NEW YORK/JERUSALEM, 9 November 2004 — An international human rights group has called on Palestinian militants to stop using children in suicide bombings and military attacks. Human Rights Watch made the call after a 16-year-old bomber blew himself up in a Tel Aviv marketplace yesterday, killing three Israeli civilians.
The New York-based group claimed at least 10 bombers aged under 18 have attacked Israel in the past four years. The group behind yesterday’s attack has said it does not recruit children. International law defines a child as any person under the age of 18. “Any attack on civilians is prohibited by international law, but using children for suicide attacks is particularly egregious,” said Jo Becker, advocacy director for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch.
“Palestinian armed groups must clearly and publicly condemn all use of children under the age of 18 for military activities, and make sure these policies are carried out.” A senior member of the political wing of the group behind the Tel Aviv attack, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, admitted to the BBC the group had made a mistake by recruiting 16-year-old Amer Al-Fahr.
The organization was looking at improving checks on applicants’ ages, he added. The other main Palestinian armed groups have also publicly disavowed the use of children in suicide attacks.
Yet the Human Rights Watch report claimed that the three most active groups — Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — have all dispatched under-age bombers during the four-year-old conflict with Israel.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade has been accused of sending four child bombers into Israel. Three attacks by 17-year-olds were linked to Islamic Jihad, Human Rights Watch said. Hamas and the PFLP have been linked to two attacks each, the group added. Some senior figures have said they consider children of 16 as adults, the organization said.
Israel was also urged to take measures to safeguard the lives of children in the Occupied Territories.
Around one quarter of an estimated 130 Palestinians who died during an Israeli incursion into Gaza last month were children, Human Rights Watch said.
Meanwhile, a hard-line party in Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s coalition decided yesterday to quit the government to protest the prime minister’s plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.
The move by National Religious Party, which champions Israeli settlement in the occupied territories, was widely predicted and is not expected to lead to the immediate collapse of the Sharon government.
The party had given the Israeli leader an ultimatum two weeks ago that it would pull out the government unless Sharon agreed to hold a nationwide referendum on the withdrawal plan.
Sharon opposes any referendum on his plan, under which Israel will evacuate all its 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank. The premier rejected three compromise proposals put forward by the NRP — a referendum, early elections prior to the withdrawal, or putting the plan on hold for one month.
