Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of the treatment of a Palestinian child, Osaid Mahfouz, in Megiddo Prison, in particular in regard to severe medical neglect and poor hygiene conditions.
I refer the Noble Baroness to the answer provided in the House of Commons on 13 October to Question 76963, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:
The UK regularly raises our concerns about Palestinian children in detention with the Israeli authorities. We are clear that children must always be protected, and their rights upheld in accordance with international law. We are horrified by reports of mistreatment or abuse of Palestinian children in detention and call on the Israeli authorities to investigate these urgently and to ensure any perpetrators are held to account. Children must only be detained in line with internationally agreed juvenile justice standards or other applicable international law, and we call for an end to the military detention of Palestinian children where this is incompatible with those principles. We continue to call on Israel to immediately facilitate urgent, unhindered access to all child detainees from the West Bank and Gaza to persons providing legal assistance, the International Committee of the Red Cross and appropriate experts for the purposes of monitoring and reporting.