Ramallah, May 18 (RHC)-- A Palestinian human rights organization says it has documented the arrest of 100 Palestinians, including four women, by Israeli forces during the first ten days of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies said in a statement that the Israeli military stormed Palestinian areas across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, raiding Palestinian homes and arresting dozens of civilians.

The center explained that the detainees included 18 minors, the youngest of whom was nine-year-old Mousa Ramadan.  He was arrested at a military checkpoint in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), located 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem.

The detainees also included twin brothers Mohammed and Ahmed Abu Adi, 13, who were arrested after Israeli forces stormed their home in the town of Kafr Ni'ma, located northwest of Ramallah.  The center also documented the detention of seven journalists and human rights activists.  They were arrested while covering the deportation of Palestinian farmers from their land in the Jordan Valley.

Moreover, five Palestinians from the besieged Gaza Strip were held during Ramadan, including three fishermen who were arrested as they were doing their job off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions in Israeli jails.

According to reports, at least 13 Palestinian lawmakers are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities. Nine of them are being held without trial under administrative detention.