The Shadow of Detention Still Haunts Palestinian Children's Memories

Save the Children reports that the detention of Palestinian children by the Israeli military has a lasting and destructive impact on their health. The trauma of their experiences continues to haunt these children.

In their report, *Injustice: Palestinian children’s experience of the Israeli military detention system*, 59% of respondents admitted to frequently thinking about the possibility of being arrested by Israeli soldiers again in the future.

However, 41% of respondents tried to avoid thinking about detention. In contrast, 33% thought about their experiences in detail every day.

In another aspect of the research, Save the Children stated that 73% of respondents experienced insomnia or difficulty sleeping. This is up from 47% in a 2020 survey involving 470 children.

53% also experienced nightmares, up from 39% in 2020. Meanwhile, 62% felt angry, up from 53% in 2020.

Save the Children also noted changes in behavior, such as feeling angry almost all the time, having little or no desire to communicate with others, preferring solitude, or even becoming overly clingy.

"Many children admitted to being afraid of being alone (22%) and crying all the time (14%)," wrote Save the Children, as quoted on Monday (October 7, 2024).

Children and parents reported living in constant fear after detention. This experience has eroded their sense of security and made coping mechanisms more difficult.

"The symptoms experienced by the children are very concerning given the limited psychosocial support available and the few organizations working with this group of children and their families," wrote Save the Children.

A total of 228 former child detainees participated in this research. This includes 177 children who responded to the survey and 51 who participated in focus group discussions (FGDs).

The sample was spread across the West Bank, Palestine, including Ramallah/al-Bireh, Nablus/Salfit, Tulkarem/Qalqilya, Jenin/Tubas, Hebron, and Bethlehem, in addition to Jerusalem.

All child participants were between 12 and 17 years old when they were detained and between 15 and 21 years old when they participated in the study. All of these children were detained in the last three years, with a majority of 71% detained in the year leading up to the survey.

The time spent by children in detention varied across the sample: 20% of respondents were detained for 1-4 months, 23% for 5-11 months, 15% for 12-18 months, and 12% of respondents said they spent more than a year and a half in detention. 34% of children were detained more than once. This report was published in July 2023.

(See also: [A number of Palestinian children experience physical numbness after being detained by Israel])