Ramallah, November 22 (RHC)-- The Detainees Affairs Commission of the Palestine Liberation Organization says the Israeli regime has detained over 50,000 Palestinian children since the occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.   The PLO Detainees Affairs Commission said the majority of children were arrested from their homes at night hours, while others were arrested from the streets or on their way to school or back home.

Out of that figure, the commission said, virtually 160 children are still being held behind bars in Israeli detention centers. Among the detainees are three girls, of whom two are 16 years old and the third is 17. Some others are held under Israel’s administrative detention, which allows incarcerating Palestinian inmates without trial or charge.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said in a statement that Israeli military forces had arrested more than 750 Palestinian children in the West Bank and East al-Quds since the beginning of the current year. The PPS said most of the children have been subjected to all forms of physical and psychological torture during detention in violation of international agreements and conventions on the rights of children.

The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) keeps Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions, lacking proper hygienic standards. The prisoners have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment, and repression all through the years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military frequently carries out wide-ranging arrest campaigns across the West Bank under the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians.  Thousands of Palestinians are held in Israeli jails. Hundreds have been imprisoned under administrative detention.

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement has called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end any kind of cooperation with the occupying regime. It says “comprehensive resistance” is the only way to realize the rights of the Palestinian people.  The resistance movement has time and again said the disgraceful cooperation had jeopardized the Palestinian cause, brought about further restrictions for the Palestinians, and failed to stop Israel’s colonial projects and Judaization schemes across the occupied territories.