RAMALLAH, Palestine
Around 6,500 Palestinian prisoners are currently jailed in Israeli prisons, the Authority of Prisoners' Affairs (APA), an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Monday
From 1967 until April 2015, Israel has detained some 850,000 citizens, including nearly 15,000 females and tens of thousands of children, for various periods of time, the APA said in a report marking the Palestinian Prisoner Day on April 17.
"Since the first Intifada on Sept. 28, 2000, until today, more than 85,000 Palestinians have been detained, including over 10,000 under the age of 18, 1,200 females and over 65 former lawmakers and ministers," the APA said in its report.
Over the past four years alone, the APA has registered the detention of 3,755 children, of which 1,266 were held in 2014.
"Israel continues to hold 30 prisoners from before the [1993] Oslo Accords, who've been incarcerated for over 20 years, in addition to 16 veteran prisoners who've been languishing in Israeli prisons for over 25 years," the report added.
Israel also rearrested 85 Palestinians who were previously freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, the report noted.
Palestinians began marking Prisoners Day on April 17, 1974, when the first Palestinian detainee was released in a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
