REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, RAMALLAH -- A senior Palestinian official said Wednesday Israel have arrested 800 Palestinians in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of October.

Eassa Qaraqe'a, head of the prisoners' affairs department in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told a news briefing held in Ramallah that most of the Israeli arrests took place in the West Bank.

Qaraqe'a expressed deep concerns over the increasing number of arrested Palestinians, adding that all of them are "defenseless civilians and the majority of them are children and juveniles."

The PLO official accused Israel of targeting children upon a decision taken by high-ranking Israeli officials in the extreme right-wing government, which approved a law that punishes stone-throwers.

The Israeli government law authorizes the court to send stone throwers to more than 20 years in jail. Qaraqe'a said "more restrictions imposed on the prisoners, mainly preventing lawyers and relatives from visiting them."

The official stressed that the recent arrests were critical "mainly, many of the detainees had been shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers, Israeli police and other security forces, shortly before they got arrested."

Meanwhile, Osama al-Najjar, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry, told the news briefing that his ministry has been in contacts with 28 international health organizations to study the current critical situation.

"We held meetings and contacts with these organizations and we demanded a clear and honest position concerning what Israel does and they have to put an end to these immoral and inhuman crimes," said al-Najjar.

Over the past couple of weeks, a wave of tension and confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians have been flaring, leaving 30 Palestinians and seven Israelis dead and more than 1, 000 wounded.

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