WEST BANK - The Israeli army has killed at least 77 Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the beginning of 2021, a non-government organisation reported on Sunday.

In a press statement sent to The New Arab, Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI) said that 61 children were killed in the coastal enclave and 16 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On the occasion of International Children's Day, the organisation said that "since 2000 until today, the Israeli forces have killed about 2,200 Palestinian children."

"The Israeli army resort to deliberate lethal force in the circumstances not justified by international law, and that the excessive use of force is the rule then, taking advantage of the state of systematic impunity and lack of accountability," the statement said.

Under international law, lethal force can only be justified in the circumstances with an immediate threat to life or severe injury.

Investigations and evidence collected by DCI regularly indicate that Israel uses lethal force against Palestinian children in conditions that may amount to extrajudicial or premeditated murder, according to the organisation.

From October 2015 until October 2021, the organisation documented the detention of 41 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons under administrative detention orders, four of whom remain in administrative detention.

"Israel is the only country in the world that systematically arrests and tries children in military courts, which lack a basic fair trial. It arrests and tries between 500 and 700 Palestinian children before military courts every year," the DCI said.