The United Nations Children's Fund has appealed to the Israeli government to release all Palestinian children currently in Israeli military detention.
In a statemenet issued prior to this morning's release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, Unicef called on Israel to free the child detainees.
The agency says that 164 Palestinians under the age of 18 were detained by Israeli authorities as of October 1st. Most are understood to be detained on charges of stone throwing.
It is not known if any are included on the list of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners who are to be released in two stages.
“Unicef calls on the Israeli government to release Palestinian child detainees so that they can be reunited with their families”, said Jean Gough, Unicef special representative in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“As stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the detention of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”, she added.
