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The number of children killed by Israeli forces has increased by 74 percent since last year when 15 children were killed.
Israeli forces killed 57 Palestinian children in 2018, three times as many this year, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) reported Thursday, a day before Palestinian Child Day.
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Of the 57 children killed in 2018, five were between newborn age to 12 years, while 29 were between 13 to 15 years, and 23 others were 16 to 17 years old, according to data provided by the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) the PCBS report said.
PCBS added that 1,063 children were among the 6,500 detention cases in 2018, and 250 children under 18 years of age were among roughly 6,000 Palestinian detainees by end of last year, according to data released by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested and imprisoned Palestinian children while Jewish settlers assaulted them, the Middle East Monitor reported. The percentage of children living in poverty also rose from 27 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2017, which is 645,000 children (14 percent in the West Bank, and 53 percent in the Gaza Strip).
There are an estimated 2,226,077 children under 18 years of age in Palestine, making up 45 percent of the total population, the PCBS report said. About 1.289 million are students in school -- 1.048 million were students in the elementary stage and 241,000 students in the high school in the 2018-2019 academic year.
However, education is often disrupted by bombings, raids, forced curriculum changes, forced displacement, school demolitions, and the lack of safe routes to and from school.
Last month, Israeli forces apprehended a 10-year-old boy from his classroom and beat the deputy head of the school in the West Bank. In a video taken from the incident, an Israeli army officer can be seen grabbing the boy. A few Palestinian adults, including the school’s vice principal, attempted to prevent the soldiers from taking the child, allegedly for throwing stones.
While Jewish settlers in the city are subject to Israeli civilian law, Palestinians in the same area are subject to military law and can be arrested by Israeli troops at any time, 972 Magazine reported.
Last year, Palestinian-based human rights group Addameer reported that there are currently 270 Palestinian child prisoners being held in Israeli prisons. At least 50 of them are under 16 years old.
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