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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Israeli authorities released two Palestinian minors, on Monday evening, who were detained earlier by Israeli forces in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) confirmed that Israeli forces detained two minors, who are sisters, from their family home in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem City on Monday dawn.

The two were identified as Aseel, 14, and Nisreen Abu Aker, 15, the daughters of Palestinian administrative prisoner, Bassam Abu Aker, who has spent a total of 20 years in Israeli administrative detention.

The reason for their detention remained unknown.

According to prisoners rights group Addameer, there are 5,640 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons, of whom 270 are child prisoners, of whom 50 are under the age of 16 years.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Prisoners and Former Prisoners' Affairs Committee reported, earlier in October, that Israel had detained 35 Palestinian minors during September 2018.

Defense for Children International reported that since 2000, at least 8,000 Palestinian children have been detained and prosecuted in an Israeli military detention system infamous for the systematic mistreatment and torture of Palestinian children.