emotionally and sexually abused, humiliated and starved.  

**The widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children within the Israeli military system is a long-standing human rights and child rights crisis.** All Palestinian children arbitrarily held in Israeli military detention must be released immediately and unconditionally. No child should ever come in contact with a military court or any court that lacks comprehensive fair trial rights and basic safeguards. This decades-old protection crisis for Palestinian children has reached devastating new levels of abuse and deprivation. 

 

Nour\*, 4, lost all her family in an Israeli bombing that targeted the entire block where her family lived during the early days of the war in Gaza. The bombing blew her from her family’s apartment, at a height of 30 meters, to the street, and she broke her two legs, among other injuries, on top of her pre-existing hearing and speech disability. Shurouq Alaila/ Save the Children

### GAZA

**Tens of thousands of children have been killed by bombs and bullets. More have lost their homes and loved ones.** The harm children are facing will have long-term and potentially irreversible impacts, undermining their futures and the future of Palestinian society as a whole. T**he ceasefire agreement remains fragile and has shown very little respite for children and families.** The implementation of the ceasefire plan is failing. 

**The blocking of aid and goods from entering Gaza by Israeli authorities is continuing to have catastrophic impacts on children.** Through the deregistration of international NGOs and existing barriers, Israeli authorities are undermining the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to children and families in oPt at a moment of unprecedented need.  

Students and teachers across the oPt have been killed, maimed, arrested, and detained. In Gaza, we’re at risk of seeing a “lost” generation emerge. Children are now in their third year of missing school and need to get back to the classroom, not only for their own individual development and futures but for the future of Palestinian society.  

### THE WEST BANK

Every day, Palestinian children and their families are confronted with the daily violence of a military occupation. **Children are forced to grow up in an asphyxiating, coercive environment** marked by state-sanctioned violence, racial discrimination, the loss of loved ones, detention, and the destruction of homes and schools. These practices are strangulating the aspirations and futures of Palestinian children and devastating their mental health. 

Children can't safely access education either; **over 621,000 children are attending school only three times a week.** Children and teachers are telling 

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Occupied Palestinian territory