Zionist regime forces arrested 570 Palestinian minors in first half of 2023: Rights group

A new report released by a Palestinian rights advocacy group says Israeli forces have arrested as many as 570 Palestinian minors since the beginning of 2023.

The director of Palestine Center for Prisoners’ Studies (PCPS), Riyad al-Ashqar, offered the information in remarks carried by the Palestinian Information Center on Sunday.

The figure shows an increase of 15 percent compared to the same period last year, he noted, saying that 435 of Palestinian youngsters detained by Israeli forces hailed from the occupied city of al-Quds.

The detainees included 29 children under the age of 12, al-Ashqar said, adding that two of them are just 10 years old.

“Dozens of children were put under house arrest following their release in the first half of 2023,” the Palestinian official noted.

He added that 23 Palestinian minors were arrested under the occupying regime’s inhumane administrative detention policy, which allows Israeli forces to incarcerate Palestinians for indefinite periods of time without any charges or trial.

Back in May, Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC), which is an independent nongovernmental organization, reported that Israeli forces had detained a whopping 3,000 Palestinians since the start of the year.

Reporting in January, the PCPS said Israeli forces had arrested a total of 7,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, last year.