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Saed Bannoura for IMEMC News,

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has reported that the Israeli army have killed 25 Palestinian children in the last three months of 2015, and expressed its concern about the dangerous increase in the arrest and imprisonment of children.

The UNICEF said that the soldiers have killed 25 Palestinian children, including five girls, shot and injured 1310 children in different parts of the occupied state of Palestine.

23 children (19 males and 4 females) were killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and 2 in the Gaza Strip.

It also said that, in the same time-frame, three Israeli children were injured in Palestinian attacks, near Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, and west Jerusalem.

The UNICEF expressed its deep concern over the excessive use of force by the Israeli military and police, especially cases when they killed Palestinian children who carried out stabbing attacks, and those who were suspected of intending to conduct such attacks.

One of the cases mentioned by the UNICEF was the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, who was shot with at least five live rounds, after the Israeli soldiers took her for a search.

It said the Israeli military claimed the girl attempted to stab a policeman, but eyewitness testimonies said that she posed no threat to the soldiers, and was shouting that she did not carry a knife.

The UNICEF also stated that even before the current escalation started in October 2015, the Israeli army killed four Palestinian children, and injured 165 others, in the period between July and September.

In addition, the UNICEF said it is deeply concerned regarding the alarming number of Palestinian children, between the ages of 12 and 17, who are imprisoned by Israel, and added that the number of imprisoned children stood at 422 by the end of December 2015, which is the highest since March of 2009.

The UNICEF also stated that, last year, Israeli soldiers arrested, on average, 219 Palestinian children every month, an issue that is a %15 increase from 2014.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli law allows prosecuting Palestinian children as young as 12 years of age.