Israeli military forces killed 78 Palestinian children under 18 years in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in 2021, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) says, marking the Palestinian Child Day.
According to the records of the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), 17 children were killed in the West Bank and 61 in the Gaza Strip, the PCBS reported on Tuesday.
Out of the figure, 26 were aged 0-8 years, 17 aged 9-12 years, 20 aged 13-15 years and 15 aged 16-17 years, the data showed.
It added that the estimated number of children under 18 years is expected to reach 2.35 million in Palestine by mid-2022, with 1.20 million males and 1.15 million females, representing 43.9% of the total population (41.7% in the West Bank, and 47.3% in the Gaza Strip).
In a report published on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said the Israeli regime has detained more than 9,000 Palestinian children across the occupied territories over the past seven years
The PPS said 19,000 minors, including children younger than 10 years of age, had been arrested since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000.
The advocacy group said 160 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli jails.
It said the testimonies provided by the minors showed that most of them were subjected to some sort of physical or psychological torture at the hands of their Israeli interrogators.
