Hawzah News Agency (Occupied Palestine) - The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission says nearly 200 Palestinian children are kept behind bars in Israeli prisons in inhumane conditions, undergoing "very rough interrogation process and torture."

The commission announced the news in a statement on the eve of the Palestinian Child's Day on April 5, saying that these minors, who are from the occupied West Bank and eastern sector of al - Quds (Jerusalem) , are kept in three Israeli prisons, namely Damon, Megiddo and Ofer.

The three prisons lack the basic requirements for human life, said Qadri Abu Baker, the head of the commission, warning that these desperate children prisoners "are subjected to torture and degrading treatment which contradict the international principles of human rights."

He lambasted the United Nations for failing to "provide the minimum protection for the Palestinian children" against the physical and psychological abuse in Israeli jails.

Abu Baker noted that Israeli forces have arrested more than 17,000 minors since 2000, adding that in most cases the children under the age of 10 were detained. He stressed that the majority of these children subjected to physical and psychological torture.

The head of the rights commission called on the UN chief, the Human Rights Council and international organizations, particularly the UNICEF and Amnesty International, to take serious action to pressure the Israeli regime to release all detainees, especially children, whose lives are under threat due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Every year, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children at the age of 12-17 are arrested and tried in Israeli military courts, the Defense for Children International says.