More than a quarter of Palestinian children live in poverty and a growing number are being forced to go to work, the Palestinian Authority's central statistics office said Monday.

"Among the most important reasons for this rise is the overall drop in the standard of living of Palestinians," Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics director Hassan Abu Libdeh said in a speech.

He said a survey showed more than 25 percent of children in the Palestinian-ruled West Bank and Gaza Strip lived in poverty, and almost 6 percent of those aged between 10 and 17 were currently in the labor market. Comparative figures for years prior to Palestinian Authority rule in 1994 were not available.

"There's a drop in aid going to families with large numbers of children," said Libdeh, who warned that children were dropping out of school because of poverty. He said 73.6 percent of working children under 18 were not enrolled at school and 73.4 percent work more than 35 hours a week.

"Children and employers cooperate because poor children need the jobs, and employers take advantage of them since they are poorly paid and work without benefits," he said.

The survey showed that children under 18 years of age make up just over 53 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip population of 3.2 million.

Reuters