Palestinians carry youth injured during Israeli incursion,
near Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip
© AP Graphics Bank

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Below are the cases of some of the children killed during 2004 in Israel and the Occupied Territories. They illustrate the continued disregard by all the parties involved in the conflict for the right to life of the most vulnerable members of the Israeli and Palestinian population.

Palestinian children shot dead in their classroom, on their way to school or at home

• Raghda Adnan al-Assar (10) was struck in the head by an Israeli bullet while sitting at her desk in UNRWA’s Elementary C Girl’s School in Khan Yunis refugee camp. Raghda never regained consciousness and died on 22 September. (7 September 2004)
• Ghadeer Jaber Mukhaymar (9), a fifth grade pupil at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Co-Ed Elementary D School in Khan Yunis refugee camp died of a live bullet wound to the stomach she sustained the day before from a gunshot, which again came from an Israeli military position inside the Israeli settlement block of Gush Katif. (13 October 2004)
• Rania Iyad Aram (8) was shot dead by Israeli soldier as she was walking to school on Soldiers fired from a military base inside the Israeli settlement block of Gush Katif towards Khan Yunis refugee camp. (29 October 2004)
• Iman al-Hams (13) was killed near her school in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. (5 October 2004)
• Asma al-Mughayr (16) and her brother Ahmad (13) were shot dead within minutes of each other on the roof-terrace of their home in Rafah. (18 May 2004)
• Maram al-Nahleh (11) was killed on the doorstep of her family home in the West Bank town of Nablus. (15 September 2004)

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Irene Khan, AI's Secretary General, and Petter Eide, Secretary General of AI Norway, visit victims of a suicide bombing in Sheba medical centre, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
© Hanan Shafir, April 2002

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Israeli children shot dead while travelling by car with their mother

• Hila Hatuel (11) and her three sisters, Hadar (9), Roni (7) and Meirav (2), were killed by Palestinian gunmen on as they were travelling by car in the Gaza Strip with their mother Tali, who was eight months pregnant. (2 May 2004)

Palestinian children killed in the shelling of a non-violent demonstration

• Walid Naji Abu Qamar (10), Mubarak Salim al-Hashash (11) and Mahmoud Tariq Mansour (13) were among eight un-armed demonstrators killed in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, when the Israeli army open fire on a non-violent demonstration with tank shells and a missile launched from a helicopter gunship. (19 May 2004)

Israeli children killed in suicide bombing and missile attacks

• Afik Zahavi (3) was killed when a rocket exploded in the middle of a road which runs past a nursery school in the Neveh Eshkol neighbourhood, in the centre of the town. (28 June 2004)
• Yuval Abebeh (4) and Dorit Aniso (2) were visiting their grandmother and were playing outside the house when they were hit by the rocket. They both suffered serious injuries and died shortly afterwards in hospital. (29 September 2004)
• Aviel Atash (3) was fatally injured when two Palestinians blew themselves up in a double suicide attack on two buses in the southern Israeli town of Be’er Sheva (31 August 2004)

November 2004
Survey shows child soldiers used in almost every armed conflict

"They give you a gun and you have to kill the best friend you have. They do it to see if they can trust you. If you don't kill him, your friend will be ordered to kill you. I had to do it because otherwise I would have been killed. That's why I got out. I couldn't stand it any longer." Bernardo, aged 17, speaking to Human Rights Watch. He joined a paramilitary group in Colombia as a street child, aged seven.

Boys and girls under the age of 18 have fought in more than 20 of the world's major conflicts since 2001. Some fight with armed groups, some with government forces. Child fighters have been on the front line in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Myanmar. In other countries, governments have made informal use of children as informants, spies or collaborators, including Israel, Indonesia and Nepal.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which includes AI sections worldwide, launches its second global survey on the use of children in war this month. The Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 provides country-by-country evidence that governments and armed groups are using children to fight wars, exposing them to violence, injury and death.

The policies of North American and European countries are also scrutinized in the report. The US has failed to adhere to its treaty obligations to keep soldiers under 18 years old out of conflict zones. Sixty-two US soldiers aged 17 were in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 and 2004. In Europe, otherwise strong proponents of child rights continued to recruit under-18s into their armies, including Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.

On the positive side, by October 2004 84 states had ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and 116 had signed it.

The UN Security Council has repeatedly identified and condemned those who enlist children in their wars, but has failed to act on their condemnations. "The problem is not that we lack the power to do this -the problem is our failure to use the power effectively, consistently and urgently," according to Graça Machel, the author of a 1998 UN study, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.

The Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 calls on the international community to back up its rhetoric with decisive action -including the prosecution of child recruiters, restrictions on military assistance and training, and appropriate sanctions.

Members of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers include AI, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and World Vision. It also works with local grassroots organizations in Colombia, the DRC, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, the Philippines, Thailand, Uganda and some 25 other countries.

read on in The Wire, November 2004, AI Index: NWS 21/010/2004

The picture shows petitions signed by participants of Group 27's public evening and at the Earth Day table, April 2005. The Ambassadors of Indonesia, Colombia and Cuba were asked to urge their governments to ratify the Optional Protocol without reservations.

Declarations and Reservations by the UK and by Canada

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Upon signature: Declaration: "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will take all feasible measures to ensure that members of its armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities. The United Kingdom understands that article 1 of the Optional Protocol would not exclude the deployment of members of its armed forces under the age of 18 to take a direct part in hostilities where: - there is a genuine military need to deploy their unit or ship to an area in which hostilities are taking place; and by reason of the nature and urgency of the situation:- it is not practicable to withdraw such persons before deployment; or to do so would undermine the operational effectiveness of their ship or unit, and thereby put at risk the successful completion of the military mission and/or the safety of other personnel." Q: How does the government of the UK interpret "feasible measures"? A: "The Ministry of Defence is now working on guidelines for the UK Armed Forces, which will give concrete form to that commitment." (Human Rights Policy Department in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in a letter to Group 27 in February 2002)

Canada Declaration: "Pursuant to article 3, paragraph 2, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, Canada hereby declares: The Canadian Armed Forces permit voluntary recruitment at the minimum age of 16 years. The Canadian Armed Forces have adopted the following safeguards to ensure that recruitment of personnel under the age of 18 years is not forced or coerced: all recruitment of personnel in the Canadian Forces is voluntary. Canada does not practice conscription or any form of forced or obligatory service. In this regard, recruitment campaigns of the Canadian Forces are informational in nature. If an individual wishes to enter the Canadian Forces, he or she fills in an application. If the Canadian Forces offer a particular position to the candidate, the latter is not obliged to accept the position; recruitment of personnel under the age of 18 is done with the informed and written consent of the person's parents or legal guardians. Article 20, paragraph 3, of the National Defence Act states that 'a person under the age of eighteen years shall not be enrolled without the consent of one of the parents or the guardian of that person', personnel under the age of 18 are fully informed of the duties involved in military service. The Canadian Forces provide, among other things, a series of informational brochures and films on the duties involved in military service to those who wish to enter the Canadian Forces; and personnel under the age of 18 must provide reliable proof of age prior to acceptance into national military service. An applicant must provide a legally recognized document, that is an original or a certified copy of their birth certificate or baptismal certificate, to prove his or her age." source: UN on the internet