Queen Rania Participates in High-Level Dialogue on Palestinian Children's Detention

Her Majesty said that Palestinian children recount, according to their testimonies, a "familiar and horrific pattern" that begins with them being taken from their homes in the middle of the night, without knowing their destination or the reasons for their detention, then appearing before military courts, and being subjected to assault, isolation, starvation, and threats of rape.

During her speech, Her Majesty emphasized that these practices are not limited to individual cases but are linked to a political, legal, and security system. She questioned: "What is it about Palestinian children that causes such terror?"

Her Majesty pointed to what she described as decades of Palestinian children's detention and deprivation of justice guarantees, noting the difficulty of imagining a child being taken from his home under the threat of a weapon and taken to a place where his parents cannot reach.

In the context of discussing the horrific detention conditions, Her Majesty cited the results of an independent UN investigation committee, which confirmed the torture of Palestinian children during their detention by Israel. She recalled the Palestinian boy Walid Ahmed, who died in March 2025 after about six months in Israeli detention. Although an autopsy showed that he had been starved, an Israeli judge closed the investigation file on his death. She said that Israel is still holding his body, describing his condition as "a prisoner even after his death."

In her speech, Her Majesty conveyed the message of a Palestinian young man who said he was arrested when he was fifteen years old, stating: "We need help from everyone who can help us. The world must know what we are going through, and the suffering we are experiencing." Before concluding her message to the audience and the world by saying: "Now, you know."

The dialogue, organized by the Save the Children Foundation with joint sponsorship from Jordan, Ireland, Palestine, Spain, and South Africa, was attended by a number of personalities and representatives of governments, the United Nations, humanitarian and human rights organizations, and included a testimony from a previously detained Palestinian child, who described the ongoing effects of detention.

Meanwhile, the CEO of the International Save the Children Foundation, Inger Ashing, shared the results of the Foundation's survey, which included previously detained Palestinian children, where 99% of the participants reported being assaulted, 82% were forcibly stripped of their clothes, more than half witnessed or experienced sexual violence, and more than 70% felt sad most or all of the time, and 45% did not return to school after their release.