Ramallah: Israel has arrested more than 50,000 Palestinian children since it began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

This emerges from a report published by the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs on its official website, on the occasion of the Day of the Palestinian Child, which falls on April 5 every year. In 1995, the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat declared April 5 as the Day of the Palestinian Child.

A member of the administrative committee of the Authority for prisoners and ex-prisoners in the Gaza Strip, researcher Abdel Nasser Farwana, said in the report that the Israeli occupation treats Palestinian children as adults, stating that they are subjected to the same tortures, investigations and detention conditions.

According to Farwana, Israel arrested around 1,300 boys and girls in 2021, an increase of nearly 140% from what was recorded the previous year.

As of the start of 2022, more than 200 children have reportedly been arrested, and Israel still holds around 160 children in its prisons and detention centers.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and established settlements there, which are considered violations of international law. Over 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.