Marking the occasion of Palestinian Children Day, on April 5, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) stated Thursday, in a press release, that in 2013 there were 2.08 million Palestinian children under the age of 18, constituting 47.1 percent of the total population in Palestine.AIC reports that Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs, Kamal al-Sharafi, added that since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in October 2000, Israeli forces have killed over 1,500 Palestinian children.
Al-Sharifi also said that more than 10,000 children were arrested during this period.
According to a 2013 report by The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, most of them boys, are arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli military, police, and by security agents every year in the occupied West Bank.
In the report, UNICEF said it had identified examples of practices that ‘amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture.’
A report issued by the Defense for Children International (DCI) stated that 230 Palestinian children are currently held in Israeli jails.
