RAMALLAH, West Bank — “Your Excellency the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, greetings from the Palestinian people. We ask you that all detainees, prisoners and bodies of innocent martyrs be handed over because they have the right to freedom of education and to play rather than be tortured in Israeli prisons.”

With these words, Mariam Hashem al-Mahatina, a 14-year-old student in Hawaa High School for Girls in south Hebron, addressed Ban. Her letter was among half a million other letters that Palestinian students wrote Nov. 7 as part of the campaign launched in solidarity with detained children.

The letters were handed to the UN human rights official at the UN headquarters in Ramallah through the campaign organizers — the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

According to the figures of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, there were 350 children, including 12 girls, in Israeli prisons up until Nov. 7. The boys are detained in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons, while the girls are held up in Hasharon prison.