The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights Monday issued a report entitled "The Torture and Abuse of Children Fleeing Gaza's Humanitarian Catastrophe" that looks at the alarmingly systematic use of torture and abuse against children who are trying to flee the catastrophic conditions of the Gaza Strip.

In the context of Israel’s 13-year closure and blockade, an alarming number of child residents are undertaking dangerous routes out of the Strip, in search of better living conditions and the chance at a dignified life. Al Mezan’s report focuses on the arrest of these children, in particular 91 child victims who tried to cross the perimeter fence into Israel between 2015-2019.

Alarmingly, all 91 children confirmed that they were subject to some form of torture, ill-treatment, or abuse by the Israeli authorities.

The children reported being beaten with rifle buts and punched, verbally abused, and forced to maintain stress positions by the Israeli forces. They reported being exposed to an array of violent and coercive questioning methods by Israeli interrogators, including sleep deprivation, severe beatings, and insults or humiliation.

Some children also reported being deprived of food, water, and access to a toilet while in Israeli custody.

A couple of children reported attempts by agents to coerce them into becoming informants for the Israeli services.

Al Mezan’s documentation indicates that the Israeli military uses excessive and harmful means—that include lethal force, injury, and arrest—to control the buffer zone. As a result, eight children were shot and killed and six wounded in the reporting period.

Among the reasons that made Gaza’s children flee, 59 out of 91 children surveyed for the report said that they did so out of economic distress. Eleven children cited violence in the home, and an additional four children said that they were driven by both factors. The remaining children cited depression and lack of adequate shelter, among other reasons, for fleeing Gaza.

According to Al Mezan’s investigations, over 70 percent of the children are from big families and 78 percent of the children’s families earn less than 1,000 ILS (USD 292) per month. The high dropout rates among the children (65 of the 91 had dropped out of school) may point to a perceived lack of a future.

Al Mezan’s analysis concluded that the Israeli authorities used a spectrum of prohibited torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment against the children in a widespread, systematic, and institutionalized manner.

The center called for the international community to take urgent and effective action to put an end to Israel’s closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip, and ensure prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations according to international standards, and bring perpetrators of violations against children promptly to justice.

"The international community must publicly condemn the conduct of the Israeli occupying power as constituting the violation of children’s rights, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law," the report added. "It must take prompt and effective action to ensure the respect of international law, to provide effective protection for children, and to put a stop to the Israeli military’s use of excessive force."