Stop Palestinian children being recruited as soldiers

Meet Anas and Saad Al-Skafi. They were twins who fought for Islamic Jihad.

Their obituaries on the Islamic Jihad military wing website today. You can see that they were born on December 5, 1996 - and they died on July 20, 2014.

Which means they were 17 years old.

They are only two of the child soldiers that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah routinely use. As recently as last month a 17 year old was killed as he attempted to stab an IDF soldier 

There are dozens of examples of children who have been recruited to attack Israelis or to fight in Gaza terror armies. 

Hamas and Islamic Jihad openly brag about their summer camp paramilitary programs.

This week is the second annual Palestinian Child Soldiers week, where petitions are sent to human rights groups to raise awareness on this illegal practice. As the PCS Week literature says:

● According to the 2007 Paris Principles, any use of minors (17 years of age or younger) in any military endeavours, by state or non-state actors, is rejected by the international community and is immoral. For decades, Palestinian minors have been used in varying military capacities, by groups that includes but is not limited to the PLO, Hamas, PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The military positions that have been held include but are not limited to: combat soldiers, suicide bombers, terrorists, military tunnel diggers, mules for IEDs and munitions, human shields, frontline skirmishers in mass organized riots, couriers of messages, and spies and lookouts. 

● The goal of PCS Week is to bring awareness to and end the use of Palestinian minors in militancy. For decades, the systemic issue has been ignored or brushed off as unrelated individual incidents. Without pressure or consequences for using this practice, systemic Palestinian child militancy has flourished. 

 

● The Coalition to Save Palestinian Child Soldiers calls upon UNICEF to demand that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PLO, and PFLP to operate in accordance with the 2007 Paris Principles, and end the systemic use of Palestinian children in military efforts of any type.

You can send a letter to UNICEF at the site.

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