RAMALLAH, Thursday, November 19, 2020 (WAFA) – Celebrating World Children’s Day, which coincides tomorrow, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) said today in a report on this occasion that Israel detained more than 400 Palestinian minors less than 18 years of age since the start of this year until the end of October, most of them from occupied East Jerusalem.

It said 170 minors have received prison sentences and are currently held in three prisons around the country.

The occupation authorities continue to detain children and torment them despite the spread of coronavirus pandemic, said PPS, adding that all calls to release the minors in order to protect them from the pandemic went unheeded.

It said minors and children are often detained at their homes during the middle of the night then taken to interrogation centers where they are held for hours without food, and some of them were left like this for two days, not counting verbal abuse and forcing them to sign documents written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.

The PPS urged international rights organizations to protect Palestinian children and to force Israel to abide by conventions on the protection of children.

M.K.